King Elementary - Kudzu

There’s something inherently fun about a youthful group of garage-rockers hammering out an ultimately decent collection of songs. The energy level is high and the songwriting less pretentious, if not as polished. King Elementary are garage rock by the book. Tapping into a spate of recent derivative acts and those that came before them, the Strokes/Jet/Hives/whatever-esque music they produce is… pretty good. Not groundbreaking, not bad, just pretty good. High points can be found scattered around Kudzu like little pieces of shining glass. These shiny little moments make me interested in hearing what the band does next. At present, King Elementary is merely another faceless rock band, but one gets the feeling that with a few more miles under their belt they could produce something… great. The band pounds away from song to song tirelessly, sporting a simplistic guitar, bass and percussion approach to rock. The usual addition of a single background vox or piano part is a nice touch that keeps things from getting too obnoxious. Check out the catchy-as-hell refrain from “For the Birds,” the mystery of “Sand and Romance,” and the retro-cool of “Only You.” These bits of glass are a little shinier than the others. [www.kingelementary.com]