King Elementary - Kudzu

Genre rock Publisher Terminus Records External Links Official Website Terminus Records

For years now, music lovers all over the world have been morning the death of good old fashion loud and abusive rock'n roll. Since the late nineties, angry teens have been vigorously searching for an aggressive musical outlet to cover up their shady *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys past. Well kids, your search is over in the form of four eighteen year olds from Mississippi calling themselves King Elementary; and they may just be the saviors of real rock'n roll, without all the punk. With their first full length LP titled Kudzu, these southern rockers sound like ADD crazed teens who have spent far too much time eating mushrooms and listening to old MC5 records. After years of a musical diet consisting of depressing indie rock and about five million different forms of punk, King Elementary have come along and managed to make rock fun again. Effortlessly yelling about teenage things such as bad break ups, mean girls and a strange obsession with red heads, these young dudes trash through an entire albums worth of instrument smashing tunes reminiscent of a young Trail of Dead without all the extra static noise.

"For the Birds," the albums opener, builds up a suspenseful storm of sound and then explodes into an organized shower of raw, scratchy, vocals and loud, groovy hooks. At first listen, already knowing the young quartet's age, I found myself wanting to see some ID's. Kudzu's second song, "Thief of Hearts," picks up right where the first track leaves off; with a trashing, hostile musical assault on all listeners. On "Hit the Mirror," the kids turn up the bass and turn down the mic, creating a psychedelic sound reminiscent of mid seventies hard rock and early nineties grunge. One of my favorite songs is "Rebecca," where the boys yell about a girl that they seem to hate for reasons that only a senior in high school could understand. "Sand and Romance" shows that the boys can be more serious if they want to, with slowed down rhythms and barely grunted out lyrics. Just before you think this record might be letting up, they kick out the jams again on "Far Too Familiar" where they break into a Mars Volta-like freak out with spaced out hooks and angry, militant vocals. This crazy fusion of big bass lines and funky beats continues on the next track called "We Defy Gravity" in which vocalist Morgan Jones breaks out the voice synthesizers and the guys jam out like they've been on a good old fashion rock 'n roll style three day long acid trip. "Kisses From the Stone" is the bands climactic five-and-a-half minute long bitch fest where Jones rants off angry teenage poetry to the tune of pissed off, nineties style rock suggesting that these kids may have even heard of a little band called Slint. Finally, the album concludes with the catchy "Sitting," where the boys bring in a little keyboard action and show a less serious side of themselves, most triumphantly, reminding us that these guys are still just kids.

Basically, to put it in raw, grass roots rock 'n roll lingo, this album kicks ass; this band kicks ass so we can all expect to be hearing much more from them in the near future. With Kudzu, King Elementary rock out like they've been sent on a mission from God to remind us all that rock 'n roll is supposed to be fun, youthful, and loud; all those willing to stop and listen, will be very happy to hear this.