Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (openers: Mass Choir and Dreamface)

Friday, December 9, Edmonton Events Centre, 7:00

Tickets: $23.50 in advance

Since forming in 2007, Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker (USS, to its friends) has been quickly gaining momentum in Canada’s music scene. In 2008, USS won two CASBY Awards – for Best New Artist and Best New Single (for “Hollowpoint Sniper Hyperbole”). USS followed up this success by winning two consecutive Canadian Organization of Campus Activities awards in the Emerging Artist category in 2009 and 2010, and have also represented Canada in Smirnoff’s “Be There” campaign.  USS has frequented Edmonton’s music venues –  you might have seen them at either the University of Alberta’s Week of Welcome or Grant MacEwan’s Fall Fest concerts in September, or at Boonstock on Canada Day long weekend. If you don’t know USS for their grunge-influenced electronic music, sometimes incorporating unconventional sounds, check out some of their most popular songs:

• Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole
• Laces Out
• Anti-Venom
• Cloudboy
• N/A OK
• Yo Hello Horray (Everyday)

Prepare yourself for an interactive evening, sure to be filled with a few surprises. Personally, I’ve got my fingers crossed for them using a blender as a means of simultaneously altering the guitar’s sounds and making smoothies, as seen at their Boonstock performance.

Mass Choir has got to be one of my favourite musical discoveries of 2011. Now, I don’t think I have an addictive personality, but keeping their most recent album, Circles, on repeat for three weeks might make you think otherwise. However, I couldn’t help it: it’s SO good! Mass Choir combines 90’s house music influences with the technology of today and soaring vocals to create music that is impossible not to dance to. Their high-energy music will be the perfect opener for USS’s set. To get in the mood for the concert, check out:

• If The Music Stays Strong
• Standing Still (seriously, how is it possible to make breaking up sound this good?)
• Dance Until You Feel Alive
• Soar
• You Keep Me Moving

-Jenna Marynowski