Fastball

It's appropriate that "The Way," the first song on this Austin, Texas, trio's second album,
opens with someone flipping through the stations on an AM radio; the playful, vaguely
Latin-flavored tune sounds as though you could have already heard it on your parents' car
radio. That sense of familiarity lingers through the rest of All the Pain Money Can Buy.
Fastball's two songwriters, guitarist Miles Zuniga and bassist Tony Scalzo, are ade... More >

"We just wanted to make a personal statement with our music," aver these three Austinites with a sincere look in their eyes. And so they yoke popcraft worthy of Three Dog Night, the Doobie Brothers, perhaps even Matchbox 20, to lyrics that speak of the dark things--institutionalization, methadone, lovers left bleeding, highways going nowhere, and, quite a few times, their own inordinate careerism. Is that personal enough for you? (Grade: C+)