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11
THURSDAY
Man, and you thought the Cowboy Junkies were languid. Canyon really keeps the tempos down and the art-rock quotient high in its leisurely paced (some would say lethargic) aural collages. There’s an occasional spacey harmonium effect arching across a song to send it further into uncharted territory, but the multilayered, carefully crafted songs on the band’s self-titled album are not pop nor rock nor country nor folk. There are stylistic roots in ’70s art rock and the ’90s indie movement, and the instrumentation is impressively dreamy: There are jazz influences in the brushed percussion, Pink Floyd-isms in the guitars. The hooks are most likely to be in the careful cadence of the vocals, which are ethereal, and, once in a while, hauntingly beautiful (“At the Mouth,” for instance) but ultimately lethargic. Shoe-gazing trances are in the forecast tonight when Canyon plays with Alice Despard Group and Calibos at 9 p.m. at IOTA, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington. $8. (703) 522-8340. (Buzz McClain)