Cassette Review: Us "Music Played At the Appropriate Level" (Seizure Man)

[$5 // Edition of 90 // http://seizureman.storenvy.com/collections/269419-all-products/products/7898715-us-music-played-at-the-appropriate-level-cassette // https://usdudes.bandcamp.com/album/music-played-at-the-appropriate-level]

If you've ever wondered what the most difficult band name to google and search social media for, I would have to say it is Us simply because it is a mere two letters and there are a numer of other bands out there with "Us" in their name somewhere, like "Wolves Among Us" or something, and so most of your results would seemingly be for those bands first.

As complicated as the name is, being that it is somewhat vague, the music is along the same lines.    What begins with distortion turns into something that sounds like Blink 182- at least vocally- and then becomes a little bit closer to No Motiv.    There are scream-alongs and the music just becomes punk and aggressive.      Some small hints of math and Piebald come out, which ultimately just seem to hide under everything else but it does add a certain level of depth.

With big power chords and screaming this can go anywhere from definite hardcore along the lines of You'll Live to straight up punk ala Guttermouth.     The songs can change so smoothly during the course of the cassette or just the song itself and it's not like anything I've ever heard before.   There are also lyrics about sleep and, really, who doesn't like lyrics about sleep?

"Music Played At the Appropriate Level" reminds me of the first time I heard New Found Glory- on their first album- but only because it was that same feeling of "I've heard this before, just never this way".   You know, you had bands like Alkaline Trio and Hot Water Music and even Saves the Day playing similarly to New Found Glory, but they took it one step further-- into that hardcore realm, yet still they had that emo.

Us has that sound of a band like You'll Live, Old Grey, I Kill Giants or just something similar on Broken World Media, but then they add in something a little bit more melodic and a little bit more punk to the mix to create something I've never heard before.   I've always kind of felt Ten Foot Pole and No Motiv go together for some reason, so imagine a harder version of one of those two bands.    Or just one of them combined with You'll Live.    No matter how it may sound with mere words, it will blow your mind when you hear it.