Available for order in a matter of hours!

Projected Lights is a DVD of Toronto’s shadow play and projection performance scene featuring fourteen works from: Shary Boyle, the Singing Saw Shadow Show, Steph Comilang and Final Fantasy, Yuula Benivolski & Zeesy Powers, Jordan Somers feat. Sandro Perri, Exploding Motor Car and Winston Hacking, Jamie Shannon, Renee Lear and Peter Venuto. Check the releases page for more info.

Summer shows

Katie Stelmanis is about to go on a cross Canada tour. She’s DRIVING, so go see her, especially if you’re in the Prairies. The Creeping Nobodies play the four best cities in North America: Brooklyn, Boston, Montreal, AND SARNIA.

From June 12th -14th the Blocks Recording Club, Fuzzy Logic Recordings, Out of this Spark and the Tranzac present the Better Reasons festival, a celebration of music, art and independent culture.

Proceeds from the three day event will be donated to Sketch, a Toronto-based organization which creates art making opportunities for young people who live street-involved and homeless or who are considered to be at risk.

All concerts are at the Tranzac, 292 Brunswick Avenue, Toronto in the Main Hall. Admission is Pay What You Can. The Tranzac will also be exhibiting art work by the youth from SKETCH.

Bob Wiseman’s “The Legend,” his first live release ever, is now ready. It’s only available via mailorder and at Bob’s shows. It’s limited and packaged in a scrappy handmade cover by Punchclock Studios. So get to one of Bob’s gazillion shows coming up or check out our Releases page for ordering info.

Spring touring! Also check out Katie Stelmanis’ upcoming shows with Basia Bulat. The Creeping Nobodies are doing a Toronto one-off with the mighty Plastic Crimewave Sound and Kids On TV go to Hamilton, in style, with Crystal Castles.

Bob Wiseman’s first live CD is being made right now and will be available on his upcoming globe trotting tour. We half wished it was titled “Wiseman comes Alive” but on a deeper, more honest level are happy that it’s just titled “The Legend.”  More soon!

Katie Stelmanis’ Blocks debut “Join Us” is now available, for mailorder and at stores. Katie, just so you know, is slowly taking over the world: a sold out CD release party; a non-ironic cover of Natural Woman; Guelph radio conquered.

Piano and choir geeks arise! Arise!

Also…Brian Joseph Davis’ The Definitive Host makes it to #578 on the Idolator Pop Poll! Please note all entries after 500 are listed alphabetically.

JSYK: NINJA HIGH SCHOOL IS BREAKING UP. There are so many reasons for this you can’t even imagine. The least of the reasons is that THE LOVE HAS DIED. The second least reason is that “I NEVER WANT TO SEE THAT ASSHOLES AGAIN!” Apparently, the grudges only extend upwards from there. I dunno: that’s all I could get from them. For all that rapping you think they’d be better with words. ALSO: THE LAST NHS SHOW EVER will be tonight, Thursday the 13th of Dec. 2007 at (where else really) Sneaky Dee’s. Wolfgang has muttered that he’ll be coming back to the band just this once.

Hey! So there is a new Board of Directors at Blocks!

That’s right!

NEW PEOPLE ARE IN CHARGE (or at least some new people are in charge…)

JOHN CAFFREY, BRIAN JOSEPH DAVIS, KAT GLIGORIJEVIC-COLLINS, MATT MCDONOUGH and BOB WISEMAN are the new board of directors here at Blocks.

Steve Kado has retired to a “pleasure co-op” in Thailand.

GUYS!

1 - Katie Stelmanis is putting out the next blocks record! It is coming out on January 9th 2008! Amazing!

2 - Nifty is still available! Still ‘new’. Available everywhere we make things available.

3 - Blocks is having an AGM soon: there will be a new board of directors etc. EXCITING CHANGES!

