steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Pushing Red Buttons

Self-titled CD

Block Chord Music

Genres: pop, rock, indie

Sep 22 - 28 2003

What?  Why is this album so bloody happy?  Pushing Red Buttons give you pop song after pop song after pop song of joyful, peppy pseudo-rock, not far off from the Katrina and the Waves' "Walking on Sunshine" style.  Listen to the annoyingly repetitive "It's a Really Happy World" and you'll see what I mean.  Quite a contrast from the hardcore disc I just reviewed.

So it's my duty to convey the fact that this is one of the most irritatingly happy albums I've ever heard.  Come over here, hair, I want to tear you all out.  This belongs in the eighties or something because at this point Painting Red Buttons are going to have a tough time finding takers for their brand of goofy, happy pop/rock.

Like Katrina and the Waves without a hit single, Pushing Red Buttons remains a fringe act with very limited appeal.  Why?

68%

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 12 tracks, distributed by the band, released 2003]