As a band name, "Great American Canyon Band" sounds like one of those dozen-member, vaguely twangy groups that traveled the country by truck or train in the 1970s. Though you wouldn't guess it from the enormous sound it makes, it's actually the name of a contemporary duo: Baltimore-based Paul & Kris Masson. And the group delivers on the "canyon" part of its name: swooping sonics with an almost infinite horizon, aided by "wall of sound" production techniques (and a helping of crunchy shoegaze distortion). The songwriting obliquely name-checks another canyon sound — L.A.'s famed Laurel Canyon, home to '70s troubadours like Emmylou Harris, Joni Mitchell, Crosby Stills and Nash... it's a sound that has found a welcome embrace from modern singers like Father John Misty and Jonathan Wilson. Great American Canyon Band's first full-length record is due out in April, but they play some of their recent songs for us in the Soundcheck studio.