Heaven tonight

Push Stars reach for the sky

by John O'Neill

To be from Boston and dubbed the Next Big Thing is more a rite of passage than anywhere near the truth. Since '68 and the manufactured "Bosstown Sound" of the Beacon Street Union and Ultimate Spinach, right up to the mid-'90s alterno-explosion that resulted in the big-label signing of a dizzying number of acts, Boston builds them up, churns them out, and watches them explode. If you check out a show at the Middle East on any given Saturday, your chances are pretty good that more than one person present in the room, either on-stage or in the crowd, has been dropped by a record label in the past three years. No harm, no foul.

So when the Brighton-based Push Stars were signed to Capitol Records (having already been through the label blow-up once with Imago Records) this past January, the somewhat jaded Boston scene responded with the collective yawn it generally reserves for such occasions; and local press ran the usual fill-in-the-blanks, bon voyage-type piece, as yet another home-grown act hopped on the corporate roller coaster for a quick spin.

Nine months later, the Push Stars (who appear at the Plantation Club on October 15) have their Capitol debut in the can, are on the final leg of a sizable regional tour, and are enjoying the first rumblings of real national success. Forget that they've already lassoed top honors for "Outstanding Rock Band," and "Outstanding Singer/Songwriter" at this year's Boston Music Awards; that means a whole lot less than you may think -- winning has a lot more to do with buzz-factor than talent. Never mind that their songs have appeared on MTV's Singled Out and The Real World because that's a road that many have traveled but none have graduated from. True national success -- of the card-carrying, hello-America-we've-arrived-variety -- takes form outside of the perimeters generally reserved for music. In the case of the Push Stars, it came in the form of daytime television. Namely, Erica Kane and All My Children.

"That was one of the weirdest things," chuckles singer and guitarist Chris Trapper. "I grew up thinking soaps were annoying. I tuned in, and our song came on and half of it played. It was weird seeing these beautiful actors and actresses talking over our music. It was also the first time we realized we could make money from publishing!"

Although the song was from their almost-forgotten Imago debut, Meet Me at the Fair, it is nonetheless a sign that the Push Stars are the little band from Boston that could. Which really shouldn't come as a surprise; while recent Boston contenders to the throne all had talent and potential, the Push Stars have a secret weapon in the wings that others lacked -- crossover potential. And this is due to Trapper's subtly brilliant songwriting. Having honed his craft on the Boston coffeehouse circuit, Trapper offers the world well-crafted, intelligent, and occasionally quirky tunes about life and love that translate like simple truths.

The band's last release, the independent seven-song EP, Tonight (which won the band "Best Unsigned Band In America" honors in the EMI Music Publishing/Radio & Records magazine competition, as well as their multi-album deal with Capitol), finds the Push Stars' folk-rock leanings fleshed out to include different styles. Trapper uses sparse acoustic strumming and his heartache vocals on the lovely "Ocean View." "Any Little Town" recalls Joe Jackson at his most soulful, while hints of calypso breathe a little Jonathan Richman-style playfulness into "Crosstown Cafe." The standout title track rolls seamlessly along the same back roads currently traveled by more dour No Depression acts. Taken as a whole, Tonight shines with pop beauty and lyrics that are both smart-ass clever and naively charming in their optimism. It is an astonishingly sharp album that requires repeated listening to fully appreciate its true range. And it is that very diversity, as well as the Push Stars' ability to come across with a natural, unforced quality, that will eventually win them a bevy of fans from both college radio and the adult contemporary crowd.

"This tour has been incredible; we've had people everywhere we've played," says Trapper with just a twinge of awe. "We just played a college and the whole campus came out and knew us."

Capitol has begun a pre-album push by including the band's "Everything Shines," on the There's Something About Mary soundtrack. Produced by Gavin MacKillop, who also toughened up Toad the Wet Sprocket's sound, the song, which is one of the soundtrack's highlights, shows the band once again reaching into the bag of tricks, as accordion and banjo are introduced.

"We spent three and a half months [and] had a lot of time to work. We thought about each song and what we wanted for it," explains Trapper of the as-yet untitled new album, which is coproduced by MacKillop and Jack Joseph Puig (Goo Goo Dolls, Verve Pipe). "The record has distinctive songs due to the duel producer thing. It's gonna sound kind of intimate . . . commercial without being commercial."

Till the release sometime in early '99, the Push Stars will continue on as road warriors, building up their regional following and expanding into new markets. They also have spots scheduled with Nancy Griffith and Dada.

As for the curse of being Boston's Next Big Thing?

"You get little signs that you're doing the right thing," says Trapper. "It goes through peaks and valleys, and we've had good luck so far. We've heard our songs in shopping malls. It's bizarre, but a good kind of bizarre."