Local H
is an American rock band, formed by Scott Lucas (lead vocals, guitar, bass) and Joe Daniels (drums) in Zion, Illinois in 1987. Local H's 1996 album, As Good as Dead is a certified gold record and includes the top 10 hit "Bound for the Floor". Their 1998 album Pack Up the Cats also went gold. More recently the band (now with drummer Brian St. Clair) has received extensive critical acclaim. Author, rock critic and Rolling Stone
contributor Greg Kot and the Chicago Tribune
named the band its 2008 Chicago band of the year, calling them "as good a rock band as any to call Chicago home in the last decade." [1] Online Metacritic calls Local H "rock’s greatest unknown two-man band" and says of their newest album, 12 Angry Months, "the ten year anniversary of Pack Up the Cats
marks not some complacent CD reissue with bonus tracks, but rather a great new album that flips the bird to anyone who thought Local H was history along with their era."
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LOCAL H TICKETS
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History
Lucas and Daniels began playing together while attending Zion-Benton Township High School in 1987. After their original failed attempts at recruiting a bassist, Lucas took the unique approach of adding bass
pickups to his
electric guitar, an attribute of Local H that survives to this day. Local H's first album,
Ham Fisted
, was released in 1995. Their 1996 follow up album,
As Good as Dead
had a successful release due to the popularity of the hit song "
Bound for the Floor." Two years later, in 1998, the band released
Pack Up the Cats
, a critically acclaimed album which spawned the single "All the Kids Are Right". During the period surrounding the album's release - their label,
PolyGram, merged with
Universal Music Group and the album's promotion became a casualty of the transition. Despite these difficulties, both "
As Good as Dead" and "
Pack Up the Cats" were eventually certified as
gold records, meaning that they sold in excess of 500,000 copies in the United States, according to the
RIAA standards at the time.
Joe Daniels left the band in July 1999, prompting Scott Lucas to recruit former
Triple Fast Action drummer
Brian St. Clair in September of the same year. St. Clair had also previously worked with Chicago-based
Liz Phair as her tour manager, and with
Cheap Trick as a drum technician. St. Clair's drumming intensity is highly-regarded as being an essential element to the duo's appeal. The duo released the band's fourth album
Here Comes the Zoo
in 2002 under the
Palm Pictures record label.
The No Fun EP
followed in 2003 and their fifth album,
Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?
, was released in April 2004 to favorable reviews.
In 2005 the band received a good deal of publicity after recording a cover of the
Britney Spears single "
Toxic". The studio-recorded cover was available for free on the band's website, and it can now be found as the last, and only studio recorded, track of
Alive '05
, a live album the band released in 2005 that constituted the sixth major release from the band.
The next year, in 2006, the band released the limited edition record "
99-00 Demos" which contained early versions of many songs from the recording sessions of "
Here Comes the Zoo" as well as several songs that were not included on the studio release.
Their seventh traditional album,
12 Angry Months
, was released on May 13, 2008 on the
Shout! Factory label. The album is a concept album about the different emotions felt for the 12 months after the end of a romantic relationship. Each track is associated with one of the months of the year, from January "
One with Kid" to December "
Hand to Mouth" .
Local H is managed by former
Triple Fast Action member
Wes Kidd for
Silent Partner Management which merged with Charlottesville, Virginia, based Red Light Management in 2007.
Live shows
Local H is known for their frequent and energetic live shows. The members of the band can usually be found at their own merchandise table after shows - laughing, signing autographs, and selling t-shirts.
Local H also has a reputation for creative ideas with regards to its live shows. In addition to playing a show in Chicago every New Year's Eve, the band has also participated in several unconventional concerts over the years.
In 2003, the band auctioned off a live show to the winner of an eBay auction.
In 2004, the band played a show to celebrate the release of their fourth album at a bar named Fritz's Corner in Zion, Illinois. "Fritz's Corner" is the name of a single off of the 1996 release "As Good as Dead" and by all accounts the name was taken from this specific establishment.
In 2005; Local H performed an "all request tour" in which a ballot resembling a traditional sushi menu was handed out to the audience upon admittance to the venue; containing a breakdown of most of the bands' songs organized into various categories. Audiences were allowed to pick seven songs from the "menu" and the setlist for each show was derived from these ballots.
In the summer of 2007, Local H played an early morning show at
U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago before a
White Sox game. Tickets to this show were only available by spotting Scott Lucas in public and speaking the phrase "Attention all planets of the Solar Federation, we have assumed to control" directly to him. Later that same year, Local H announced a contest in which fans could make videos of themselves covering Local H songs. The winner would then get to be the opening act for Local H's New Years's Eve show . A band from New York called won the contest with their cover of a song from Local H's No Fun E.P.
Most recently, Local H played a series of shows to promote the May 13, 2008 release of their new album
12 Angry Months. Starting on May 7; Local H consecutively played each of their albums in chronological order, one album a night, at the
Beat Kitchen in Chicago. According to the band's website that allowed "hardcore fans" to get "the chance of a lifetime" to see the band perform their entire studio catalog, with one night devoted to b-sides and rarities. A presale/promotional package for this event went on sale on before the bulk of the tickets were released on March 8, and the special week long passes that included a commemorative t-shirt sold out in seconds. The final show on May 13 was filmed by Seattle-based King of Hearts Productions for a soon-to-be-released live DVD.
