“THE WAY GOD AND PAUL McCARTNEY MUST HAVE INTENDED”:
THE RED BUTTON
TAPS INTO THE GLORIOUS PICTURE-PERFECT POP
MINDSET OF THE ‘60s FOR THEIR REFRESHINGLY
RETRO DEBUT ‘ SHE'S ABOUT TO CROSS MY MIND '

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With Their Love Of Melodic Pop Songs, The L.A.-Based Duo Blends The Tuneful Optimism Of Renowned Pop Songwriter Seth Swirsky (Taylor Dayne, Al Green, Tina Turner) and The Biting Edge of Rocker Mike Ruekberg (formerly of Minneapolis-Based Pop/Rock Band Rex Daisy )

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The Red Button's Playfully Romantic Debut Single “She's Going Down” Goes For Triple A Radio Adds On February 12 After An Initial Album Rollout on CD Baby, iTunes and Other Digital Outlets

A first-time listener could be forgiven for thinking they had just stumbled onto the second wave of the British Invasion. But never fear—their music may suggest vintage Hollies, Peter and Gordon, and even the Beatles themselves, but The Red Button is home-grown and their songs are brand new.

The Red Button is truly, honestly, the next best thing, as two brilliant L.A.-based singer-songwriters ( Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg ) explore their mutual love for concise, melodic pop songs to create She's About To Cross My Mind , an unabashedly retro debut collection that, while expressing every emotion possible over 11 tracks in a wonderfully crisp 32 minutes, has all the hallmarks of a timeless pop masterpiece: consistently infectious songs wrapped up in air tight harmonies and jangly early Beatles power pop guitars.

David Bash , renowned pop music journalist and Founder/CEO of The International Pop Overthrow Music Festival sums up the duo's vibe beautifully: “It's all here: Merseybeat, bubblegum, psychedelia and folk-pop. 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. Pop historian (Shake Some Action: The Ultimate Power Pop Guide) John Borack says the songs were created “the way God and Paul McCartney must have intended.” Even Rooney frontman Robert Schwartzman's a big fan, saying “The Red Button pushes all my buttons!”

“She's Going Down,” The Red Button's breezy, playfully romantic debut single driven by a cool, lyrical double entendre, is going for adds at 175 Triple A Radio Stations across the country on February 12 after an initial rollout for She's About To Cross My Mind on CD Baby, iTunes and other digital outlets. The duo recently signed a distribution deal with Burnside, and envisions the piano-driven “Floating By” and the feisty and whimsical “Cruel Girl” as future singles.

The Red Button is the blissful creative result of one of those hard to explain, delightfully serendipitous meet-ups between musical twins who, in retrospect, almost seem to have been separated at birth. Swirsky may have made his mark penning hit songs in the 80s and 90s for pop superstars like Taylor Dayne (“Tell It To My Heart,” “Prove Your Love”), Al Green (“Love Is A Beautiful Thing”), Tina Turner and Celine Dion, but his heart always lay in the 60's music he grew up with and which inspired his successful career.

Swirsky's tuneful optimism finally met its match in the edgy and biting style of Ruekberg, who spent the 90s as a writer and singer for the underachieving but beloved Minneapolis pop rock band Rex Daisy . Part of Ruekberg's legend is that the band recorded a project with Paul Fox for Geffen Records, only to have it rejected for not sounding enough like Guns N' Roses. No matter. Ruekberg pressed on, continuously writing great songs that blipped just under the radar. Long before he ever met Ruekberg, Swirsky was in love with one of these--“Years,” from the soundtrack to the Adrien Brody-starring indie film Dummy .

The two met through their mutual friend (and Jewel's current drummer) Dorian Crozier , who produced Swirsky's much-acclaimed 2004 solo debut Instant Pleasure . Based on the critical and commercial acceptance of the album, Swirsky could have easily continued his solo career ( Instant Pleasure sold very well with very little promotion, was named Best Pop Album at the 2005 Los Angeles Music Awards, and was also featured on XM's popular Triple-A station The Loft . On January 29th, 2007 , XM50 The Loft added two songs from The Red Button CD to its edgy show In Spite Of All The Danger ). But once Swirsky and Ruekberg started writing songs together, it became clear that Swirsky's next project would be a joint effort. The two also recruited their friend, producer John Fields (Soul Asylum, Switchfoot) to play bass and help with mixing duties. The Red Button was born.

“The great joy of this album is the sheer shameless guilty pleasure of it,” says Ruekberg. “For all its retro-trippiness, The Red Button's sound is what emerges from us naturally when we get together to write and sing. Our goal was always to make these songs fresh and timeless, totally from the heart. She's About To Cross My Mind was a lot of fun to make, and I think you can hear that in every song.”'

Echoing his partner's enthusiasm, Swirsky adds, “I've written with many of pop music's songwriting heavies, but I never enjoyed pure songwriting as much as I did with Mike. I'd play Mike some of my ‘hooks', he'd put it through his ‘blender,' and they'd come out better than I ever intended. A perfect, trusting collaboration.”

Swirsky, a notable baseball memorabilia collector (ask him to show you the ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs, dooming the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series) who has published three bestselling baseball books, is also currently working on a fascinating “bookumentary” project called Beatles Stories. For this, he has shot interviews with, among others, 60s icons Brian Wilson, Justin Hayward, Sir George Martin, May Pang, Denny Laine, Peter Noone, Ray Manzarek, the late Denny Doherty, Cameron Crowe, Beatles engineers Norman Smith and Ken Scott and former first daughter Luci Baines Johnson--anyone with a story about them and The Beatles.

Still, the songs of The Red Button are where Swirsky's true passions lie. “To Mike and I,” he says, “there's nothing as satisfying as writing a song that just makes you want to sing out loud.”

With She's About To Cross My Mind , they succeed in doing that eleven times!

To hear what everyone's talking about, visit The Red Button at http://www.myspace.com/theredbuttonband or http://www.theredbutton.net/

 

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