Final Fantasy

“How are you people going to have fun if none of you people ever participate?” is a question posed by the Barcelona Pavillion in their song of the same name. It is a call to cooperation - to get up and do something instead of just crying about nothing happening. A sentiment I fully agree with.

Blocks Recording Club (typically represented by a series of squares) is an organization of musicians out of the Toronto area who “make and pay for the making of records together.” Headed by Steven Kado (The Barcelona Pavillion), the club functions as one of those rare instances where like-minded people band together and make something that other people recognize and support. The club has put out recordings by Final Fantasy, Les Mouches, Animalmonster, the Barcelona Pavilion, the Blankket, and the Phonemes to name a few. Bands that work through Blocks are trying different things and not afraid to flop, which some of them do, but you have to respect the effort.

When you have one band screaming about “new materialogy” and another named after a Sartre play, you’d expect a typical, art school intellectualism to pervade the songs. And you’d be right. But they slap those Art in Theory lyrics over some dorky beats and quirky instrumental work to make gold.

Recommended Tracks:

• The Barcelona Pavilion / New Materiology
• The Barcelona Pavillion / How Are You People Going to Have Fun if None of You People Ever Participate?
• The Phonemes / Steeples and People
• The Blankket / Hey Ya! (Outkast cover)
• Les Mouches / Carload of Whatever
• Les Mouches / Close to You (Carpenter’s cover)
• Final Fantasy / The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead
• Final Fantasy / Illusion Song
• Final Fantasy / If I Were a Carp

Artist Links:

• The Barcelona Pavilion
• The Phonemes
• Final Fantasy
• Les Mouches