Name	Fastball
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This Austin, TX, trio -- complete with two equally talented songwriters in guitarist Miles Zuniga and bassist Tony Scalzo -- entered into the pop consciousness in 1998 on the strength of "The Way," one of the great pop-rock radio moments of the era. Scalzo gives the anonymous couple who walk off into "eternal summer slacking" a quietly heroic dignity and grace, turning an everyday romance into epic adventure, "where they won't make it home/But they really don't care." A moving tale flawlessly and efficiently told.

After gaining some notoriety around central Texas, Fastball found the center line down the middle of the cross street where zippy punk-pop trips over nerdy pop-rock, where the guys from Orange County skate to the first Weezer album. Songs on the 1996 debut, such as "Human Torch" and "Are You Ready for the Fallout?" are effortlessly catchy, well crafted, and fairly forgettable.

All the Pain Money Can Buy contained "The Way" and the ballad "Out of My Heads." The rest are slightly rootsier versions of the power-pop on the debut. On The Harsh Light of Day, Scalzo's voice is sounding more Elvis Costello-ish by the note, and his songs, like "Love Is Expensive and Free," come complete with horn and string arrangements they can finally afford. Scalzo and Zuniga trade off solid melodies like old pros, but there's still no sign of those folks from "The Way." You get the distinct impression those wandering lovers took the money and ran "without ever knowing the way." Keep Your Wig On is a solid, adult reunion album. Scalzo and Zuniga found themselves writing together for the first time ("The Way" and "Out of My Head" were Scalzo's tunes). The results combined the straight-ahead popcraft of the 1998 glory days with the off-the-cuff rock feel of their earliest albums, the sound of bandmates finally figuring out that they need one another and accepting adulthood. Unlike the folks in the "The Way," looks like Fastball will get old and gray. (JOE GROSS)