Press & Reviews

April 13

Tidings From Allen Ginsburg, Songwriting With Prostitutes And Romance In Tompkins Square Park

Block Found This And More On "Ave. A"

Riotously Revealing Track Off 'The Last Single Guy'

"Avenue A has turned into a punk theme park" sings the enigmatic power-folkie Block on "Ave. A" the riotously revealing track off his forthcoming album 'The Last Single Guy' (June 12, sonaBLAST! Records). The song recounts a wide-eyed college grad's immersion in the gritty, vital East Village of the early '90s in evocative detail. Its vignettes include writing "songs with prostitutes at 2 a.m.," disbelievingly finding himself in the apartment of the poet Allen Ginsberg and meeting his future wife while both walked their dogs in Tomkins Square Park. The percolating piano driven groove is punctuated by a boisterous brass section and the steady shuffle and tap of the drums. Sonically and lyrically the track unfolds like a collaboration between Beck and Bukowski transported to the bustling streets of Manhattan.

The songs of 'The Last Single Guy' slip inexorably between biting irony and deep melancholy, playing out like the contemporary aural equivalent of Salinger's Nine Stories. Each piece in the collection is populated by characters who are recognizably human in their complexity, as the cadences of Block's lyrics locate a common ground between mechanical beats and dangling conversations.

'The Last Single Guy' achieved great notice when it was released locally in New York late last year and was named "one of the top ten albums of 2006" by WFUV's Claudia Marshall, she called it a "remarkable record."

sonaBLAST! Records was founded by Gill Holland in the summer of 2002 in New York City, NY. Other releases on the label include Mark Geary, Kelley McRae and The Old Ceremony.

For more information on Block, please contact Carrie Tolles [ctolles@shorefire.com] at Shore Fire Media: 718.522.7171.