Hey! So it is now possible to order the new Nifty CD online directly from us! You can just follow this LINK and be parted almost immediately from your money. It will be available for download from Zunior any day now too. In the mean time, everyone has come back from tour and are getting ready for winter here in Toronto. Although, to be honest, Winter doesn’t really start until January here most of the time, we just settle for winter or “winter” until then. Also, and as you’d expect: the Nifty CD is totally available at Rotate This! and Soundscapes.

We’re furiously folding and gluing the first Blocks release by Nifty (aka Matt Smith of Les Mouches). Check in the releases section for more info. Matt is on tour with Final Fantasy this fall , starting soon. In other touring news, Steve Kado aka the Blankket is in Denmark. The Creeping Nobodies are in Finland. We’re working on our “Swedish presence” and Bob Wiseman is opening for Feist for several dates in Europe.

So, recently, someone asked me if Blocks was going to have any ‘presence’ at Pop Montreal this fall. No slur on Pop Montreal, Fucked Up and Final Fantasy are totally playing it this year, but why would an expressly local, Toronto Worker’s Co-op have ‘presence’ at a music conference in Montreal? It just doesn’t make sense: what would be do? Talk about the Argos? Anyway, life: tell me about it! The other reason why there is no Blocks ‘presence’ at PMTL is because the entire board of directors for B.R.C. is heading over to Europe at the end of September for various tours. Bob is opening for Feist (weird!), Steve/The Blankket is doing a clutch of weird Scandinavian shows and James and Matt are going all over the entire continent with the Creeping Nobodies. Owen will be over there soon too!

Pyramid Culture’s “100% True” is unfortunately delayed until later this fall! Watch here for updates.

The release party for Brian Joseph Davis’ the Definitive Host is still Friday August 3rd, 9pm at Mercer Union, 37 Lisgar St. FREE. Also appearing that night is Katie Stelmanis and a TBA special guest.

Two full length releases for the end of July:

Pyramid Culture’s “100% True” —dance music driven by the power of the ancients and packaged in gold!

Brian Joseph Davis’ “The Definitive Host”— a compilation of his sound art to date.

Both are going to be released Friday August 3rd at the Mercer Union gallery, 37 Lisgar St., Toronto. More details soon.

Everyone is touring:

Look below for summer show dates from Kids On TV, The Blankket, Bob Wiseman, the Phonemes, Fucked Up, and the Creeping Nobodies.

Hey! So it’s been a long time since we’ve put anything up here, but here’s some good news!

At the start of this month: Kids On TV’s “Mixing Business with Pleasure” and The Phonemes “There’s Something We’ve Been Meaning To Do” are both coming out! Available through Sonic Unyon, FAB, Scratch and all the usual record stores in Toronto.

Also, The Phonemes are leaving on Tour with Bob Wiseman and Jason Trachtenburg and Kids On TV are already out on tour in Europe opening for ESG and shit. These are wild times.

Also in May, there is a blocks bands microtour with Tradition, the Blankket and Nifty (or Prince Nifty, Nif-D etc.) that is hitting Waterloo, Hamilton, Brantford and Guelph (?). Either way, keep your eyes peeled!

Hey!

So,

Here is some news:

The new album by Tradition, entitled TRADITION is coming out on Feb. 13th to retail outlets accross Canada, online on the internet via Zunior and for mail order in the universe on that very day.

This is what the cover looks like.

Coincidentally, Feb 13th is also when The Blankket’s latest mini-cd “Be Your Own Boss” will be released as well.

The cover for that one looks like this:

So, most “independent” record releasing concerns promote records by giving copies to journalists, radio stations, music directors and even things like “seeding” blogs and paying shills to discuss their products on message boards etc.  We here at BRC have deemed that totally boring, and have adopted a different strategy where instead of doing any of that we instead ’seed’ copies to nationally syndicated comic strips authors.  And the results are paying off!  Take a look at what we found in the Toronto Star today!

Start looking for mispellings of the word ‘blanket’ in Adam @ Home and Sherman’s Lagoon any day now.

Hey,

So the board of directors just announced to the general membership of Blocks what will be coming out on Blocks in the first half of 2007!

