Friday Five highlights music by Washtenaw County-associated artists and labels.

This edition features Americana from Cowgirl, jazz fusion by Bobby Streng, bedroom indie by Claw, goregrind by Septic Fibrosis, and sci-fi synths by G.B. Marian.

Cowgirl, Cow on a Hot Tin Roof
Guitarist-singer Joel Parkkila (Human Skull) and bassist-vocalist Anna Parker (Virga) are the core of Cowgirl, whose second six-song collection, Cow on a Hot Tin Roof, is another fantastic collection of country-steeped Americana. Parkkila's textured rasp sometimes reminded me of The Wallflowers' Jacob Dylan, and Parker's clear crooning doubles the vocals much of the time, which gives the music a dark-light feel. The slow and melancholic first single, "With Doubt," chronicles the complications of having a kid, and it gets the video treatment with what looks like clips from Parker's childhood. But every song on Cow on a Hot Tin Roof sounds like a single, from the twangy opener "We'll Wait" to the power-pop-ish "Who Else." My favorite song (at the moment) is "Wrong Things," a rollicking honky-tonker about a couple who focus their energies—financial and otherwise—on everything except the goodness in front of them.

Colin Moorhouse (lead guitar) and Aaron Apsey (violin, viola) return from Cowgirl's fab debut, An Ypsilanti Love Story, with McKinnon Main (drums), Nathan Flanders (piano), and Marley Turne (harmonica) rounding out the ensemble. The band celebrates the release of Cow on a Hot Tin Roof at the Ypsi Ale House on Friday, June 20. (Worth revisiting: Cowgirl's recent "from a cow field" live performance, too.)

Bobby Streng, Getting There
Bobby Streng has a background in jazz orchestra work, playing with the repertoire bands of Harry James, Jimmy Dorsey, and Glenn Miller. But the Ann Arbor saxophonist's eighth album, Getting There, is a smooth, jazz-fusion groover. The six songs are filled with Chuck Bartels' bubbling electric bass, Jess Kramer's head-nodding backbeats, Chris Plansker's bluesy piano comps, and crowd-pleasing note holds and earworm melodies courtesy of Streng's tenor sax.

Claw, Darker Days EP
Claw is Ann Arbor's Claudia Hicks, joined on the new Darker Days EP by Victor Montalvo on drums. There are four songs here, with two clocking in under two minutes and one just barely exceeding that, then concluding with the seven-minute "If You Cared." It's a bit psychedelic, a bit grunge, a bit indie, a bit ambient—just a lot of bits, really. I'd be curious to hear these tunes explored by a well-oiled band because there's a lot of potential in these songs.

Septic Fibrosis, demo 
Goregrind is the type of music that is probably a blast to play and not so much to listen to, but I did get some joy out of the debut demo from Ann Arbor's Septic Fibrosis, mostly because the vocals are so wild: They sound like a feral pig fed through an oscillator. These five works—all of which have gross song titles and last under a minute—are somewhat minimalist compared to most grind releases, with Septic Fibrosis focusing on a severely detuned guitar (or bass) and programmed drums as the core sound, along with the whistle-squeal vocals.

G.B. Marian, "Too Doe Nakotae (To Life Immortal)"
G.B. Marian's musical focus is often on the Egyptian god Set, ruler of deserts and disorder. But the Ypsi synth artist's latest single, "Too Doe Nakotae (To Life Immortal)" takes its inspiration from another fantastical story: War of the Worlds. But it's not the H.G. Wells book, or the Orson Welles radio version, that captured Marian's imagination as a youth; it was the little-remembered War of the Worlds: The Series, which ran on TV from 1988 to 1990. Billy Thorpe's original theme for the series provides the foundation for Marian's rumbling, intense interpretation of the alien Mor-Taxans' call to war. The song is about 3 and a half minutes long, which is about how long it took me to read Marian's detailed liner notes about the TV show and its music, which he posted on the Bandcamp page.

Christopher Porter is a library technician and the editor of Pulp.