Most guys would seem at least a little irritated if you made them change their band name on the eve of releasing an album.

		SEVEN COLOR SKY RELEASE SHOW • Where: Club Cafe • With: Waking Matthew, Shpeez • When: 8:30 p.m. Friday • Tickets: $5

But as Scott Bedillion of the former Ordinary Boys -- now Seven Color Sky -- explains, the name, which they'd cribbed from a Morrissey song, was getting old before a UK label signed a band called Ordinary Boys and sent an e-mail to the United States suggesting a name change.

First, Bedillion says, "We started getting e-mails from people in England. 'I saw you guys in Brighton last night. How can I get the "Bliss" EP?' Or they'd ask where the Rex is. 'Is that in London?' So at that point we were thinking maybe we should change the name. And then we got an e-mail from the record company saying they noticed that we didn't have a trademark on the name and they were going to start releasing things over here and we might want to consider changing it because they'd just applied for the trademark."

And by that point, as Bedillion says, "It wasn't really heartbreaking because we had been sort of getting tired of the constant Smiths and Morrissey references. Whenever we'd play, someone would invariably come up and be like, 'Oh, you guys must really love Morrissey.' It was just constant, and we were afraid that we were gonna get pigeonholed as a Smiths wannabe band."

But once they learned they had to change it, it was easy. And rather than looking to Morrissey this time, they looked to a coloring book.

As Bedillion, the front man and primary writer, recalls, "I was being bored and leafing through this old astronomy coloring book I had when I was a kid 'cause I'm kind of an astronomy geek. And they were talking about the different colors of stars, and this company, back in the '70s, was saying there are seven colors of stars in the sky and they had this picture of stars that you could color and the caption under it was 'seven color sky.' "

For those who miss the Morrissey reference in the band name, there may be some consolation in the story Bedillion tells about the writing of the first song on the album, "Just How Shy a Girl Can Be."

"That's actually about the girl in the 'How Soon Is Now' video by the Smiths," Bedillion says. "I popped in my Smiths 'Complete Picture' DVD. Back in high school, I thought she was the hottest girl in the world, and that was the first time I'd seen that video since then. So I picked up the old acoustic guitar and started writing."

It's a great way to kick off an album, a heavier-hitting song than anything on "Bliss," the Ordinary Boys EP, with an opening line that instantly establishes Bedillion's sense of style.

"There was a girl in faded jeans and Dr. Marten shoes," Bedillion sings. "Her head was down/She had a New Wave attitude."

Bedillion and the other guys in Seven Color Sky know all about a New Wave attitude, which infuses the best tracks on "Secrets About the Stars" -- from "Just How Shy a Girl Can Be" to "Drama" ("She was a Jezebel/Drinking white zinfandel") -- in a way that frequently suggests the soundtrack to some great lost John Hughes film.

And that's a reference these guys would embrace. With a smile.

As bassist Marc Turina says, "I'm 34. I grew up when alternative music was alternative music. But alternative has become the mainstream. So we're not alternative. You turn on the X and you hear alternative. I think we're New Wave. Back then, the bands I liked were New Wave. And I think we sound a lot like those bands. So I don't have a problem with being seen as New Wave. I mean, nobody likes to be tagged with an '80s reference or a '70s reference because it automatically makes you sound dated, but in my opinion, if you listen to a lot of that music, it's so much more interesting than a lot of the things I hear on the radio today."

While Bedillion supplies the lyrics and most of the melodies, the whole band assembles the songs at rehearsal -- a pleasant change of pace for Turina, who says, "I've been in bands where the guy came in with a song and said, 'This is the way it's gonna be, this is the way we're gonna play it,' and I'll be like, 'OK, I'll play the bass line.' This band isn't like that at all. It's such a collaborative effort, it keeps everybody interested and it keeps everybody excited about the music."

They're still excited enough about the songs on "Bliss" to revisit two here -- "She Looked So Plain" and "Something So Good." But the overall sound of the album is bigger and more assertive than "Bliss," with Bedillion's vocal taking center stage and a heavier crunch in his guitar.

As Bedillion says, "I'm finding my distortion pedal a little more often."

It's slick enough for airplay while exploring an edgier rock 'n' roll side of the band.

As Turina explains, "I think the tendency with the type of music we play is, very often, you get something that sounds kind of canned and overproduced. We wanted to try to get more of a raw sound -- if you can, with a keyboard player. We try to come across as a little more rockin', a little more of a garage type sound mixed with our New Wavey-type influences. And I think we accomplished that."

While "Secrets About the Stars" was being mastered, the band (still performing as Ordinary Boys at that point) won a Rock Off at Club Laga, walking away from the victory with 20 more hours of studio time, which they're hoping to use this summer to record another new EP.

It may include a cover. But they're digging deeper than the Smiths.

As Bedillion explains with a laugh, "We do a really kickin' cover of 'Sailing' by Christopher Cross. We just totally rock it out. It's nothing like the original. And people always ask us, 'Are you ever gonna release that?' We've got the free studio time. There are three new songs we're definitely looking to record and we were thinking well, we ought to just record 'Sailing' while we're at it. We kind of did it as a joke at first, but it just caught on."

While you're waiting on that EP, you can hear their take on "Sailing" live tonight at Club Cafe, where the band is throwing a party in honor of the new release while welcoming new drummer Carmen Bruno to the fold (replacing Bedillion's brother Mark, who left to focus on his family, job and Ph.D.).

"We gave Carmen the CD," Bedillion says, "and two days later he came in and knew every single song perfectly. He's amazingly good. I'm competent and our bass player Marc is competent but [keyboard player Terry Divelbliss] was always, like, the best musician of the band, the only one who really knew what he was doing. Well, now Carmen is the best musician of the band."