Here’s what we’re doing:

Kids On TV - “Mixing Business With Pleasure”

The Blankket - “Be Your Own Boss”

Tradition - “Tradition”

The Phonemes -”tba” (record is done, title is being deliberated on)

Pyramid Culture - “100% True!”

also: we’re working on new CD-rs and a bunch of other stuff like that. First thing we’re thinking about is: a posthumous, archival Everybody Get Sick record.

If you go here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/83ob0n

You can download the new Fucked Up “Year of the Dog” 12″ for free.

good?

So YouTube took down that Kids In The Hall skit we put up on the website, which sucks, it was HILARIOUS (you might have liked it) but yeah, otherwise, the show at the NYCL went very smoothly, and it was really interesting and fun to do from an organisational perspective. We at □□□□□□ would love to work with the Library System some more actually, it’s pretty much one of the few benign and free public institutions left.

In other news: All Fucked Up US tour dates are suspended. and: We are busily making new Fucked Up 12″s as we discuss this, we do not have lots of available stock, if you are running a hardcore distro and have spoken to us you will get copies when we have them to ship to you. Until they are folded, stamped etc. they are useless to you.

Also:

There is a new board of directors at □□□□□□ as of Sunday when we had our annual general meeting. The new board is: Kat Collins, Bob Wiseman and incumbents Steve Kado, Chuck Skullz and James Anderson. We also approved our bylaws and all this other rad rad shit. NO MORE FLOPPY UN-ORGANISEDNESS!

Hey: guess what? This Kids In the Hall sketch was filmed just in front of the magnificent North York Public Library!

Which, if you’re one of those people who never goes north of Bloor St., you will be surprised to know actually looks just like ‘the future’. It’s also really near where I was born: Norton Ave. in Willowdale. Also, near Q107’s headquarters, from whence Classic Rock is beamed and broadcast across this great and marvelous Greater Toronto Area.

Also: this Saturday, almost the entire □□□□□□ R.C. active line up (Bob Wiseman, Hank Collective, Final Fantasy, The Creeping Nobodies & Ninja High School) will be playing a big show at this very library.

We haven’t settled on a running order yet, but we’re not rushing things.

Apperantly, it’s already sold out and tickets were free in the first place.

Also, the library system is really awesome, and are starting to collect local independent music for it’s collection, so it’s really an honour for us to be involved! We are all very very stoked. Also, possibly we will eat funny burgers or good indian food nearby before playing! Maybe visit Kat’s high school which is just down the street….

So, after much hand assembling and like a month after it was available in area shops and at concerts we finally have sufficient stock of the new Anagram/Creeping Nobodies split 12″ to say that it’s actually ‘for sale’ and ‘from us’.

And we are thrilled, Greg at doublenaut did the design and most of the raw fabrication and it looks stupendous! We are totally thrilled. Also, this weekend, watch for the new Fucked Up 12″ “year of the dog” available at Fucked Up’s various and sundry gigs this weekend. That should be available for orders, distribution etc. later in early November. So if you’re in a rush make sure to get one at those shows!

In general: go to shows.

(in a related note, Anagram and The Creeping Nobodies are playing this Sunday with Fucked Up, so if you were being enterprising, you could get both 12″s at once if you went to that gig)

Hi, So, first off, we’ve got some new releases to discuss:

Bob Wiseman’s new record Theme and Variations is out now! In stores! On Tour! Online! For Ordering!

and:

although available in stores in Toronto, we’re only now actually getting copies of the Blocks/Dead Astronaut Creeping Nobodies/Anagram split 12″ which will be available for ordering, etc. from us within the week hopefully. As well as reaching stores in the rest of the country/world.

Also, coming soon: Re-release of Bob Wiseman’s first CD: “In Her Dream” and Fucked Up’s “Year of the Dog” 12″.

AND! □□□□□□ Recording Club is going to have a big show at the Toronto Public Library’s North York Branch to help announce that the TPL is beginnng to add local music to their collection! We are thrilled and flattered to be invited to perform this public service.

