Tomorrow night's show at Jammin' Java is sure to offer a bigger crowd and a wider selection of refreshments. In the course of the last eight years, the Stars have recorded four studio albums for three different labels, toured thousands of miles and steadily accumulated the respect of their peers and a strong, if not yet million-selling, fan base.

Calling from a tour stop at "a little town right next to South Bend [Ind.]," the band's lead singer and songwriter, Chris Trapper, described the Push Stars' somewhat circuitous push to stardom. "We've done it on a person-to-person basis, 'cause we haven't gotten any massive breaks."

After an independent debut CD in 1996, "Meet Me at the Fair," the Stars signed with Capitol Records and released "After the Party" three years later. Despite some great reviews (the New York Times used the phrase "classic pop perfection"), the Stars fell from the label's graces when the man who signed them (the same guy who worked with Nirvana and Counting Crows in the past) abruptly left the company.

Another self-released album, "Opening Time," emerged in 2001, and the band continued a relentless tour schedule buoyed by loyal fans, including the film-directing Farrelly Brothers, whose "There's Something About Mary" featured the tune "Everything Shines," and Celtic rockers Great Big Sea, who made the same song a hit in Canada. Great Big Sea also invited the Stars to tour with them and Trapper to write songs for the group's 2002 album, "Sea of No Cares."

The trio -- Trapper (vocals and guitar), Dan McLoughlin (vocals, bass and piano) and Ryan MacMillan (vocals and drums) -- will be a quintet on this headlining tour with the addition of a keyboard and guitar player.

Trapper is fond of the vibe at Jammin' Java ("It's a great room") and said he looks forward to playing a Friday night gig. "Usually we play on Monday or Tuesday nights when people can't throw down and party. It'll be nice to kinda loosen up and let it go." He also likes that the seated listening room "gives you a chance to do your mellower, acoustic stuff. It's a good mix of both." …

By Emilie Duggan

The Push Stars' new album, "Paint the Town," impressed Matchbox Twenty's lead singer, Rob Thomas, so much that he invited them to open for them on their last tour to introduce the Boston band to a legion of new fans.

The trio -- Chris Trapper on vocals and guitar, Dan McLoughlin on bass and piano, and Ryan MacMillan on drums -- have been together for the better part of a decade, produced four progressively better CD's and have had their songs featured on television shows and in movies like "Malcolm in the Middle" and "There's Something About Mary." And they got their name from the telephone.

The name stuck, Trapper said, because they liked the old-time feel of it. It's that old-time feel that moves a lot of their music, and the first single off their new album -- "Outside a Dream" -- was created around a sound found in simple, 1950's standard rock and roll.

"It was based around a '50s chord progression," Trapper said, pausing to sing the notes. "That's how it started."

Lyrically, "Outside" is a nostalgic look at Trapper's formative years in Buffalo, N.Y. It is about a man -- presumably Trapper -- approaching his 30th birthday and reminiscing about his not-so-distant past. Lines like, "No second chance was the last thing that you told me / and I was the fool who agreed," are what attack the listener at the heart. Ultimately, Trapper's search for his ex finds her married, "with a sweet, little child on the way," and he must learn to put her memory away.

"Claire," the first track on the album, takes a look at life on the road and is Trapper's answer to a girlfriend that questions his dedication to her. He makes no vow of faithfulness to Claire, but promises in the refrain that he's "just a shadow 'neath the street lights, who would die for you."

The Push Stars make the kind of music you listen to as you take a long drive through your hometown and think about how far you've come. The lyrics are not especially deep or philosophical, but it is the emotion behind Trapper's words and the strength of the music that makes this album absolutely perfect.

"Paint the Town" is an album about love and life, topics that some would say are overdone and cliche. But, the Push Stars are "romantic guys, compared to most of the guys we know," according to Trapper. Every song on the album reflects that romanticism, but with humor, simplicity and bare-your-soul honesty.

"Most of the songs on this album are meant to get as truthful as we possibly can about different realities of love and romance and relationships," Trapper said.

