Fastball Always Finds Their Way Home

Airline noise, that’s the first striking aspect of the music video for Fastball’s “Hummingbird.” A carefree blond woman decked in white – white blouse, white bell-bottoms, white roller skates. It’s as peaceful an opening image as the serenity of the song itself.

The local legends released the music video for the second single from their acclaimed Sonic Ranch, released earlier this year. “Hummingbird” is a track so evocative of simpler times, that upon first listen, elder millennials might feel an aching desire for those awkward middle and high school days. Things were easier to digest, easier to handle. Manifesting happiness didn’t seem like a task. These are the emotions, the memories the track and its video bring to the forefront.

Number three on the tracklist, “Hummingbird” is an integral part of why Sonic Ranch has such an effect on fans of the band. It’s the signature Bowie-esque vocal shade of Miles Zuniga, the steady drumbeat of Joey Shuffield, Tony Scalzo’s throaty bass. The music video dials into what makes Fastball the three-decade-long marvel they are. (Hey, 30 years as a complete band ain’t nothin’ to sniff at!) In it, we get a BTS of the recording process, the journey from studio to performance, travel diaries of their time on the road, hopping from airport terminal to airport terminal.

Roller skating maven Candice Heiden acts as our titular hummingbird. Both flight attendant and tiny dancer, she floats on the airplane set in her white skates, flitting about gracefully as the avian adventurer. Intercuts of Heiden dancing with an in-studio band performance (as seen from the cockpit), then following the members as they pick up luggage and get to their next location, it’s all indicative of director Caroline LeDuc’s hyperstylized visuals (block letters, psychedelic colors) interspersed with grounded imagery. That flirtation with Sixties and Seventies aesthetics adds to feelings that you’ve been here before. Nostalgia wraps around the viewer like a warm blanket.

There’s a certain ease to the song that isn’t too far removed from one of the band’s most beloved “Out of My Head,” a track that, in an interview with the Chronicle, Zuniga credited for opening new vocal possibilities. “Tony showed me the demo for ‘Out of My Head’ and I went, ‘Oh my God. This is exactly the path I'm on.’” Zuniga, along with Scalzo and Shuffield, were punk rockers, throat-thrashing tunes compliments of their debut Make Your Mama Proud. Thirty years later, they’re still making their mothers proud of them, offering what all three bandmates agree is possibly their best album to date.

If any single served as a microcosm of Fastball’s musical legacy, “Hummingbird” would certainly be that song. Every element, from composition to music video, epitomizes the simplicity and comfort of the band. They haven’t gone Hollywood. They haven’t forgotten who they are. They’re a band zipping from one place to another like the song suggests. And after all this time, they always know where to find home.

“We're active enough to where we're entertained by what we can still do together and make together, and that keeps us going,” Scalzo said. “Plus looking at numbers on streaming formats like YouTube, I see those numbers, and it makes me realize – and I'm sure Miles and Joey agree with me – that this is the one thing we have. We don't have it by splitting off. We have it only by staying together. It's just a no-brainer for us. I would say that's the secret [to our longevity]: Stick around long enough to where you really want to stick around. We've always had a good time playing together. And we do now more than ever.”

Fastball will have an in-store performance at Waterloo Records on Sept. 24 as part of HAAM Day. Visit HAAM's website for more information. The band will also perform as part of Sagebrush Cantina Music.Food. & Fun! Festival on Oct. 19, and Scoot Inn on Nov. 7 as part of their tour in support of Sonic Ranch.