These bands will be playing: Final Fantasy, Ninja High School, Hank, Bob Wiseman, The Creeping Nobodies. Basically, between guest stars and ‘also in that band too’s’ it’s almost all of us at once. We are so stoked to help this worthy public institution.

HEY! Final Fantasy won the Polaris Prize last night! It was weird and hilarious. But it is also nice to receive that kind of recognition etc.

WOW!

Hey!

So Owen got nominated for a Polaris Prize, this is an award that is supposed to be like the Mercury Prize. He’s nominated with Cadence Weapon and Malajube and all kinds of other people.

Next week, we’ll tell you about the awesome free show that Blocks is doing at the Toronto Public Library’s NORTH YORK CENTER branch. A library I remember dearly from my childhood when North York had it’s own seperate library system with an owl logo and everything.

We’ll tell you next week.

Ok,

So, this summer this is what is happening:

First: Steve has declared that despite how individual members feel Blocks as a group is cheering for Ghana in the World Cup (despite the fact that today they got eliminated by Brazil).

Second: Final Fantasy is currently on tour.

Third: Ninja High School is going to go on tour in August.

Fourth: Bob Wiseman is going on tour this summer with Final Fantasy, but will be returning through Canada with a member of “Canadian National Treasures” Kids in the Hall! Scott Thompson (the gay one), will be touring with Bob immediately following Bob’s tour with Owen.

Fifth: The Phonemes/Magali are touring this summer with Bob and Owen! Details are very similar between this tour and the other tour.

Sixth: The Fucked Up 12″ will come out in October, not July as previously mentioned.

Seventh: Bob Wiseman’s first studio LP ever is being re-issued on Blocks. It should be available during the summer.

Eigth: Blocks now has an office! Of our own! Located above the Tranzac club in Downtown Toronto, we’re just fixing things up, buying plants and working things out, but soon, very soon, we will have things made right and nice, and there’ll be office hours and shit. In the mean time, some Blocks releases are available in the downstairs bar at the Tranzac club weather anyone of us is actually here or not. So drop by, the bar is open from five onwards and you stand a good chance of catching Alex Lukashevsky or even actual Deep Dark United playing if you drop by later (around nine or so).

Ninth: Matt Collins is still playing manhunt every Thursday here in Toronto. This is the website about that particular game.

Tenth: Fucked Up are apperantly going on tour in mid July, but they don’t tell us ANYTHING so we can’t pass more info on than that.

Also: we know that Owen’s own, personal Final Fantasy website does exist but it’s weird and messed up a bit. Don’t use www.finalfantasyeternal.com instead use finalfantasyeternal.com. Does that make sense?

Hey!

Come and see the Creeping Nobodies, with the Wharton Tiers Ensemble, RYVYR and Wyrd Visions at the Horseshoe Tavern tomorrow!

It will be rad!

Also: Blocks now has an office of our own, upstairs at the Tranzac club, drop by and say “Hi” if you’re in the neighborhood!

Hey: So guess what?

On MAY 2nd, 2006 Blocks R.C. is proudly releasing the new record by the Creeping Nobodies! It’s called Sound of Joy and will be available all over Canada through Sonic Unyon, F>A>B> and Scratch Distribution, as well as through mailorder at www.thebluehouse.org and Rotate This! and Soundscapes in Toronto.

You can here some samples of the new record here and here.

BUT: if that wasn’t enough:
on May 9th, 2006 only ONE WEEK AFTER the last record we’re also putting out the newest Final Fantasy CD. This one is called He Poos Clouds and will be available through all the chanels mentioned above within Canada, and through TomLab records of Germany in the ‘rest of the world’.

In other news: we’ve just started planning to work with THE BEST LIVE BAND IN TORONTO! They are called Fucked Up and we’re putting out a 12″ with them in the summer. We’ll let you know what else is going on with that as information makes itself available.

WOW!

So: May is now our new ‘busy month’!

