Recalling the Meat Puppets, Nick Cave’s recent foray into gospel and Brian Jonestown Massacre if they could feel pain through all the drugs, these Canucks refract olde country and blues through a lysergic, angry and gloomy alt.rock.  Full text...

Their second album offers little solace to any souls that might be floundering, but the very brutality of its message (essentially, life is tough and we're all alone) is itself a kind of succour.   Full text...

The album doesn't score big points for originality-- "Soldiers of Christ" sounds like a million White Stripes songs, and not just in the vague sense that the bands share the same tradition-- but breaking new ground isn't the m.o. here.  Full text...

The rocking anthem "Soldiers of Christ" recalls Nirvana's Unplugged in New York performance, both angsty and subdued, maintaining an edge without betraying the country roots deep within. "Good Lover" nails the Southern Gothic sound perfectly, a touch of reverb on Camirand's voice giving it a ghostly echo while drums rumble and Hammond organ weeps in the background.  Full text...

An album that’s richly eclectic even when less successful. When it’s good, it can be great; but there are just a few moments that let it down – although that shouldn’t prevent you from kicking up your own dust in seeking it out.  Full text...

The arrangements and melodies of Kick Up The Dust are just as simple and honest, though the trudging, narcoleptic pace of cuts like "Most Days" - despite its lovely piano moon glow - and the affected Allman Brothers drawl of "Let It Come Down" make you wish Camirand and company would get the point quicker musically.  Full text...

Kick Up The Dust may not live up to its ambitions, but it leaves enough lines in the sand to tempt the curious.  Full text...

The result: songs in which a cursed, Gothic twang triumphs over workaday platitudes.  Full text...

If you're after reassurance that things really are this bad and who gives a flying one anyway, 'Kick Up The Dust' makes a perfect accompaniment to a bottle of Jack and a shovel for all the shit that's coming your way.  Full text...

Kick Up the Dust twists, massages and pulls cow-town blues around the coffee-shop poetry of a big-city singer/songwriter: It's more Brokeback Mountain than Shane, with a dose of Garden State thrown in to keep things interesting.  Full text...

Haul your rocking chair onto the front porch, open a beer, and tap your toes: this album won't demand too much of you besides your enjoyment, and succeeds well enough on its own terms.  Full text...