The Red Button

Review in Golden Mixtape

As a hardcore Beatles fan and Lennon-lover myself, I am usually skeptical of bands that obviously emulate the holy quadrumvirate. However, listening to The Red Button’s sophomore album As Far As Yesterday Goes was like taking in a breath of fresh air. Singing and songwriting duo Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg proudly exhibit their expertise with the three-minute pop song tradition on their newest release. With it’s upbeat, Lennon-esque vocals and bubblegum-pop melodies, The Red Button reinvents that British Invasion-style of sound in a way that preserves the original appeal of the sweet 60s music without showing its age.

Review on allmusic.com

Typically, artists pay homage to their pop/rock heroes or an era that is special to them by creating collections of crafty covers. This is way too typical and unimaginative for the brilliant, versatile, and agile musical minds of Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg, who follow up their critically acclaimed 2007 indie debut, She's About to Cross My Mind, with an equally brilliant set of originals that draw from an even richer, more stylistically expansive well than their previous work did. The mid-'60s Beatles mystique is still there, to be sure; with its feisty harmonica and shimmering guitars; the rousing opener "Caught in the Middle" is a contemporary equivalent of what might have happened if Lennon and McCartney had come up with sharper lyrics and a more dynamic groove on "I Should Have Known Better."

Review in Daggerzine

AS FAR AS YESTERDAY GOES- (GRIMBLE RECORDS)- OK,. So it’s been four years since their smashing debut (SHE’S ABOUT TO CROSS MY MIND) and in that time one half of this duo, Seth Swirsky, released a solid solo record and of these 12 songs, 9 of them were co-written by Swirsky and his partner Mike Ruekberg (while Swirsky wrote the other 3 by his lonesome) and these two just seem like they were born to write music together, they just do.

Review in Amplifier Magazine

Call it déjà vu. Or merely truth in advertising. After all, when the Red Button titles their sophomore set As Far As Yesterday Goes, the intent couldn’t be clearer. The Lennon-esque vocals, the cooing harmonies, the seductive slide guitar… even the handclapped rhythms – all of it suggests the early Merseyside sounds of the Beatles and their fellow Anglophile invaders -- Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Searchers and the Hollies among them. Given the Red Button’s Brit pop propensity, the similarities in sound are all but unmistakable.

Review in popmatters.com

If album titles are any indication, the Red Button – Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg – are obsessed with time. To wit, 2007’s She’s About to Cross My Mind and its new follow-up, As Far As Yesterday Goes. Almost as much as they are with girls; they are a power pop/singer-songwriter duo, after all. Taking that temporal fascination into account, it’s no surprised that the band flipped forward a few calendar pages from its debut’s ‘60s popisms for the McCartney/Emitt Rhodes-style ‘70s singer-songwriter vibe on As Far As Yesterday Goes. Clearly indebted to the aforementioned musicians, as well as in league with current pop craftsmen with a Nixon-era pop bent like Matthew Sweet, Butch Walker, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger, and Brendan Benson, Swirsky and Ruekberg deliver a dozen perfectly shined pop gems. A little Rickenbacker jangle, some piano, handclaps, the on-call string section, it’s all here and all perfectly in its proper place.

Write on Music: Don’t Overlook The Red Button’s Latest Album

Nearly four years on now, the singing/songwriting duo of Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg has returned with The Red Button’s sophomore LP, As Far As Yesterday Goes (Grimble Records). Where its predecessor for the most part evoked a Merseybeat vibe, this effort reflects far broader influences, its melodic-pop foundation at times incorporating the quirky psychedelia of mid-to-late-‘60s Donovan and Harry Nilsson ("Picture," "Genevieve") along with some of the ornate textures of Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys ("On A Summer Day") and the finessed riffage of early-'70s George Harrison ("Easier").

Teenage Kicks: Red Button For President

Double digit unemployment. Iraq. Afghanistan. Bailouts. Sex Scandals. Mind-numbingly bad reality TV. Every time you turn on the TV, open up the newspaper or fire up the latest app to keep you up on current events, it seems that only news can break your heart. Well saddle up losers, because it's time for the antithesis of all that with the return of The Red Button and their shimmering new release, As Far As Yesterday Goes.

Review on onechord.net

This entry is also a reminder to myself. I need to order the new The Red Button album asap. The debut album She’s About To Cross My Mind was a slice of 60′s influenced power pop heaven and the follow-up As Far As Yesterday Goes has been out for a while now. Based on the sound samples on The Red Button website, Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg have once again created a fabulous pop album.

Review on scribblers.us

Beatle-esque is such a broad term, so casually dropped, that you hardly ever expect it to mean Beatles VI or Beatles ’65 or Rubber Soul—the gentler, hypermelodic, harmonica-enhanced side of Fab. Even weirder, you can break down The Red Button album to Paul-like songs, John-like songs and George-like songs. A more contemporary big comparison name that comes to mind is Jon Brion, who (like The Beatles) had nothing to do with this, but whose specialty is crisp analog recording and clear-as-pinged-glass harmonies. Beyond the obvious, though, The Red Button—an industrious two-man band—stands firmly on its own four feet, bringing in influences and original thoughts that stimulate whole new sounds and textures. Without ever getting downbeat.

As Far As Yesterday Goes is Availiable Now in Limited Edition Vinyl

Seth Swirsky of The Red Button holds up a copy of the vinyl version of the new Red Button record, As Far As Yesterday Goes.

As Far As Yesterday Goes (2011)
Order As Far as Yesterday Goes
- Limited Edition Vinyl @ $15.00