The Creeping Nobodies “Sound Of Joy” full-length is coming out MAY 2.

and

Final Fantasy’s “He Poos Clouds” full-length is coming out MAY 9.

Watch this space for cover art and some mp3s and the like.

Hey, So sure, maybe it looks like we aren’t up to much. But nothing could be farther from the truth!

In the near future (around May-ish) we’ll be putting out the new CD by the Creeping Nobodies entitled “Sound of Joy” and also the new album by Final Fantasy (called “He Poos Clouds”). Both will be “TOTAL BANGERS”.

So, bit by bit we’re marching onwards towards being really incorporated. For anyone who’s curious we’ve got lots of financial things almost sorted out, we recently re-figured out mail order (sorry if you’re still waiting for something, hopefully this will be the last disruption in mail order service for quite some time), generally we’ve been working on the kinds of things that are not very sexy to talk about.

If you know anything at all about cheap office/practice space we could rent in Toronto or alternatively, if you are familiar with the workings of co-operatives please give us a call.

New Releases From Blocks!!!

NINjA HIGH SCHOOL - “Young Adults Against Suicide” full-length CD. This is the Canadian version of the same CD that is coming out everywhere else on TomLab. The difference here is that this one is packaged differently and comes with an extra song.

HANK - “Ackrill/Venning ‘91″ full-length CD. This is a re-issue of Hank’s first CD. It’s been remastered, re-packaged (for the last time) and will come with all the videos that Hank made for the songs of this CD.

Also in the works are: a new Animal Monster full-length, a The Blankket full-length, the long awaited second Final Fantasy CD and all kinds of other stuff.

ALSO: BLOCKS IS GOING TO BE AT POP MONTREAL!!!

Look for: Lenin i Shumov, The Hank Collective, The S. S. Cardiacs, Ninja High School and Shit Wizard (TBC) at O PATRO VYS on Thursday/Jeudi, Sept. 29. (in Montreal).

Nobody Plays Live Like WE play live (come out and say “Hi”):

The Hank Collective:

August 3, The Social, Toronto.

The Blankket:

September 1, 310 Spadina Ave. Toronto. Bring your own battery powered radios with batteries in them! Show at midnight in a pile of garbage!

The Creeping Nobodies: are going on tour!

August 21, Rancho Relaxo, Toronto. w/ AIDS Wolf and Fox The Boom Box

August 26, The Monopole, Plattsburg, NY.

August 27, The Shed, Palmer, MA.

August 28, The Great Scott, Boston, MA.

August 29, North Six, Brooklyn, NY.

August 3o, Lit, Manhattan, NY.

August 31, as220, Providence, RI.

September 2, 1511 Guilford, Baltimore, MD.

September 3, The Warehouse Next Door, D.C.

September 4, House Show, Grenville, NC.

September 6, The Night Lite, Chappel Hill, NC.

September 8, The Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN.

September 12, The Hi-Tone, Memphis, TN.

September 14, The Firehouse, North Manchester, IN.

September 16, The Garfield Gallery, Pittsburg, PA.

September 17, The Continental Club, Buffalo, NY.

Also: The Creeping Nobodies are putting out a 12″ record on Rob Gordon’s Blood Works that should be out by August 26th. WICKED NEWS! h

Hey, So as you’re gradually becoming immune to the insane heat of summer why not go and see both Bob Wiseman and the Phonemes at the Sorauren Park Festival! The Phonemes are playing at 7.30 and Bob is on at 9.00! More information plus directions etc. can be found at www.myneighborhood.ca/festivals/.

Yesterday, Magali Meagher (of the Phonemes) and Bob Wiseman (of Bob Wiseman) got married to each other at a sweaty rowing club overlooking the lake. Magali brought 1,000,000 French relatives and I saw a whole new kind of bird walking along the shore. There was also a lovely view of Hamilton and much celebrating! Wow! Getting married seems like such an awesome adventure!

