Block

“Too complex to fit into a musical drawer.”
—Rolling Stone

“Engaging and promise-filled.”
—Spin Magazine

“A witty, knowing collection of pop tracks.”
—Billboard

There are artists who ride the wave of a genre, and there are artists who help create one. Block belongs to the latter category. As a pioneering force behind the anti-folk movement, his influence can be felt in every corner of modern indie, folk-punk, and lo-fi songwriting. Now, this seminal artist has signed with Meridian (ECR Music Group) for a full re-release of his groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed catalog. These deluxe-edition re-releases feature never-before-heard tracks and alternate versions of some of Block’s most beloved songs. The second of these four re-releases arrives April 25th, with the remastered, bonus-track version of Block’s influential 2006 record, The Last Single Guy [Deluxe Edition].

Three stunning, previously-unreleased tracks, “Hands Up,” “Cream Crackered,” and “Run Run Run,” have been added to the now fully-remastered album, each painstakingly mixed by artist, producer, and ECR Music Group President Blake Morgan (Lenny Kravitz, Janita, Lesley Gore). “This record is a time capsule to a chaotic time in my life,” explains Block. “It’s sort of a musical diary of my rock bottom. Once these three bonus tracks were unearthed in a digital archeological dig—just as we’d left them—and then so amazingly restored and mixed, the album was complete.”

In the wake of Meridian’s February release of his first album in this series of reissues, The Greene Street Sessions [Deluxe Edition], Block has enjoyed a surge of newfound recognition—in the press, with a growing and reinvigorated audience, and at his now buzz-worthy New York City residency at the KGB Red Room—all in advance of the release of his forthcoming new album.

For The Last Single Guy’s newfound-single and bonus track “Hands Up,” Block provides a unique context. “My daughters were very young when I wrote this, and ‘Froggy Went a Courtin’’ was a frequent bedtime request of theirs, so the lyrics to that children’s song got mixed into this debauched road song about the transcendent experience of driving at night, windows down.” The track might also be the best example—and a poignant one—of Block’s collaboration with bandmates John Abbey and Mark Hutchins. “We’d been on the road together for more than a year and had gotten really tight as a band by the time we recorded it. I’d frankly forgotten even recording “Hands Up,” and hearing it again after all these years really cracked me open. I was amazed, and also sad, since we lost Mark a number of years ago.”

Block has turned heads and caught critics’ ears since his 1996 arrival in the national spotlight. The first artist signed to Capitol Records’ imprint Java, Block has toured with They Might Be Giants, Bob Mould, and The Brian Setzer Orchestra, and throughout a storied career has worked with many of music’s most coveted record makers, from Glen Ballard to Bob Ludwig. But perhaps most significantly, he has created a body of work that’s unquestionably helped birth and define an entire genre: anti-folk.

“I’m thrilled to join this distinguished roster, and to have my work restored, reclaimed, and refurbished in such a comprehensive and thoughtful way,” says Block. “With each of these reissues I feel like I’m reclaiming lost parts of myself, and meeting a new audience along the way. Most importantly for me, it’s all happening ahead of my new record.”

Rolling Stone calls Block “Too complex to fit into a musical drawer.” Spin Magazine hails his work as “Engaging and promise-filled.” Billboard Magazine describes Block’s catalog as, “A witty, knowing collection of pop tracks.”

Out April 25th as the second of four deluxe-edition Block re-releases on Meridian this year, The Last Single Guy [Deluxe Edition] is a unique snapshot of an indispensable artist at both an emotional bottom, and an artistic height.