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: After a certain age, all my friends wished they were as cool as Tom Waits. He made it seem so effortless. If you want to see what I’m talking about, look no further than Down By Law, a classic movie from 1986 by Jim Jarmusch. The movie stars Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni. They’re all great in it, but Waits is especially magnetic, in that Tom Waits sort of way. “It’s a sad and beautiful world.”
Video after the jump.
