Portland space-pop outfit Stars of Track and Field have shown up in a lot of unexpected places (even to the band itself) lately: Spin Magazine, Alternative Press, Billboard. It seems the folks over at Wind-Up, SOTAF’s record label (and, much ballyhooed by ex-Local cutter Mark Baumgarten, home of Creed frontman Scott Stapp), are actually giving the album a healthy push. The thus-far culmination of all this craziness, though, will come on Friday (Feb. 2), when SOTAF shows up on (”no shit,” Guitarist/Vocalist Jason Bell adds as a disclaimer) Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Bell filled us in on a few other SOTAF goings-on, and agreed to keep a tour diary for Localcut during the band’s post-SXSW two-month tour with Joseph Arthur. Here’s an excerpt of the email, which includes some other (caps-free!) SOTAF news:

we are charting on billboard’s heatseeker chart, they also gave our new and first full length record four stars… we are currently the #3 band on specialty radio in th u.s. with our official add date not til mid feb., and we just shot a short film with eric tu, who works as sofia coppola’s right hand man… we will be heading out to sxsw, canadian music week and then a two month tour with badass joseph arthur… we will be playing locally with The Thermals at the Crystal Ballroom 10th anniversary show FEB 19TH.

To clarify, I assure you that Bell said all this within a context of “wow this is crazy,” not “wow my band is so great.” We’ll try to get you some Youtube footage of the Conan O’Brien gig over the weekend. Maybe Bell and company can provide some insight to O’Brien’s pale Irish sex appeal as well.

Linktime!
Stars of Track and Field
Mark B on SOTAF and Scott Stapp
Erit Tu’s Awesome Website

Photo courtesy of the band’s myspace page.