USS

USS—a.k.a. Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker—are the rare band that died before they were truly born. After recording their debut DIY EP, Welding the C:/, in 2008, the Toronto-based duo of singer/guitarist Ashley Buchholz and DJ Jason Parsons went their separate ways. But after local radio station 102.1 the Edge put the EP’s “Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole” into heavy rotation, USS were resuscitated with defibrillator-like expediency. With that song, USS anticipated the shape of alt-rock to come, subjecting Buchholz’s tensely strummed pop-punky melody to Parson’s frenetic beats and shapeshifting electronic textures. Regional success allowed them to reformulate their fusions on ever-grander levels: 2013 single “This Is the Best” retrofits Weezer’s Blue Album for a post-AWOLNATION world, while 2016’s “Work Shoes” is a rousing folk-hop synthesis that positioned USS as a Canuck answer to twenty one pilots. Still, the band announced that 2021’s Einsteins of Consciousness would be their swan song—or maybe this perpetually forward-thinking duo wanted to give everyone some time to catch up.