Exactly 11 years ago, Miles Zuniga was jetting off to Amsterdam with his Austin-based alt-rock outfit Fastball to try to put some touring muscle behind its latest release, The Harsh Light Of Day. Expectations were high, given the surprising mainstream success of 1998’s All The Pain Money Can Buy, which the band milked for almost two years. Fast-forward to today, and Zuniga has humbler aspirations for his first solo effort, These Ghosts Have Bones (33 1/3), a wrenchingly personal, fitfully melodic ode to the breakup of his 10-year marriage. Though Fastball is still very much a working entity, Ghosts’ quirky centerpiece, “Marfa Moonlight,” would’ve undoubtedly been a much different animal with bandmates Tony Scalzo and Joey Shuffield involved. The same goes for the rest of this inward-looking song cycle. Zuniga will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Zuniga: I’ve spent more time playing chess than almost anything else. Most games involve some degree of luck, but not chess. It’s like Moby Grape sang, “Who’s got the biggest brain?” Actually, you could be very intelligent and still suck at chess. Like music, the chess goddess requires devotion. While others are riding bikes and socializing, you’re sequestered in your room studying the Queen’s Indian Defense. Once I discovered I could play chess online, it was all over. I could play anytime, day or night, because there was always someone in some part of the world who wanted to play. Like a drug addict, I stopped going out and played thousands of games. I finally had to give it up because one game turns into two, turns into 12 and suddenly it’s 7 p.m. and I haven’t done a damn thing all day. Well, maybe just one more game.
Video after the jump.