They have based their career around touring, and they're on the road for a good portion of each year. Their sound and their image is not packaged or dependent on radio. They have gained fans by touring with bands -- like Matchbox Twenty -- that they have befriended

"Those guys were really, really nice guys," Trapper said of their stint with Matchbox Twenty. "They'd let us do autograph signings after our set each night. So, we'd have a row of fans from section A to M, and that was really effective for getting like-minded fans."

Besides Matchbox Twenty, the band recently wrapped up a tour with Canadian Celtic rock band, Great Big Sea. They have also done dates with Train and Third Eye Blind, but they find themselves in the middle of a headlining club-tour now, promoting their new album.

"We're dedicated to getting this record heard because we're all really proud of it," Trapper said. "We found backing for ourselves, had no label, no anything. And that little record took us on tour into hockey arenas with Matchbox Twenty because Rob Thomas just loved it."

They have reason to be proud. This album, dubbed "the little record that could" by Trapper, deserves to be heard.

The Push Stars play the Iron Horse, Tuesday, May 4, at 8:30 p.m.

You might not know the Push Stars by name, but you've probably heard at least one of the band's songs.

Filmmakers Peter and Bobby Farrelly, for example, used the Boston-based trio's "Everything Shines" in "There's Something About Mary" and the band's "Bad Sneakers" in "Me, Myself & Irene." On the small screen, songs by the Push Stars have appeared on television shows such as "ER," "Malcom in the Middle" and "Popular."

"We were on tour with a couple of bands, and we'd play songs that are on soundtracks," guitarist Chris Trapper says of being a known unknown. "People would have their backs to us, and we'd play 'Everything Shines,' which was on 'There's Something About Mary,' and you could see people turn around and say, 'I know this song.' "

For several years now, too, people in Plymouth have been saying, "I know this band," in reference to the Push Stars.

Friends with the owner of the Dandelion, Brenda Fortin, the Push Stars played there when it was Wright's Landing early in the band's career and will return Thursday.

"We had a great time and stayed up all night," Trapper says of the band's first gig in Plymouth. "In a lot of towns, we do have bases. It's still almost a cult thing, where the fans embrace it and almost keep it their own."

Trapper, Dan McLoughlin and Ryan MacMillan formed the Push Stars in 1996 and
have been critical favorites ever since for their mix of indie-pop melodicism and roots-rock swing that recalls Semisonic, Fountains of Wayne and the Old 97's.

With the release in March of the band's fourth album, "Paint the Town," even more people should be embracing the Push Stars' sound this year. The band's previous albums are "Meet Me at the Fair," "After the Party" and "Opening Time."

On "Paint the Town," mandolins, keyboards and the guest lead guitar playing of Matt Beck -- Matchbox Twenty's road guitarist -- and Dave Levida complement the Push Stars' guitar-bass-drums lineup. For this tour, the band has added a keyboard player and a second guitarist to its lineup.

"The stage at the Dandelion is going to be packed, with five guys," Trapper says. "All of our records have had some production to them, so we've always had to rethink things so that a keyboard solo becomes a bass guitar solo. This tour, we're playing the record not note for note but sound for sound, and we've been playing some stuff from our other records and really fleshing them out."

On "Paint the Town," reverie and irony duet on "songs we sing (that) will soothe our suffering" but where "the smallest hope is never gone."

"It's lyrically-driven roots-pop," Trapper says of the Push Stars' sound. "I started playing out at coffeehouses and open-mike nights with an acoustic guitar. I think the band goes wherever the lyric guides them. It's based as much around a groove as around a story."

The characters in Trapper's songs "work a job I can't stand" and "crank the tunes up in my car" to find release, cruise past old haunts in a nostalgic haze, and encourage their friends to throw a party with "a keg on my coffin" in place of a traditional funeral.

"(The Replacements are) what made me want to start a band because all of the songs were about band life," he says. "It made it sound like a passionate thing. I think we all love the Beatles. You can never touch that, but if you strive for it, you'll be in good shape."

