Blood Meridian

Lead singer Matthew Camirand once said Blood Meridian are alt.country made by people who don't know how to do alt.country. Perhaps, then, that's what makes them so effing great. Kick Up The Dust is an alt.country gem from mastermind Camirand, who also plays in Black Mountain. His voice is so far from the genre's norm — his drawl is more Kurt Cobain than Neil Young — that it infuses the music with a truly unique veneer. On the dryly funny "Work Hard, For What?" he alternates between singing and speaking casual yet biting lyrics about the conflict between working for security versus following your heart. The lynchpin is single "'Soldiers Of Jesus Christ," which features the catchiest guitar line in a record full of catchy guitar lines. If Kick Up The Dust, which has a high-profile American release on V2, gets as popular as it deserves to be, Camirand might not have time for Black Mountain much longer.