THE SADDEST LANDSCAPE Announces Long-Awaited Album / Pre-Order
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* You Will Not Survive out September 21st
* Pre-order 12″ LP now
* First track leaked

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Fresh off yet another successful European tour, The Saddest Landscape is proud to announce its first full-length release in seven years. Entitled You Will Not Survive, the record is set for a release date of September 21st, 2010.

You can check out the first song from You Will Not Survive, “Declaring War On Nostalgia,” as well as pre-order the 12″ LP here.

You might not know who The Saddest Landscape is, but you should. Originally formed in 2002, the band made a name for itself in the screamo underground with multiple releases and splits with genre greats such as The Pine and Funeral Diner. After being dormant for 2006 and 2007, the band reconvened to play a few European shows in 2008. Those shows lead to The Saddest Landscape’s reemergence in 2009 and thus You Will Not Survive, the band’s first full-length release since 2003.

Haunting and massive in its scope, You Will Not Survive echoes a maelstrom of emotions while retaining a staggering poise and precision. Rarely does a record push you so close to the edge only to save you at its dying breath. The Saddest Landscape provides cathartic therapy for desperate and dark matters of the heart. With passionate vocals and pummeling, powerful instrumentation, the band never relents and continues to redefine listeners’ expectations. You Will Not Survive reestablishes The Saddest Landscape within the scene and firmly entrenches the band as a pioneer in the ever-evolving screamo genre.

It’s easy to write about a band when the tag “Elephant 6″ is attached. You can almost always expect jubilant psyche-pop romps filled with triumphant horns and enough cutesy-ness to make tweety-bird blush. Nana Grizol is barely an Elephant 6 band, but it would be damn-near impossible to talk about them without mentioning their pedigree, featuring members of Neutral Milk Hotel, Elf Power, and Music Tapes. Okay, so now that that’s out of the way, Nana Grizol is a band from Athens, GA fronted by songwriter Theo Hilton who shred his own path, playing in acoustic-punk band Defiance, OH. Hilton’s urgency and sing-your-throat out melodies coalesce perfectly with his lo-fi comrades. It’s these two scenes that give Nana Grizol their own unique charm.

Ruth is the band’s second full-length album, following 2008′s “Love It Love It”. “Love It” introduced the world to Hilton’s meticulously crafted indie-pop-punk gems, which were as rambunctious as they were tuneful and ornate. On Ruth, however, Hilton has refined the sharp edges of his songwriting, smoothing over the raw elements of the debut. The songs are both simple and articulate, emphasizing restraint over pure energy.

It’s the high’s and low’s that permeate both the music and lyrics on Ruth. The album begins with the sparse “Cynicism” which finds Hilton almost teaching himself how to reflect. He sings, “cynicism isn’t wisdom, it’s a lazy way to say that you’ve been burned.” The highlight of the album comes in the form of “Galaxies,” which flows right from the former into a shuffle beat and a grinningly sung melody. “Alice and Gertrude” is the album’s lone instrumental and wouldn’t sound out of place at an ice cream parlor during the country’s first depression. The songs on the album ebb and flow from energetic basement sing-alongs to baroque-pop arrangements. Other noticeable influences range from the soul of Otis Redding to the garage rock of the Kinks.

Released on Orange Twin Records, owned by both Nana Grizol and ex-Neutral Milk Hotel member Laura Carter as well Hilton, the album shows how compelling pop music can be when done with the right elements available. Occasionally, the album veers into amateur ska-band territory, a cardinal sin for any non-ska band with a horn section, but the music’s charisma almost makes it go unnoticed.

Label: Orange Twin

Nana Grizol “Galaxies”

Pretty stoked on this! Band has reunited with producer Mark Trombino so hopefully that means good things! Album is scheduled for a September release with first single hitting in August.

Slow Creatures from Austin, TX…seems these guys are a bit inactive right now but this is great stuff.

Ex-Pop Unknown, Rhythm of Black Lines, Kissing Chaos.

Thanks to Jordan for the original heads up!

As of August 2010 I feel I must encourage people that they probably shouldn’t send promos to SAL anymore unless you just really want me to have a physical copy of something. I would definitely appreciate getting anything in the mail  and you might even get coverage on the site. However, with such little time to devote to SAL I just feel a bit sleazy still getting promos. So, it is your call but you’ve been warned so don’t pester me when I don’t cover something!

Sleep Bellum Sonno is going on tour! Check the band’s Myspace for tour dates.

The band has also released new songs for a split cassette with Warren Franklin that Keep It Together has put out.

Football, Etc. & P.S. Eliot Tour! Yeah!

My boys in Rapid Cities have a new record coming out and tour dates!

From the Inbox:

Love/Hate Records is proud to bring you LH003 – the Rapid Cities / mOck split 7″!  Cut onto 500 beautiful slabs of transparent blue vinyl, this puppy brought to you from two continents is now available for pre-order directly from the (new and improved) Love/Hate Records online store.  To further whet your appetite for this hot release, we’ll throw in a free copy of the Rapid Cities / mOck “Making Friends Overseas” tour poster and eat the shipping cost.  Copies will be available later in the EU through Asymmetrie.

To promote this release, these fine German boys and American jungen will be cramming in vans on both of their home continents for a total of four weeks this summer to bring you live tunes along with these records.  Find out if they’re hitting your town by checking either of the sites below, where many of the dates have already been posted.

Rapid Cities
mOck

John + John
iLovetoHateRecords

Here’s some helpful links too:
http://ilovetohaterecords.bigcartel.com/product/lh003-mock-rapid-cities-split-7
http://www.myspace.com/ilovetohaterecords
www.rapidcities.com
www.myspace.com/rapidcities (posted tour dates too)
www.myspace.com/mocklynzoo