By Patrick Berkery

If the milquetoast sounds of Train aren't cutting it anymore, you need to step up to something edgier, like the Push Stars.

They're tougher on the outside, with a less-produced sound that favors midtempo guitar rock over piano-driven ballads. But they're just as tender inside, with love song after love song that sound as if they were written in empty apartments and barrooms at closing time.

Still not convinced it's for you? Well, singer-guitarist Chris Trapper sounds a lot like Counting Crows' Adam Duritz. The Push Stars' made-for-Gilmore Girls songs - such as the acoustic "In the Galaxy," which is so edgy, it sounds a little like a Shins tune - are definitely your cuppa lukewarm, not too strong decaf.

Push Stars are Therapeutic, Happy-to-Be-Alive Pop Rockers

By Jay Miller

The Push Stars create some of the most vivacious guitar pop on the current scene, so it's perplexing to hear Chris Trapper describe his songwriting process.

"It's either go to a therapist or write a song," Trapper said with a rueful laugh. "I've always written songs. I always write very instinctively, and reactively, usually about something that's happened to me, or someone I know."

Luckily for us, Trapper's therapeutic output results in the kind of infectiously melodic pop that is far too rare these days. His lyrics range from the pensively melancholy to the goofily ecstatic, but the tone and sound of the Push Stars music is relentlessly vibrant, reveling in sheer joy.

Which of course, leads it to be dismissed as frothy, retro and lightweight in some quarters. But let's leave the angst, real and imagined, aside for a bit and embrace the novelty of a band that writes and plays honest-to-goodness memorable hooks.

The Push Stars are opening the current tour for their pals from Newfoundland,
Great Big Sea, which hits Avalon in Boston Saturday night.

The Push Stars have had an eventful career since their debut at The Middle East in 1996. A year later the trio was hailed as "Best Unsigned Band in America," and their 1997 self-produced debut CD "Meet Me at The Fair" led to a contract with Capitol Records.

The 1999 album "After the Party" gave the band a national audience, prompted
the New York Times to call it "classic pop perfection," and yielded the tongue-in-cheek hit "Drunk is Better Than Dead."

Better than that, the Push Stars won some important fans, in the Farrelly Brothers of moviemaking fame. Their song "Everything Shines" became a big part of the soundtrack to "There's Something About Mary." Later, the band would also contribute to the soundtrack for "Me, Myself and Irene" and their music popped up on TV shows like "ER" and "Malcolm in the Middle."

But while their national profile was expanding, the band's champions at Capitol were being purged in a corporate shakeup, so they bought their way out of the contract. "Opening Time," (2001) was released on their own label, and while tunes like the single "Waiting Watching Wishing" and the zany "Millionaire" proved they hadn't lost any flair, the CD didn't set the charts afire.

This month, the Push Stars released their fourth album, "Paint the Town," on 33rd Street Records. Songs like the shimmering "Outside of a Dream," the provocative "Every Angel," and the poignant-yet-gleeful "Keg on My Coffin" show that Trapper and his cohorts - bassist Dan McLoughlin and drummer Ryan MacMillan - haven't lost a step.

In the time between Push Stars albums, Trapper explored his own more thoughtful side with the acoustic-based solo album "Songs from the Drive In," while the other two worked on projects of their own, in between the usual torrid Push Stars touring.

The new album was produced by Greg Collins, who's previously produced work by No Doubt, Jewel, and matchbox twenty. That last connection led to matchbox twenty's Rob Thomas hearing the new disc, and becoming a huge fan. So huge, in fact, that the Push Stars opened the fall tour for matchbox twenty.

The fledgling 33rd Street Records is headed by former Capitol executive Irving Azoff.

"The band was eager to re-structure our whole business setup," said Trapper from his Boston home. "After the last album, we toured non-stop for a couple of years, and did everything ourselves, with a grassroots kind of approach and our own record company. Doing everything left us all exhausted, but we were able to control our own destiny to a certain extent. We just wanted a new start, so we could take a breath.

"We'd come to realize that control with no budget means you make really fast records - that can be mistake-prone. This time there was a budget, so we could do this record the right way - and the bass player didn't have to worry about also pressing 'record' at the right time."

