London Calling

RED BUTTON - SHE'S ABOUT TO CROSS MY MIND

Other than “can we settle that bar tab now” the question I’m most often asked is “what have you been listening to?” Usually my answer is along the lines of “the same stuff I’ve been listening to for the past forty years.” I don’t soak up much of the new music these days. My listening tends to be from the sixties and seventies when like my parents would say “it was just better then.”

I’m not sure it was better then, it’s probably no different, I just happen to like it more. Give me a reissue on disc of some album I had as a youth and I’ll take it over anything scaling the charts today. You don’t have to have kids to sound like a parent. Then, just when I was getting nice and comfortable in middle age out of nowhere a new album comes along that was recorded in the past year that happens to be the best thing I’ve heard in years. Now here’s the catch: it sounds like it was recorded forty years ago. Hey, it’s still progress no matter how you look at it. It's a mid sixties Byrds meets Beatles and share some studio time affair.

The Red Button aren’t exactly a band, it’s more of a studio project. It’s the brainchild of Seth Swirsky and Mike Ruekberg. For lack of a better term they are behind the scenes songwriters for various acts and have had some major success in their time. Apparently their love of mid sixties, swinging London gave them the idea to create their own album for that scene. “She’s About To Cross My Mind” is that album. (And who better to create the perfect British pop album than a couple of guys from the states.) The fact that it’s a little too late to catch that wave didn’t derail them. Good thing. This album could have easily topped the charts back then. Sadly, it has no such chance now. If it means anything to them, it’s currently topping my personal chart.

So, if you remember a time when things were just as complicated in the world as they are today, but could have cared less if you had some cool new records then this one’s for you. Eleven songs, just over a half of an hour long, and from another century this album will get you through today’s headlines like nothing else.

If you want to hear some complete tracks drop by my cyber store and find it on the jukebox there. (Running a search on them you will find that I also have it for sale.) If you still need a final push you can check out their site and hear samples of each track. While you’re there click on the videos link for even more fun. It’s fab and gear to say the least.