for the reasons don't love this in me
more hard
for the reasons
confused, but
herein contained
my friend,
into 
"Flamboyant, sensuous, and seamed with slick finesse, Kamstra's turns of phrase are more lubricated than 99% of CanLit. His Into the Drowned World will make you want to feel like a virgin, and read like a forager, over and over."— Margaret Christakos, author of Sooner
"Kamstra's kitsch kamera-angled poetics of excess floods across the text's face, giving radical pop new meaning. In this hyper-lyric world, porn, Nixon, robots and globalisation all have intercourse, generating surprising, delicious artifice. Apollinaire has Madonna's love child: Ryan's wild, wired, weird and witty daughter. This is poetry so over-the-edge innovative, it makes Dada look dim, and the future old hat. Into the Drowned World sets a new high-water mark for 21st century Canadian poetry." — Todd Swift, author of Seaway: New & Selected Poems
"The poems of Into the Drowned World keep leaping out of "the shallow grave" of post-modernist, post-capitalist life. These poems, so linguistically inventive, so over the top, so associatively awake, are profound expressions of 'a hunger in this world… not even for food.'" — Rebecca Seiferle, author of Wild Tongue
" In the hyper bare world of minimalist nano-nonsense poetry that continues its unhealthily, low word count as a polarization for saying absolutely nothing, (and living in a world that seemingly has nothing to say) Kamstra is refreshing panacea" - Nathaniel G. Moore
" W ith clarity of vision and deftness of tongue, the poet cares a hole the size of his fist in our consciousness and then pushes his way through. "
Open Book (review August 2009)
With copper Evan Monday, at The Scream Festival (Newsfix.ca July 2009)
Not Waving but Drowning (profile in Eye weekly Nov. 2008)
Ryan Kamstra's Madge Apocalypse (Zoilus Profile Nov. 2008)
Click here for more press on into the drowned world.
Playground magazine: "
After listening to
'end of poverty' we can assure
you that their's is something closer to a more brilliant new pornographers and that if all their lyrics are like that, surely when they release 'don't go to school', their debut album, they will steal all the magazine covers."
Now Magazine:"Cleverly warped
crunchy pop deconstructions of bisexuality, promiscuity, fashion and more; what
nerdcore kids and those who love them get down to on the dance floor. "
FAB Magazine: "Think a more-left-wing Hidden Cameras with a crazy fun Keith Cole aesthetic, minus the on-stage golden showers (just the spraying of faux blood made from Jell-o and cupcake icing). Includes offkey singing that encourages the crowd to join in."
Ryeberg (June 2009) - On Erik Rutherford's worthy 
curated video site. Marvelous Sheila Heti's beautiful annotation of The End of Poverty video.
Juicy Stuff ( March 2009) - Our favourable "Canadian Music Week" Review.
New York Times (Nov. 2008) - Novelist Heather O'Neill's profile of Margaux Williamson's video for Tomboyfriend'sEnd of Poverty in New York Times magazine; of the twelve great "seen" things of 2008!
See the video here!
Spin magazine (June 2008)
Xtra (June 2007)
Fab Magazine (June 2007)
Eye magazine (December 2006)
Follow up to Our New York Times gurgle for Tomboyfriend's End of Poverty
. . . CBC news. . .
Playground
the fifth of may
maninsuit
zoilus
nonresolutions
Hype Machine
***
BlogTO (September 2008) - Bi Bash Celebrates International Diversity.
BiBaBiDI "If you're into cute, glam-pop (sort of) from Canada, then you should check out ... Tomboyfriend. They're neat,they're fun, they're gonna "take the boys on"!"
Said The Gramaphone - On demo "The End of Poverty""You're a smash. A Pony. A Head case."
This song is scrawny, and stubborn, and dirty. It's underdressed, shows up late, and is a loud drunk. It waves and yells to friends from across the street, and borrows DVDs and button-up sweaters for years at a time. It eats terribly, chewing on a pizza slice with a golden grin. It's one charming motherfucker. But a motherfucker none the less.
Club Roaring: "Club Roaring, meet Tomboyfriend. I think you all will get along. He's in a committed relationship with Miss Handclaps, but you might want to chat him up anyway. Hey there, Tomboyfriend. You are sounding mighty good. I like your piano swagger. You make me dance in my seat while I'm driving. Oo-er. You're a bit rough around the edges, but I think I might like to take you home to meet my mother (or at least a record label)."
Zoilus: Wavelength
Wavelength Interview
Murder Folk Nights @ The Board of Directors
Torontoist (August 2009)
Sweetie Pie Press (April 2009)
collected poems 1998-2002 
Micheal Turner: "Every few years the world buckles under its weight and a new poet emerges, someone who resists the impulse to set things straight, preferring instead to scatter the wreckage so the rest of us can see more clearly. I'm thinking here of poets like Ginsberg, Dylan, Schooly D and Beck -- all of whom possess the music and the reference range to put their words in play. Ryan Kamstra belongs in that company, for he too is a poet aware of the world he's making out of the world."
Steven
Heighton: "With Beat verve, surging surrealist riffs, pangs of romantic longing and wild, sad humour, Kamstra Frames a poetic dream- or cyberscape that is also a frighteningly acute take on current realities. Along with other new writers like Louise Bak and Stephen Cain, he's tapping into the late capitalist subconcious to locate poems that are fresh, felt and vital in every sense of the word."
solo readings folk punk 
glam lyricism celestial battles porn albums
Now magazine (July 2007)
Zoilus (November 2004)
I'm Just Saying is All:"The NEW DIRECTION that I propose involves Barbara Boxer continuing to challenge the frigidity of Condoleeza's barren uterus and giving the Reservists a break by sending in a surge of dancing rabbits."
Projects . . .
Streetknit
Brainchild of Sadie Lewis,
I became her unofficial covert ops, 2007.
Vogue magazine
For Press on the semi-dormant Social Debt Couriers