Pairing with Great Big Sea is no accident, as one of the band's first forays outside Boston was with GBS. In addition, Trapper wrote several tunes for that band's last album, and even won one of Canada's vaunted SOCAN Awards for his work on the CD, which went gold in Canada.

"I even vacationed in St. John's last June," Trapper said of Great Big Sea's home town. "It was gorgeous, just a working class fishing town like Gloucester."

Through the years, the Push Stars have opened shows for Better Than Ezra, Third Eye Blind, Train, and fellow Bostonians Guster. Their music falls into that same general category, yet a bit more to the acoustic-guitar based type of sound that was best exemplified by the Beatles "Rubber Soul" album. The fall tour with matchbox twenty was a terrific opportunity to win new fans.

"I'd say their fan base matches ours, but multiplied by about 5,000 times," Trapper said.

"Matchbox twenty treated everybody with respect, from the road crew to the management, and it was nice to see people at that level of fame who remain good, humble people. I think, as a band, we've always had a certain trepidation about success - we didn't want to have to become cutthroat, or not stay true to ourselves. So, in a way, it was inspiring to see matchbox twenty prove that you can achieve fame like that, and still be down-to-earth, nice guys."

When fans hear the new CD, there's no doubt "Keg on my Coffin" will stick in people's heads. "That is my favorite song on the new album," Trapper admitted. "It all started with a conversation with my mom, sitting around the kitchen table at home in Buffalo. A friend of the family had just died, and she said 'Just be sure to put a keg on my coffin.' I ended up going back to my room that night and writing the song. It perfectly captures the attitude of my family, of let's enjoy what we've got, and when someone passes let's remember them for the good they brought us, and celebrate the life they led. I think the
arrangement also is a nod to my working class roots, with guitar and mandolin at the
center."

The first single just might be "Outside of a Dream," another one of Trapper's thoughtful but effervescent musings on love.

"We all liked that song because it felt like us," he said. "That one stemmed from me playing a 1950's type of chordal progression, one that all the doo-wop groups had, so that it has a romantic, nostalgic kind of feel. I got some of the images from just driving around my old neighborhood in Buffalo.

"And it was meant as an antidote to one night on Lansdowne Street in Boston, when we came out and heard all this angry music blaring from cars. So much of the music today sounds so mean. That's another reason you appreciate a band like Great Big Sea so much, being able to craft a career with their inspiring, positive kind of music despite the fact that louder, angry rock has been on top so long."

He could have been describing the Push Stars just as easily, which is why this is a superb double bill, provided you might want to feel glad to be alive for one night anyway.

By Rob Trucks

It's only fitting that when Push Stars frontman Chris Trapper decided to leave his Buffalo hometown, Boston would be his destination. "I think there is a Boston sound," Trapper says. "I think maybe pop music here is seen as more of a cool thing than it is anyplace else, because when bands like the Lemonheads and Buffalo Tom were starting out, they were seen as alternative, but they were also very, very pop. They were seen as kind of cool, shoegazing bands, but they also had the pop element, so you could play it for your mother. It's easier here. You can still be kind of cool."

The Push Stars were another in a line of talented Boston pop bands without a record deal when next-state neighbors the Farrelly Brothers took a liking to their song "Everything Shines," which ended up on the soundtrack for There's Something About Mary.

Besides giving the band some much-needed visibility -- which led to a signing with Capitol -- "Everything Shines" has recently played matchmaker. Current tour hosts Great Big Sea had a hit with the song north of Trapper's hometown.

"We were playing on the Matchbox 20 tour in Canada last fall, and fans were approaching us, saying, 'Hey, you covered a Great Big Sea song. That's great.' After a little while we decided just to let it go and say, 'Well, thank you for the compliment.'"

.

Fans have been pushing Boston rock trio The Push Stars as the next big thing for almost a decade now.

"Paint the Town," the fourth studio album for singer-songwriter-guitarist Chris Trapper, bassist Dan McLoughlin and drummer Ryan McMillan, comes out on independent label 33rd Street Records Tuesday.

