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.
read moreReview 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.
read moreReview 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.
read moreWrite 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”).
read moreTeenage 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.
read moreReview 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.
read moreReview 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.
read moreAs 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 – Review in Blog Critics Music
Swirsky and Ruekberg are just about perfect partners. Swirsky’s romantic optimism is kept in check by Ruekberg’s sense of realism. They combine to create catchy melodies, tight harmonies, with sound production values.
They never try to do what they are not capable of doing. They are not trying to change the music world or produce musical epics. What they consistently do is create three minute pop songs that would have been perfect fare back in the days of 1960s AM radio. The songs stay with you and are still playing in your mind hours later. They both admit they are drawn to the music of that era and it remains the kind they like to create and play. If you are going to produce music, it might as well be a sound that is true to your personal vision and that is what the Red Button consistently does and does well.
read moreBig Hollywood Review: The Red Button’s New Album ‘As Far as Yesterday Goes’ Channels the Best of ‘60s
The new disc remains retro down to its fab cover photo, a glimpse of a mod harpist playing in a field of honey-wheat grass. But there’s nothing moldy about the melodies spread across this luminous 12-track release.
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