Today, Austin, Texas, has become the country’s musical mecca for independent and up-and-coming artists.

But 10 years ago, an Austin-based powerpop trio Fastball, with members Tony Scalzo (guitar, vocals), Miles Zuniga (guitar, vocals) and Joey Sheffield (drums), were just trying to get one of the tracks off of their second release “All The Pain Money Can Buy” on the radio.

And boy, did they ever get a song on the friggin’ radio.

The catchy, Latin-tinged guitar pop tune “The Way” practically hijacked FM airwaves, earning them two Grammy Award nominations in 1999 and helping “All the Pain...” go platinum. It wasn’t a song made for radio, but it was one conceived in a pool of creative tension between Scalzo’s melodies and Shuffield’s desire for experimentation in the studio.

“I can safely say that none of us thought it would be a big song, although I can say it was one we argued the most about,” Zuniga says.

The success of “All the Pain...” only applied pressure and heightened expectations the band’s next record, 2000’s “The Harsh Light of Day,” an album their record company, Hollywood Records, hoped would have similar success. It didn’t.

It was a hard record to make, with Scalzo struggling to keep his voice solid and a death in Zuniga’s family weighing the band down. The album produced a single in “You’re an Ocean,” but their slightly different direction didn’t connect with as many listeners. The album isn’t revisited much when they play live, but Zuniga didn’t regret the chances the band took.

“I think every record you do, you should try to stretch your boundaries a bit,” he says. “What stuff sells doesn’t matter. It’s the music on the record that ultimately matters.”

The band had a lot more creative freedom when they released “Keep Your Wig On” on the Rykodisc in 2004 and even more so on their upcoming album “Little White Lies.” They are once again trying a few new tricks, like the danceable, Duran Duran-esque title track. But the foundation hasn’t changed. The 1960s-era guitar pop is still there, along with Scalzo and Zuniga’s inseparable harmonies.

“That’s, like, a key ingredient, but that other stuff you should shake up and mix around,” Zuniga says. “It’s kind of like no matter how I try, it will kind of always sound like Fastball, which is a blessing and a curse.”

After a long break from the road, they are doing a six-day tour of the Midwest, which will end with their 8 p.m. performance July 29 at the Beaumont Club in KC. They’ll be road testing some new tracks, kicking the tires on their sound to see how it runs. They may have lived and died by the radio a decade ago, but they now carry on thanks to creative freedom and fan loyalty.

“Even though we were not as big as we were back then, we’ve got real fans,” Zuniga says. “The point is we can still do this and we have a following that’s way more solid.”