The dozen songs catch Buffalo native Trapper and mates in full bloom.

This pop rock with an edge shows that The Push Stars aren't anywhere near fat and happy.

The opening love song, "Claire," shows some wit and maturity to answer a girlfriend who questions his loyalty. "I got none for me, and I got two for you," Trapper sings. "There, this is your answer, Claire."

The first song the band is sending out to radio, "Outside of a Dream," showcases Trapper's deep, rich voice and the light's-gone-on observations of a guy approaching 30 who looks at his distant past - at least to him, it's distant - longingly.

"Lucky Sevens," with its pulsing layers, may be even a better radio choice.

But who knows if radio will ever play The Push Stars.

Fans may have to be satisfied with the fact that their band can take a title song such as "Paint The Town" and sound as if they've found a comfortable sound somewhere between The Wallflowers and Matchbox Twenty.

Catch a show: The Push Stars perform April 3 at the Water Street Music Hall in Rochester. The club's Web site is www.waterstreetmusic.com.

On the Internet: The band's Web site is www.pushstars.com.

Take the vocals of Jacob Dylan and mix them with a band that sounds slight more acoustic and slightly more raw and there you have The Push Stars. The songs are not as poppy but they are not at all less well-crafted. They do have the set "single" ready to go with the song "Every Angel" where I can picture the crowd going insane, lighting lighters, looking at their loved ones and crying. One of the best indie bands that I've heard in a while and the song, "Every Angel" deserves to be played at quite a few weddings at the least.

I was totally unfamiliar with the Push Stars when I received their upcoming CD, “Paint the Town,” due for release on March 9. But now I can’t make myself take it out of my stereo.

Why haven’t I heard of this band before? They’re great! From the first few notes of the opening song, I knew I’d love the CD. No, wait, I take that back — as soon as I read the track list and saw that there was a song titled “Keg on My Coffin,” I knew this was a band after my own heart.

This Boston-based trio — Chris Trapper, singer / songwriter / guitarist; Ryan MacMillan, drums; and Dan McLoughlin, bass — has been together for almost eight years, and this is their fourth CD. Their music has been featured in TV shows such as “ER” and “Malcolm in the Middle,” as well as movies “There’s Something About Mary” and “Me, Myself and Irene.” Yet this is a band that’s still young enough to project an upbeat attitude in all of its songs, unaffected yet by the trappings of success. Their lyrics focus on the simple pleasures of life, as exemplified by the title track, which describes the joy of just hanging out with friends, when your biggest worry is nicking yourself shaving, finding a clean shirt, or whether or not your car will start. This collection makes the listener long for a time when life was less complicated. These guys make you realize that people who don’t complicate their lives so much are often much happier.

“Claire” is a beautiful song with the sound of lots of strings in the background and a touching chorus of “I would die for you,” while “Outside of a Dream” described the curiosity and well wishes that the singer has for an old girlfriend. “In the Galaxy” is a wonderfully simple, toe-tapping tune that I find myself humming constantly now. And when I’m able to get that tune out of my head, it’s usually replaced by “Freedom,” another sweet and simple song that starts off with mostly just guitar and vocals. I hope that “Lucky Sevens” will be the first single off the CD; if not, it should be. This catchy tune has just the right edge to garner plenty of radio airplay.

“Dream Came Down” is a love song with my favorite lyric on the album: “You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago / You show up and say ‘Sorry I’m late’ / And you don’t even know how much you’re worth the wait.” What woman wouldn’t love to hear that?

And the aforementioned “Keg On My Coffin”? I’m telling all my friends now that when I die, this song better be played at my funeral. It’s a fun, sweet, lilting farewell — “Smile, and know I loved you till the end.” The CD is rounded out with “At Sea,” “Every Angel,” and “Drifting Away,” every bit as addictive as the rest of the album. And then there’s “Hanging By A Thread,” where the guys sing “I’m still the same / I’ll never change.” Please don’t, guys! If this CD is any indication, you’re fantastic just the way you are!