On a side note this makes Blocks the most inter-married record releasing concern by percentage of the roster in Canada. We have a slightly higher than 30% married rate, with no marriages outside the actual club. What this says about us, hopefully, is that we’re a nice group of people that cares a great deal about eachother. This also means that we’re looking at the possibility of there being actual Blocks children at some point. To my mind that is terribly exciting! They would get catalogue numbers and everything! And little hats! And overalls! Little overalls!

Hello Everybody!

Come to this special show with Awesome, Fox The Boom Box, The Martha Dumptruck Massacre and Lenin I Shumov at Rancho Relaxo on June 24th.

Eugene is leaving for Russia shortly after that so this is the last we’ll see of him for quite a while. This will also be the last Lenin i Shumov show until the fall.

Hey, If you’re very succeptible to things that you read then run straight away to Guelph and then borrow a bicycle and ride it tomorrow morning to Tantramar Farm!!! Why? For an awesome show/festival! YOU NEED TO BRING A TENT AND WATER TOO!

More information / more coherent and reasonable communication in general / www.socialartsclub.org.!

Thanks so much to all the participants and all the volunteers who helped make the 8 Hour Drone a reality. Also: a big round of applause for Alex Snukal who did all the work really, what an amazing job! Also, extra special thanks to Sam, our chef, who worked totally hard all day. Woo!

Amazingly, the 8 Hour Drone Show is completely going to happen.

The Show starts at Noon on Sunday the 29th of May and will go until 8pm.

Sam from Ting will be making Drone Food and there will be unceasing sound for the entire eight hours. Alex Snukal has been working around the clock to make this happen and it should be unbelievably cool. There are really way too many performers to name but lots of Blocks bands are sending representatives!

The show is at Mercer Union art gallery at 37 Lisgar St. Full day passes are $8 from Rotate This! and Soundscapes. Hour long passes are on sale at the door for $3, and the hours will be strictly enforced!

GET UP AND RUN AWAY FROM YOUR COMPUTER TOWARDS “SNEAKY DEE’S” (south east corner of College and Bathurst) with $5 in your hand and see the all new all awesome

S! S! CARDIACS! and their handsome new bass player ‘Matt King’ ex-Viking Club.
with Republic of Safety and The Bicycles

On April 16th at Dovercourt House, winners of the Russian-Language Noise-Rock band most popular with anglophones in the Greater Toronto Area award, Lenin i Shumov will be releasing their first ‘real’ cd (real in the sense that it will have been manufactured in a factory as opposed to at home on someone’s computer). It is a five song EP recorded with Jeff McMurrich.

To celebrate the occasion amazing bands No Dynamics and Everybody Get Sick are all playing as well!

After something like two years of gestating the Barcelona Pavilion have returned with four more poorly recorded songs about things you’ve probably never heard about because all you do is sit around smoking weed and listening to Sleep. But yes, it reaches new heights of compression by dialectically exploding Lame, Expressionist-derived, biographically based art with a take on ‘personal art’ cribbed from Alvin Lucier and Hans Haacke. Henry Rollins, Sine Waves, Dance-Hall Reggae and songs in favour of new anti-dog laws being passed in Ontario also swarm the listener in four-songs in under 6 minutes.

Can you believe this fancy shit? I hope it saves us lots of time, we’re all tired of this shit.

We’ll get the MP3s up as soon as we can.
DO NOT RAZZ US ABOUT THAT! NO RAZZING!

Also: What is the deal with that weird BLOGROLL thing in the Links Page…

I would never even think of eating a blogroll. It sounds like maybe the worst thing you could find on your plate if you were sitting down to eat.

The new FINAL FANTASY CD is out! It is Amazing! We aren’t broke anymore! Various packaging snafus still hold the new Diskettes CD in their icy grips.

8 HOUR DRONE SHOW! Yet another spontaneous recording project but unlike the Canzine project this one is curated by Alex Snukal of Animal Monster and has a single goal and dominant theme. And has been indefinitely post-poned. Complain about this to Alex via this address: here.