The Clarks announced last week that the band would make its first late-night talk show appearance, and not with Kilborn, Daly or any of those characters in the wee hours.

		The Clarks With: Pat McGee Band, Rhett Miller. Where: Chevrolet Amphitheatre, Station Square. When: 6:30 tonight and Saturday. Tickets: $25 advance; $28 day of show; 412-323-1919.

The Clarks are going straight to Letterman on Aug. 31. It's actually the second time the band was offered a spot with Dave, but the last time, a few years ago, the show called saying there was a cancellation and asked if they could make it to New York and do it -- that night! They couldn't.

Is this more dignified offer an indication of big things happening for the band? Bassist Greg Joseph won't go that far.

"As soon as I say that, it will go in the other direction," he says. "We learned after this many years to temper our expectations when things like this happen. Until we see some tangible results coming from it, we will consider it a one-time great situation. If great things happen from it, it will be a bonus. We got smacked down how many times over the years? We're all used to waiting and seeing what happens."

The Clarks have been "on the brink" now for the better part of the band's 18 years. Generous radio support and solid live performances have made them Pittsburgh's most popular rock band, capable of playing back-to-back nights at the Chevrolet Amphitheater, as they'll do this weekend.

They've also landed on two national labels, first MCA and now the mid-sized Razor & Tie. While it's all been enough to make a living and earn a strong regional following, that big single has eluded them. But it's close enough to keep reaching for, as the band does with the launch of its latest record, "Fast Moving Cars."

"We're playing Letterman at the end of the summer. Already people are spinning this record without being paid to do it," singer Scott Blasey says with a laugh. "The last record came out of the gates and sold gangbusters right away, and it was on the Billboard Top 200, blah blah blah, and then it just went away. I see this record as just this slow, upward curve."

"Fast Moving Cars," a seventh studio record, balances introspective songs about love and dreams with rockers made for cruising with the top down.

"I have to say this is the most solid record, front to back, that we've ever done," Joseph says. "Other ones have had singles and songs that we could have interchanged here or there and it wouldn't have made a difference. But I think, from beginning to end, this showed growth and some changes in direction, with some reverting back to our original rock roots."

The opening track and single, "Hell on Wheels," written by Joseph, is The Clarks' first real "car song," inspired by a dusty road trip out West last fall.

"We haven't done too many car-type songs," Joseph says. "We toured the West for the first time and just that feeling of freedom of driving through the desert was so cool. That really was the inspiration for it. I can see it at the end of a movie somewhere."

On the more reflective side is an acoustic title track that has Blasey singing, "This is where my dreams go to die/In the trash behind the record shop." Are we to read in that that Blasey himself is feeling discouraged about the music industry?

"It was almost completely autobiographical," Blasey says. "I almost didn't know if I could write those lyrics because it was so naked. But I knew it was the right thing to do. I'm hitting 40 years old. I don't listen to rock music anymore, it's not what I like," he says, noting an interest in neo-soul and vintage country. "Don't get me wrong. I like playing it live, but it's not where my interest lies. I'm so not in touch with what's popular."

"I think for Scott," Joseph says, "[that song] shows his sense of frustration at times, and it shows a sense of him being tired of the routine. That doesn't mean he'll quit or give it up. After this many years, certainly your true emotions about what you're doing come through."

Although there would seem to be a place in the mainstream for The Clarks alongside bands such as Matchbox Twenty or Three Doors Down, it hasn't happened. And Blasey isn't too surprised.

"We're swimming upstream, dude," he says. "There aren't any bands on the charts that do remotely what we do. When people ask, 'What do you do?' I don't know what to tell them. It's kind of like Three Doors Down, but they're harder than we are. I mean, if you're not a beautiful black woman singer or a metal band, I don't know where you fit in."

"You realize," Joseph says, "that a lot of what you do is based on the luck of the draw. If I could sum up the whole of our career, I would say we worked very hard to get a strong regional following because back when we started everybody said, 'Hey, a record company can't deny you if you have a strong regional following.' We developed that regional following, and then I think the industry kind of said to us, 'They're a great regional band but they can't make it nationally.' I think at times we're discounted as a great regional band but nothing more."

One of the knocks on The Clarks over the years, sometimes from other musicians frustrated with the attention they get, is that "there's a band like The Clarks in every town."

"Is that a good thing or bad thing?" Joseph says. "We bring in a lot of fans and provide a lot of joy and happiness to people who come out. I take that as a good thing. There are more bands that don't make it than do make it. Having done this for 18 years and saying we didn't make it, that wouldn't be telling the truth."

Blasey says that the band's relationship with its fans in Pittsburgh is a big part of what keeps The Clarks in motion.

"Absolutely, it's still unbelievably rewarding. It's gratifying when people enjoy your music, especially around Pittsburgh, it's crazy. I don't want to lose that. The people in the band are like brothers, but it would do us well to explore other things in life. We've been doing this for 18 years. It's all I've known. I don't know what else I could or would do, but I know I have to do something else. That said, I think we just made the best record we've ever made. When that happens, you think, it's not over yet."