Articles By: Dylan Rayburn 
Freelance writer and trust-fund baby currently living in Calgary but doing everything in my power to escape. My interests include politics, economics, business, sports, music, and travel all of which I write about ad nauseum on my website. Hate, love, disagree with, or inspired by my reviews? Leave a comment or email me directly. Despite what I said above, my favourite topic to discuss is me.
Emm Gryner – Northern Gospel review
Emm Gryner, a name I vaguely remember hearing on the radio as a youth, is apparently alive and well and still making albums. Last week she released her latest, Northern Gospel. You really do have to hand it to the Canadian singer-songwriter, her persistence is admirable. She has seemingly released eleven albums between 1998′s Public, which produced her single (somewhat) recognizable song “Summerlong”, and Northern Gospel. But let’s be honest here, no one really remembers that song or has heard [...]
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Mister Heavenly – Out of Love review
If Voltron wore black rimmed glasses, rocked skinny jeans, and had a crushing sense of inherent fallibility, then you might as well call him Mister Heavenly. The group is forged from indie royalty, featuring the union of Nick Thorburn (Islands, The Unicorns), Ryan Kattner/Honus Honus (Man Man), and Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse, The Shins). And as if that wasn’t enough star power, last summer they toured with Micheal Cera playing bass. But enough with the preamble, what about the actual [...]
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Mat Kearney – Young Love review
Ok, so I’ve had a busy week and I’ve let this review slide a bit. My editor wanted it on Tuesday, it is now Friday. Minor details. Anyways, I saw this busy week coming and previewed Mat Kearney’s Young Love on Sunday night to get my first impressions of it. I was only half paying attention but I thought “Ok, it’s a pop album, it is what it is.” Whatever right? As the week drew on and I found time [...]
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Release the Sunbird – Come Back to Us review
Seemingly despondent with the monotony of success and prolonged touring Rogue Wave frontman Zach Rogue (or is it Zach Schwartz?) was ready for a change. Rogue Wave had been underwhelming since 2005′s Descended Like Vultures despite spending the past few years on tour with some major acts as well as moving to Jack Johnson’s Brushfire Records. In 2010, Rogue travelled to his friend’s studio in Bloomington, IN with just a few guitars and the determination to do something, anything, to break [...]
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Kaiser Chiefs – The Future is Medieval review
England’s Kaiser Chiefs while in the midst of an extended hiatus started their own label, Chewing Gum Records. Perhaps this step into the business side of music elicited the band to release their newest album The Future is Medieval in a rather peculiar format. The album was release online through their website which is of course nothing new since In Rainbows. What was unique about the release was that it consisted of 20 songs, allowing fans to create their own [...]
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Pictureplane – Thee Physical review
Admittedly, when I first listened to Pictureplane’s sophomore album Thee Physical I didn’t know what exactly to think about it. I missed out on 2009′s Dark Rift leaving me to navigate the cacophony of electronic influences found on Thee Physical without any sort of contextual bearing. But there is so much going on in this album musically that there really isn’t much need to clutter the mind with themes, comparisons, and deep insights. What Travis Egedy, the mastermind behind Pictureplane, [...]
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Incubus – If Not Now, When? review
With their seventh studio album alt-rock deities Incubus set out to find a new direction, not surprising as they’ve been together since 1991. If Not Now, When? achieves a totally new sound for the band, centred on the idea of simplicity. But when you strip away the heavy guitar riffs, hip hop influence, instrumental diversity, and sing-a-long-ready choruses that characterized Incubus since achieving mainstream success in the late 90′s what is left is an extremely vanilla rock album. However, [...]
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