In addition, for Halloween from 1996 to 2006 Local H would play at the
Double Door night club in
Chicago, masquerading as another group. In previous years they have performed as bands including
Nirvana,
Tom Petty,
Oasis,
The Doors, and
Sex Pistols. In 2006, the band announced that the Halloween show that year would be the last and played headlining shows as
Kiss and
Led Zeppelin on consecutive nights.
Trivia
- Scott Lucas is a vegetarian.
- Brian St. Clair is an avid bird watcher.
- The songs Bound For The Floor from the 1996 album As Good As Dead, and Hands on the Bible from 2002 album Here Comes the Zoo was featured in the 2006 film, Big Nothing, starring Simon Pegg and David Schwimmer. "Bound for the Floor" was also featured in the video game Saints Row.
- A friend of the band, Gabe Rodriguez, often accompanies the band on tours and will spring from behind an amplifier during songs to provide backing vocals or to play the kazoo, or the tambourine.
- An extensive collection of live recordings is available at the Internet Archive
- Scott Lucas is involved in numerous side projects. His most recent activities include collaborating with several other Chicago area musicians to form electronica-influenced The Prairie Cartel. Scott also performs with members of Cisco Pike (a band he also recorded with); and that group focuses exclusively on covering unusual songs from lesser known bands. In 2007, Scott Lucas toured with The Tossers in Europe, playing bass, after their bassist had a last minute visa related problem.
- The chord progression and vocal melody of Lead Pipe Cinch, from the album Pack Up the Cats, match the chorus of All the Kids Are Right of the same album.
Band members
;Current
- Scott Lucas - lead & rhythm guitars, lead vocals, bass, percussion (1987-present)
- Brian St. Clair - drums (1999-present)
;Former
- Joe Daniels - drums, whistling, backing vocals (1987-1999)
- Matt Garcia - bass (1987-1992)
- John Sparkman
- Mike Lindine
;Touring
- Wes Kidd - lead & rhythm guitars on the Pack Up the Cats
tour
- Gabe Rodriguez - backing vocals, kazoo, and tambourine.
Discography
Albums
- Ham Fisted
(1995)
- As Good as Dead
(1996)
- Pack Up the Cats
(1998)
- Here Comes the Zoo
(2002)
- Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?
(2004)
- Twelve Angry Months
(2008)
EPs
- Half-Life E.P.
(2001)
- The No Fun EP
(2003)
Live albums
Singles and Splits
- Drum
(1991)
- Local H/Sybil Vane Split
7" (1994)
- *A vinyl split single which featured the unreleased "Disgruntled Xmas" and Sybil Vane's cover of "White Christmas"
- Local H/The Blank Theory Split
7" (2000)
- *A vinyl split single which featured the unreleased cover of The Godfathers song "Birth, School, Work, Death" (later re-recorded for The No Fun EP
) and The Blank Theory's "Corporation"
Singles
Year
| Song
| U.S. Hot 100
| U.S. Modern Rock
| U.S. Mainstream Rock
| UK singles
| Album
|
1994
| "Cynic"
| -
| -
| -
| -
| Ham Fisted
|
"Mayonnaise and Malaise"
| -
| -
| -
| -
|
1996
| "Bound for the Floor"
| -
| 5
| 10
| -
| As Good as Dead
|
1997
| "Eddie Vedder"
| -
| 38
| -
| -
|
"Fritz's Corner"
| -
| -
| 36
| -
|
"High-Fiving MF"
| -
| -
| -
| -
|
1998
| "All the Kids Are Right"
| -
| 20
| 19
| -
| Pack Up the Cats
|
"All-Right (Oh, Yeah)"
| -
| -
| -
| -
|
2001
| "Half-Life"
| -
| -
| 40
| -
| Here Comes the Zoo
|
2002
| "Hands on the Bible"
| -
| -
| -
| -
|
2004
| "California Songs"
| -
| -
| -
| -
| Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?
|
2005
| "Toxic" (Britney Spears Cover)
| -
| -
| -
| -
| Alive '05
|
2008
| "24 Hour Break-Up Session"
| -
| -
| -
| -
| 12 Angry Months
|
2009
| "Machine Shed Wrestling"
| -
| -
| -
| -
| 12 Angry Months
|
Demos/Demo Albums
- Scratch Demos
(1991)
- The '92 Demos
(Originally Released in 1992 under the name Local H, Re-Released in 1999)
- '99-'00 Demos
(Released in 2006)
Compilation appearances
- The Great White Hype
(1996)
- *Features "Feed" in the movie
- Sling Blade soundtrack
(1996)
- *Features a cover of Guided by Voices' "Smothered in Hugs"
- Gravesend soundtrack
(1997)
- *Features two unreleased songs, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "Tag-Along"
- Where is my Mind? The Pixies Tribute
(1999)
- *Features a cover of "Tame"
- Oil thick records compilation
(2002)
- *Features an early version of "Mellowed"
See also
- List of alternative music artists
- List of musicians in the second wave of punk music
References
- Chicagoans of the year in music: Local H - Chicago Tribune