Hey ho, the football’s done for another couple of years so back to business.
Us. The first person plural pronoun. Not one that you hear often in gender speak but one that is going to have a greater impact on you than any amount of ‘we/they.’
Pardon me again for repeating myself as I do habitually but this is the precise reason I do this job. Amongst all the very good songs I hear every day there is occasionally one that is at another level, and here it is.
A little background first. Us are from Helsinki I think (part of the video below was shot there) and are a fairly new band. Even so they did already play at the Glastonbury Festival this year, racking up six separate sets so they must have gotten on the right side of the Eavis-es which will set them up well for the future.
I was amused to read of how many other bands and styles they have been compared to. From the punk of the Ramones to the bluesy rock of Dr Feelgood to the latter day Arctic Monkeys.
Meanwhile they say this single, ‘Hop on a cloud’, from the album ‘Underground Renaissance’ which will be released via the independent label Krautpop! on 20th September 2024,is influenced by Smokey Robinson and The Kinks.
Well it does have a 1960s feel to it. For my money it might have been a product of The Monkees, or Herman’s Hermits, or projecting a few decades on into the future, The Osmonds (think ‘Crazy Horses’) or Hanson (‘MMMBop’).
It isn’t what you expect to hear coming out of Helsinki, that’s for sure.
There’s an eerie degree of catchiness and professionalism about the whole thing, down to and including a very slick guitar break. Almost too good to expect from a new band in fact, and one that I reckon has every chance of charting in the UK with the right promotion if it hasn’t done already.
I did a little research, prompted by landing on the (rather good) lyrics online, which are accredited to a band called Grandmother Corn from 2019, a song with the same title on one of their three albums called ‘Don’t look back’, and with the writer being Teo Hirvonen, who is also the front man for Us.
In fact that band, also a five piece, looks pretty similar to Us.
I don’t know quite what all that means and to be honest I don’t care much either. But a little about their history and how this came about would be a good thing I reckon…
They will be playing live dates in the UK this summer.
20th July – Smoke and Fire Festival, Ascot (6pm)
2nd August – Endorse it in Dorset Festival, Cerne Abbas, Dorset (7.30pm)
17th August Smoke and Fire Festival, Maldon (4pm)
23rd August – Shambala Festival, Northamptonshire
28th August – Le Pub, Newport, Wales
29th August- Barnstomper Festival, Cerne Abbas (2pm)
16th November – Live at Leeds in The City Festival, Leeds
Find them on:
Website: http://www.usbandofficial.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/usbandofficial
X/Twitter: https://x.com/usbandofficial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/usbandofficial/
