Band rocks in studio, live

Its Facebook page describes the band’s sound as “tragically underrated droney psych-rock.”

Local band CanyonLands originated as a project called Small Flightless Birds that started while vocalist/guitarist Nathan Bickley was attending the University.

“It started as a recording project by myself,” Bickley said.
Until bassist Bon Baca, drummer James Sturgis and Bickley decided to expand the group. Named after a national park, CanyonLands formed in fall 2009. It was fashioned after a few live incarnations where a number of musicians were invited to play with them.

The band added keyboardist/flautist Adeline Murthy to the lineup. When Mark Campagna joined the band, CanyonLands had two drummers who could rock the plaster off the walls, but it’s the band’s music that packs downtown bars and crowds living rooms in the student ghetto.

“It’s very validating,” Baca said about exciting crowds.
Bickley said that people stand on top of couches, dancing on them during their shows.

Baca’s fingers pluck his guitar to produce the bass. Sturgis’ drumming deals with straight beats and Campagna’s drumming is more tribal, which is unusual because drummers don’t usually play well together, Bickley said.

The combination of drumming, keyboard and flute from Murthy, and sound distortion from Bickley’s guitar pedals contributes to the band’s polychromatic sound.

So far, the band has released one album, The Last Dinosaur, in early 2009. The album is available for free at Canyonlands.BandCamp.com. CanyonLands’ next album, A Frothing of the Mind, will be released during a launch party at Burt’s Tiki Lounge on May 21.

The album features songs played at shows and has a cover of Brian Jonestown Massacre’s “Servo.” Brian Jonestown Massacre is one of the band’s influences.

The band will also perform today at the Blackbird Buvette at 9 p.m.

Bickley said the band that people hear on the album isn’t the same band at live performances.

“There are sonic possibilities that can be achieved by each,” he said. “But for the most part, they’re separate entities, and that’s how we like to treat them.  For example, the emergent properties we go for in live settings cannot be achieved without a great deal of volume, and that can’t be satisfactorily captured on a recording.”