Fastball (band)

Formation

In 1995, Tony Scalzo, Miles Zuniga, and Joey Shuffield formed Fastball in Austin, Texas. Zuniga and Shuffield first played together in a band called Big Car. After a stint with another group called Wild Seeds, Shuffield introduced Zuniga to Scalzo, who had played in a band called the Goods in Orange County, California. The trio decided to form their own band, and began playing around the Austin area.

When they first started out, the band tried out several names, such as Star 69, Magneto, Magneto USA, Ed Clark's Business Bible and Starchy, before finally deciding to adopt the name Fastball.

Make Your Mama Proud

Fastball quickly built a strong following in the Austin area, and created a regional buzz. As a result, a local journalist spotted them, and suggested that Hollywood Records check them out. They did, and Fastball soon signed a recording contract. Scalzo and Zuniga took turns singing and writing the songs, while Shuffield backed them up on drums. In 1996, Make Your Mama Proud arrived in stores. The album didn't sell very well, but it did win (they tied with another local Austin band, The Wannabes) for the "Best Pop Band" category at the Austin Music Awards. The following year, the members of Fastball were unsure of their future.

All the Pain Money Can Buy

The members of Fastball still had side jobs as late as January 1998. Tony Scalzo worked the graveyard shift at The Bagel Manufactory in Austin. He, Shuffield, and Zuniga would be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien just four months later. Fastball's second album, All The Pain Money Can Buy, was released on Hollywood Records. Within just six months, it had sold more than a million copies.

The single "The Way" stayed on top of Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks, and was a top five hit on Billboard's Top 40 Mainstream chart. Scalzo was inspired to write the song in 1997, after reading a news article about Lela and Raymond Howard, an elderly couple who had disappeared in Texas. Though Lela had Alzheimers and Raymond was recovering from brain surgery, the couple had been driving to a local festival. They were discovered two weeks later, dead, at the bottom of a ravine near Hot Springs, Arkansas, hundreds of miles off their intended route. Scalzo chose to imagine that they began reminiscing and decided to become ethereal beings on a permanent romantic trip, the answer to the song's question, "Where were they going without ever knowing the way?"

Fastball followed up "The Way" with a second single "Fire Escape" and a third single, "Out of My Head," which quickly joined its chart-topping predecessor. "Out of My Head" reached the top ten on Billboard's Top 40 chart and was a top ten hit on the Adult Top 40 chart for 29 weeks. The band followed up their album release with a tour that also featured Marcy Playground and Everclear. After that, they landed a spot on the H.O.R.D.E. tour.

In 1999, Fastball received two Grammy Award nominations as a result of All the Pain Money Can Buy. One was for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and the other was Best Long Form Video for "The Way". They also received an MTV Award nomination for Best New Artist.

The Harsh Light of Day

Riding high on their success, the group headed back into the studio to record their third album, The Harsh Light of Day. Produced by Julian Raymond and Fastball, the album was released in September 2000.

The release included "You're an Ocean," which featured the piano stylings of Billy Preston (who previously collaborated with The Beatles). Singer-guitarist Brian Setzer also contributed to the album with Latin guitar on "Love Is Expensive and Free." "Instead of tailoring the music for short attention spans, we tried to make an album that holds up well to extensive listening... kind of cinematic, where you notice new themes entering the frame each time you see the film," Zuniga said in the band's record company bio.

Although The Harsh Light of Day sold less than 85,000 copies (compared to All The Pain Money Can Buy's 1,000,000+), the trio didn't lose steam and chalked it up to lacking a musical category to fit into. "You can't write down what we do in a sentence," Zuniga told Mac Randall at Launch.com. "Marketing us is a problem. But in a way, that's our saving grace also, because you can't find an easy angle to summarize us and exploit us. We might sell more records if you could, but at the same time, it forces people that really want to be interested in us to pay a little more attention to what we're doing."

In October 2000, Fastball began touring in support of The Harsh Light of Day in Amsterdam. Despite the slowed success, the members of the group didn't regret any of their creative decisions, and their aim remained true. "It makes me feel proud that we're one of these song-oriented guitar bands," Scalzo told Richard Skanse in Rolling Stone. "I think there's a couple of bands that are still putting out real good quality guitar rock songs, and I think we're one of them."

Keep Your Wig On

In June 2004, Fastball released their fourth album, Keep Your Wig On, on a new record label, Rykodisc. Keep Your Wig On was home to singles "Airstream," "Drifting Away," and "Lou-ee, Lou-ee," with the last being released as a single in Europe only.

In 2007, "The Way" was voted No. 94 on VH1's television special The 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.

Little White Lies & beyond

On April 14, 2009, Fastball released its fifth album, Little White Lies. The album was co-produced by Zuniga and experienced producer CJ Eiriksson, with mixing by Bob Clearmountain.

In April 2013, a new single titled "Love Comes in Waves" was released to digital outlets. The video premiered on YouTube on July 23, 2013.

On February 5, 2015, the band began recording a new album at The Bubble recording studio in Austin. In March, the band announced that "Love Comes in Waves" would be featured on the band's forthcoming album Step Into Light.

#FastballAtChets

In mid-October 2016 comic Chet Wild launched a social media campaign on the Unpopular Opinion podcast network (#FastballatChets) to have the band play a concert in his living room. Public support on Twitter for the campaign was immediate and considerable, with many listeners to the Unpopular Opinion network retweeting using the #FastballatChets hashtag.

In addition Wild recorded his own cover versions of several Fastball songs and posted them online, and had celebrities such as Ben Folds and Norm Macdonald appear in videos with him to share their support for the campaign. On January 6, 2017, politician Mike Gatto endorsed the campaign by tweeting the hashtag.

On January 13, 2017 Fastball singer and guitarist Miles Zuniga appeared on the Unpopular Opinion show The Least Anticipated Podcast of the Week for an informal interview. He did not endorse the campaign.

On February 11, 2017 host of the Food Network's Ginormous Food comic Josh Denny formally endorsed the campaign on Twitter.

As of January 26, 2017, Jeff May is barred from entry to the #FastballatChets living room concert after becoming the "official enemy" of the movement, according to Wild in an episode of Least Anticipated Podcast Of The Week. Wild has said that only the members of Fastball are able to pardon May and, as such, the ban remains in place as of February 11, 2017. During the February 2, 2017 episode "The Banned List", the list of persons who have been declared persona non grata and banned from the #FastballatChets living room concert had been expanded to include Twitter user @cleoslebowski, in addition to Jeff May. Later that day, "jk"/@cleoslebowski apologized to Wild via Twitter but while the apology was accepted the ban remained in place. On March 4, 2017, Twitter user "Zombie Banana"/@BurnItDown2016 was banned from the event by Wild following an inflammatory tweet aimed at Wild. On March 8, 2017, the sister of Twitter user "Bad Hombre Sammy"/@sombrerokingdom was banned by Wild for confusing Fastball with Smash Mouth and for liking a cover version of Fastball's Out Of My Head by a different artist.

On February 16, 2017 Applebee's officially endorsed the campaign on Twitter.

On February 22, 2017 Unpops alum Brian Dunkleman endorsed the campaign.

As of March 8, 2017 - day 143 of the campaign - the living room concert had yet to take place.

Discography