The Red Button

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The Red Button

Background information
Origin Los Angeles
Genre(s) Rock, Pop
Years active 2007 - Present
Label(s) Grimble Records
Website The Red Button Website
Members
Mike Ruekberg (left in above picture)
Seth Swirsky (right in above picture)

The Red Button is an American pop band consisting of Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg. Swirsky is a well-known pop songwriter, [1] while Ruekberg is a songwriter and performer in the Los Angeles area. Their debut album, She's About to Cross My Mind, which has a retro-60s, musical style, was released in 2007 by Grimble Records and has met with critical acclaim. "The guitars are jangly, the vocals are energetic with a British twist and songwriting is perfectly fun pop."[2] In it's November, 2007 issue, the British magazine UNCUT called the album "pure melodic pop heaven".

Contents

[edit] Biography

Swirsky's music credentials include hit songs for dozens of artists, including Rufus Wainwright (Instant Pleasure), Al Green, Tina Turner and Taylor Dayne (Tell it to My Heart and Prove Your Love) among many others.

In the 1990s, Ruekberg worked as a singer and songwriter for the Minneapolis-based pop-rockers Rex Daisy, who recorded a CD for Geffen Records with producer Paul Fox. Ruekberg also wrote the soundtrack for the indie cult film classic Dummy, starring Adrien Brody.

Swirsky and Ruekberg met in 2005, when Swirsky was recording his first solo album, Instant Pleasure. The two hit it off immediately, both of them admiring each other's songs. Shortly thereafter, they decided to begin writing and recording songs together. They found that Swirsky's tuneful optimism balanced nicely with Ruekberg's pessimistic, but passionate style. She's About to Cross My Mind is the result of those sessions.

[edit] Reviews

[edit] Band

Shindig Magazine's Phil Suggitt called the group "The Pop Princes of 2007."[3] Original Beatles engineer, Norman "Hurricane" Smith said "If The Red Button were around in the 60s when I was producing, I would have signed them to EMI."[4] The band was featured in The Los Angeles Times as a Buzz Band on August 7, 2007.[5] Kevin Bronson of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "The Red Button presses all the right buttons for fans of pure pop."[5]

[edit] Album

An editor at the Power of Pop wrote "I am utterly convinced that this is probably the finest pure powerpop album since the heady days of the late 90s."[6] The Kennebec Journal states that "[f]rom the Rickenbacker guitar (The Byrds made this sound popular) to the fat, cheesy Farfiza organ sound, this album re-creates that fabulous feel that made pop music of that long-gone time the 1960s period so great.[7] Caroline Leonardo of the Evolution of Media said, "From beginning to end, She's About To Cross My Mind is a whirlwind of a love letter, reminding us of a time when a love song could be a melodic declaration and less of a preposterous distraction."[8] Joe Hartlaub of Music-Reviewer.com[[1]] said that this album sounds like "a compilation of unreleased, but newly mixed and mastered, tracks from the mid-1960s by the Brian Epstein stable of artists, bands like Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, Gerry & The Pacemakers, and The Beatles,"[9] while Geoff Dellinger of Entertainment World said that "The vocals are raspy yet seductive. The lyrics are simple yet fun and witty. The music is phenomenal, using all the bells and whistles to create perfection."[10]

In a year-end poll of the top pop records of the year, She's About to Cross My Mind was ranked #1 (out of 125) by the influential pop site, Absolute Powerpop. In ranking it #1, the editor said: "While some may cynically refer to the entire power pop genre as an effort to remake The Beatles or Big Star or Badfinger, this is one disc that deserves to be called an equal to its forebears." Prominent pop music journalist and author of "Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide", John Borack ranked "She's About to Cross My Mind" #1 in his Top 20 Best Albums of 2007 saying that The Red Button's songs were created “the way God and Paul McCartney must have intended.” . Pop Journalist and International Pop Overthrow founder David Bash ranked the album #8 (out of 125) in his influential year-end list saying: "Swirsky and Ruekberg can now wear their rightful crown as the Peter Holsapple/ Chris Stamey of The New Millennium”, referring to the best of the highly regarded Beatles-influenced tunesmiths of the 80s and 90s.

The CD was also ranked the "Top of the Pops - Overall Best of 2007" by VillageRecords.com,[11] which said: "This past year contained over half a million minutes (if my calculations are correct or even close). This single disc was responsible for the best thirty three I heard. Now it's your turn."[12] In addition, the CD was named the #2 Best CD of 2007 by a Powerpopaholic Reader's Poll[13] and the #10 Best CD of 2007 by Fudgeland.[14] Audities, the influential Yahoo group of pop journalists and listeners, ranked The Red Button album 2nd best pop album of the year in their 2007 year-end poll.

[edit] Singles

The first single from She's About to Cross My Mind, entitled Cruel Girl,[15] charted at #1 on Little Steven's Underground Garage radio show for the week of July 22, 2007[5] and was named the 2nd Best Song of 2007 by Popbang Radio.[16] The song was also chosen to be on The Coolest Songs in the World, Volume 4 CD (2008) on Wicked Cool Records.[17] Other songs from She's About to Cross My Mind, have been featured on XM The Loft's "In Spite Of All The Danger" program, Sirius Radio's Idiot's Delight with Vin Scelsa as well as radio stations around the world.

PopGarden Radio, in their 2007 year-end poll ranked I Could Get Used to You, a song from the album, as the #1 Song of the Year.[18]

[edit] Appearances

[edit] Television

Swirsky appeared as the featured guest on the Fox News late night show Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld on August 10, 2007 discussing The Red Button album as well as his not-yet-released documentary, Beatles Stories.[19]

[edit] Concerts

The Red Button played an acoustic set, their first appearance, at The International Pop Overthrow Music Festival at Spaceland, in Los Angeles on August 7, 2007.[20] Famed rock photographer Henry Diltz (known for his album covers for Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Doors, Jackson Browne amongst others), shot the concert. In a radio interview on National Public Radio affiliate WNYU on August 31, 2007, Diltz stated that The Red Button was his favorite new group.[21]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Seth Swirsky. Seth.com "The Website of Seth Swirsky, Manic Expressive." (html).
  2. ^ Amy Lotsberg. She's About to Cross My Mind Album Review (html).
  3. ^ Phil Suggitt. 1990s-Present" (html).
  4. ^ Norman Smith. Main Page Quote (html).
  5. ^ a b c Kevin Bronson. Ears Wide Open: The Red Button pops off (html).
  6. ^ Power of Pop. Review of She's About to Cross My Mind by The Red Button (html).
  7. ^ Kennebec Journal. New release an ode to British invasion (html).
  8. ^ Caroline Leonardo. Review of She's About to Cross My Mind (html).
  9. ^ Joe Hartlaub. Review of She's About to Cross My Mind (html).
  10. ^ Joe Hartlaub. Review of She's About to Cross My Mind (html).
  11. ^ Top of the Pops - Overall Best of 2007.
  12. ^ The Red Button "She's About To Cross My Mind" Review.
  13. ^ The Powerpopaholic Top Ten of 2007.
  14. ^ Best Album of 2007.
  15. ^ The Red Button. Cruel Girl (html).
  16. ^ Top 20 Tracks of 2007.
  17. ^ Amazon.com (25 May 2008). Coolest Songs in the World, Vol. 4 (html).
  18. ^ [http:// blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=2409711&blogID=344377765 PopGarden Radio].
  19. ^ Greg Gutfeld. Swirsky on Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld (html).
  20. ^ The International Pop Overthrow Music Festival. IPO Los Angeles 2007 (html).
  21. ^ WNYC. The Art of Concert Photography (html).

[edit] External links