Read the Backstagestories.com interview with Chris Trapper

BY NICK A. ZAINO III

As the frontman for the Boston pop group the Push Stars, Chris Trapper displayed his talent for making radio-friendly music that treads the line between Top 40 rock and grassroots folk. But beneath the sunny melodic surface, there has always been a darker side to his songwriting. And on his first solo effort, Songs from the Drive-In, he indulges that side. The result is a much more personal-sounding collection of songs - a throwback to his days as a lone folkie on the Boston scene.

The Push Stars
"Opening Time"
Co-Op Pop Records

By Greg Rolnick
Special to CNN

(CNN) -- The Push Stars may be the best band you're not listening to yet.

The Boston, Massachusetts, group's fourth album, "Opening Time," continues showcasing award-winning songwriter Chris Trapper's outstanding ability to marry clever and touching lyrics with instantly enchanting melodies.

Put another way: The Push Stars create the kind of pop songs you aren't ashamed to let your friends hear playing on the stereo.

After finding success in the Boston music scene and unwittingly winning the title of "EMI's Best Unsigned Band in America" in 1997 (a fan entered the band on the sly), The Push Stars finally signed to a major-label record deal.

AUDIO 'Millionaire' 285K WAV sound 'All I Wanted' 262K WAV sound 'Frathouse Joe' 278K WAV sound

Capitol Records released the group's third album, "After the Party," in 1999. Things seemed to be heading in the right direction: major-label support and a successful tour that earned them new fans, plus the added bonus of providing music for the Farrelly brothers, who have used The Push Stars' music in most of their films since "There's Something About Mary" (1998).

However, when The Push Stars' A&R man left Capitol and the label's support appeared to dry up, the group decided to get out of its contract and create "Opening Time" on its own. It was a wise decision.

Depth and punch

Trapper's hollow-bodied guitar and syncopated rhythms routinely pervade The Push Stars' sound, and "Opening Time" is no exception. This time, though, the band took a few more risks in the studio. Patrick Mcloughlin's bass lines have more depth, and Ryan Macmillan's drumming has added punch. And instead of gliding along the surface of the song, Trapper's words are wrapped in a tightly knit sonic blanket of melodic and lyrical care.

The one-two combination of "Millionaire" and "All I Wanted," the album's second and third cuts, trace the need for financial and emotional fulfillment. "You see what you want/But you take what you get," Trapper sings. "Millionaire" presents a new musical texture for the band. Layered guitars, bass, drums, violins, keyboards, and operatic vocals bring a fullness to its customary jangly groove. Added to that is a push-and-pull rhythm that slides the groove back a beat before every crescendo.

"All I Wanted" and "Waiting, Watching, Wishing" are two more solid examples of the band's apparent comfort in the studio. Each is built upon a basic three-piece framework, and then given more oomph and bottom.

Track No. 4, "Who We Are," has a lounge feel, as the guitar line faintly echoes the melody of "The Girl From Ipanema." The song explores a common theme in The Push Stars' repertoire: the search for your own sense of self in the midst conformity.

But perhaps the most entertaining track offers a lesson - and a great groove. The story of "Frathouse Joe" is a rollicking account -- complete with a 1960s Hammond B-3 organ riff that sails along like a lost track from "Louie Louie" -- of a frat boy who decides to beat up his girlfriend after he thinks she has made fun of him in front of his friends. Poor Joe quickly learns not to "underestimate the power of the female" when he gets kicked off the football team and ends up in jail with -- how do we put it? -- a "friendly" roommate.

The album occasionally stumbles on the softer, slower tracks. Songs like "Last Night's Dream" and "Miracle" tend to meander a bit much. Sometimes it appears as if Trapper wrote his best ballad years ago ("Wild Irish Rose" on the band's debut, "Meet Me at the Fair"). But it is safe to imagine that there are many more songs awaiting his creative touch that will correct that.

In the meantime, "Opening Time" only cements the fact that this is a band to be reckoned with -- a band whose time is coming soon.