# Blocks Recording Club > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Blocks_Recording_Club > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Blocks_Recording_Club.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocks_Recording_Club > Source revision: 1318506003 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Record label Blocks Recording Club Founded 2003-2015 Founder Steve Kado Mark McLean Genre Indie Country of origin Canada Location Toronto, Ontario Official website blocksblocksblocks.com **Blocks Recording Club** was a [Canadian](/source/Canadians) [co-operative](/source/Co-operative) of musicians, which served as both a collaborative artist community and a [record label](/source/Record_label) for its member artists.[1] The label's name may also be cited graphically as □□□□□□ rather than the word "Blocks". Although this is in fact the label's official name, the word "Blocks" is used where it is not typographically possible to use the graphical series of blocks. ## History The □□□□□□ Recording Club was founded by Steve Kado and Mark McLean in 2003 as a tapes and mini-cd only label.[1] Shortly afterward, McLean left for Ottawa. Steve Kado ran □□□□□□ with Liisa K. Graham until 2005 when the club incorporated as a worker's co-operative.[1] Since then the club has been run by an elected board of directors. The first board of directors was James Anderson, Steve Kado and Matt McDonough. The second board comprised Katarina Gligorijevic, [Bob Wiseman](/source/Bob_Wiseman), John Caffery & [Brian Joseph Davis](/source/Brian_Joseph_Davis). Blocks' current board of directors is, Magali Meagher, Matt Smith and Patrick Borjal.[1] In 2009, *[NME](/source/NME)* included the Blocks Recording Club in its annual Future 50 list.[2] Blocks ceased operations in 2015 with a final concert at the Tranzac Club with performances by Austra, Bob Wiseman, Barcelona Pavilion, Nifty, Les Mouches, the Phonemes, Hank, Matias, and Ninja High School with DJ's Maya Postepski (of Austra) and John Caffrey (Kids on TV).[3][4] ## Artist roster Artists who have released material through Blocks include [Final Fantasy](/source/Owen_Pallett), [Fucked Up](/source/Fucked_Up), [Bob Wiseman](/source/Bob_Wiseman), [Katie Stelmanis](/source/Katie_Stelmanis), [Barcelona Pavilion](/source/Barcelona_Pavilion_(band)), [The Phonemes](/source/The_Phonemes), [Les Mouches](/source/Les_Mouches_(band)), [Ninja High School](/source/Ninja_High_School_(band)), [The Blankket](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Blankket&action=edit&redlink=1), [Hank](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hank_(band)&action=edit&redlink=1), [PDF Format (the Band)](/source/David_Dineen-Porter), [Kids on TV](/source/Kids_on_TV), [SS Cardiacs](/source/SS_Cardiacs) and [The Creeping Nobodies](/source/The_Creeping_Nobodies). Final Fantasy's second album on Blocks, *[He Poos Clouds](/source/He_Poos_Clouds)*, was named the winner of the inaugural [Polaris Music Prize](/source/Polaris_Music_Prize) in 2006.[5] Owen Pallett, the artist behind the Final Fantasy project, announced that he would donate a portion of his prize money to the label to help other artists. ## See also - [Music portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Music) - [Canada portal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Canada) - [List of record labels](/source/List_of_record_labels) ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-eye_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-eye_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-eye_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-eye_1-3) ["Blocks Recording Club: more innovative than Beck, Lady GaGa, Sweden"](http://www.eyeweekly.com/totallywired/article/68371)[*[permanent dead link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Link_rot)*]. *[Eye Weekly](/source/Eye_Weekly)*, August 5, 2009. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["The Future 50 - The Innovators Pushing Music Forward"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090814123936/http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&p=6901&more=1&c=1). *NME*, August 5, 2009. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Blocks Recording Club announces farewell..."](http://exclaim.ca/music/article/blocks_recording_club_announces_farewell_toronto_concert). *Exclaim!* 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Blocks Recording Club Is History"](https://nowtoronto.com/music/blocks-recording-club-is-history/). *NOW Toronto*, by Vish Khanna May 8, 2015 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["Building Blocks: a little Toronto music collective gets NME props"](http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/blogs/popculture/2009/08/building_blocks_a_little_music.html). [cbc.ca](/source/Cbc.ca), August 7, 2009. ## External links - [Blocks Recording Club](https://web.archive.org/web/20100307052904/http://www.blocksblocksblocks.com/) - [Unofficial Blocks Recording Club Discography](http://www.fedge.net/blocks/) v t e Cooperatives and mutual organizations Organizations By governance Primary cooperative (list) Consumer Worker (list) Purchasing Retailer Federation (list) International Co-operative Alliance Cooperative wholesale society By product Banking Credit union Mutual savings bank Savings and loan association Building society Housing Building Cohousing Student housing Housing society egalitarian commune Agricultural Collective farming Reforestation Winemaking Wheat pool Utility (list) Community wind energy Electric Telephone Broadband Insurance Health insurance cooperative Mutual insurance Independent practice association Other Food list Recycling Platform Media Mining Social services Other Friendly society Agent-owned company Stokvel Artel Topics Identity Rochdale Principles ICA Statement on the Cooperative Identity Political and economic theories Co-operative economics Cooperative federalism Distributism Economic democracy Guild socialism Mutualism Neo-capitalism Owenism Social enterprise Socialism Socially responsible investing Solidarity economy Key theorists G. D. H. Cole Charles Gide David Griffiths William King Robert Owen Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen David Schweickart Rochdale Pioneers Beatrice Webb By region Canada Ukraine United Kingdom United States Political parties Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (Canada) United Farmers of Alberta (Canada) Co-operative Party (UK) Nepal Co-operative Party History of the cooperative movement .coop Authority control databases MusicBrainz label --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Blocks Recording Club](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocks_Recording_Club) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocks_Recording_Club?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.