Seen as a relic of the 90’s by some, the two-piece band Local H hit some turbulent times in their career.
Hailing from northern Illinois, Local H was best known for several songs in the mid-90’s including “Eddie Vedder” and “Bound For the Floor”.
4-Piece Band Becomes 2
First starting out in 1988 in high school as a 4-piece band, the group’s bassist and guitarist eventually left the group, thinking the band wasn’t going anywhere.
Drummer Joe Daniels and frontman and guitarist Scott Lucas were left to continue on with the band. To compensate for the fact that the band was only a two-piece, Lukas had two bass pickups installed on his guitar which allow him to play both instruments while also singing. Ironically, it was once the band became a two-piece around 1993-1994 that things really started to happen.
The band’s roots were based in Zion, Illinois and would serve as a huge inspiration for the band’s songs and albums.
Local H Gets Help from Local Band
Local H would get some help from local power-pop band, Shoes. Lucas told the Morning Call newspaper, “They have a studio, Short Order Recorder in Zion and we did a lot of demos there. When they saw things were starting to happen, they hooked us up with a lawyer.”
By 1994, the band recorded their first demo and started sending it out to record labels. Their demo came across the desk of Polydor rep Joe Bosso who listened to the tape and signed the band immediately. During this time, Polydor was merging with another record label, U2’s Island Records.
Typically record label mergers can prove to be catastrophic for a lot of bands because staff are fired, people leave and lower priority acts get dropped or stay on board with little support. Joe Bosso assured Local H that everything was fine and he just needed the duo to hurry up and re-record their demos to sound more polished so he could give it to some of his colleagues and get people on this new label on his side.
Recording Sessions Produces “Believe You Me”
The re-recording sessions also produced a new song titled “Believe You Me”. Local H would work with producer Steve Haigler, who was chosen because of his work with the Pixies.
Released in January 1995, the band’s debut album, Ham Fisted was mostly written off as sounding too close to Nirvana and didn’t even chart. The band spent close to half a year touring the album, playing alongside Tripping Daisy.
6 months into the promotion cycle for the album, the label pulled the plug and told the band to hit the studio again.
“For the most part, we were trying to scream and bang our instruments as much as we could.” – Scott Lucas
Lucas’ expectations were in check, telling Vulture his thoughts on the band’s first album, “For the most part, we were trying to scream and bang our instruments as much as we could. That was our sound at the time. So it would have been almost impossible for us to make a record that would have sold a lot of copies, if Island was expecting something like that.”
In a separate interview, Lucas told the Morning Call the difference between the group’s first and second albums, “The first was all garage rock, the second, we wanted different sounds.”
Lucas and Daniel’s hometown of Zion inspired the band’s second record, revealing to Billboard, “A lot of people go through that sort of frustration in their early 20’s in town’s like that. The ones I come from. Zion, Illinois is a fine place to grow up but after school, it’s not the best place to start a life.”
“There was some stuff going on behind the scenes that I wasn’t really aware of at the time. – Scott Lucas
Joe Bosso, who signed the band, was still involved with mentoring the group and was pushing them to write more music, while the label was deciding on whether to cut their losses. Lucas revealed to Spin Magazine, “There was some stuff going on behind the scenes that I wasn’t really aware of at the time. But we were really rushed into making our second record by our A&R guy. I now know that was because we were a sea hair away from being dropped.”
The band was so rushed to make it into the studio that they didn’t have enough songs to create a full album. Three of the tracks off their second album were written while the band was in the studio, at the last minute.
The second record, As Good As Dead, was released in April 1996, and fortunately, their second single “Bound for the Floor” garnered heavy play on MTV and radio and pushed the album to sell well over 100,000 copies.
“The song’s about hanging in crappy bars that you don’t like, working crappy jobs that you hate, and getting married too soon.” – Scott Lucas
“Bound for the Floor” would be the biggest single off the record, peaking at number 5 on the mainstream rock charts. Lucas told Billboard the inspiration behind the song, “The song’s about hanging in crappy bars that you don’t like, working crappy jobs that you hate, and getting married too soon.”
The album also produced two other modestly successful singles, “Eddie Vedder” and “Fritz Corner”.
As Good As Dead is Certified Gold
As Good as Dead would be certified gold, selling over 500,000 copies. Local H would admit on their website that prior to “Bound for the Floor” coming out, they were playing a lot of empty or half empty venues, but once the single hit, they soon got huge offers including opening for Stone Temple Pilots, Silverchair and Cheap Trick. The success of As Good As Dead led the band to be on the road for almost a year and half to promote the record.
By the Fall of 1997, the band members were listening to a lot of classic rock and were inspired by movies like Goodfellas. Using this as inspiration, they opted to make their third album a concept record which told the story of a small town nobody who becomes a huge rockstar and gets an inflated ego.
Local H heard the Queen song, “Killer Queen” on the radio and knew they wanted to work with the band’s longtime producer, Roy Thomas Baker.
Roy Thomas Baker is Brought on to Produce Third Album
With a bigger budget from their label, and a promise of no interference, the label brought in Roy Thomas Baker to produce the album. Former tour mate Dean DeLeo of Stone Temple Pilots also lent a hand on the album, playing on one of the tracks.
As the band readied their third album, Pack Up the Cats, their label was getting ready to heavily promote the album. The first single “All the Kids Are Right” was well received and would prove to be the group’s second biggest single of their career, charting in the top 20 on both the mainstream and modern rock charts. Then everything went sideways.
A Second Merger Proved Catastrophic for Local H
Their label, Polydor would end up merging with Universal Music Group in May of 1998, just as the band was readying their album for release. It was the second merger Local H would experience and while the first one was good for the band, the second was catastrophic.
Four months after the merger, Pack Up the Cats was released in August 1998. Lucas described the merger to Vulture.com as “a bloodbath”. Numerous Polydor employees were laid off or jumped ship and their longtime backer, Joe Bosso also left.
Local H had no one on their side at the label and any big budget to promote Pack Up the Cats was gone. According to Lucas, Universal turned their attention to ensuring Island Records’ biggest act, U2 didn’t jump ship.
Pack Up the Cats peaked at number 140 on the billboard charts and following the first successful single, the label never bothered releasing a second single.
Despite the unfortunate series of events, Pack Up the Cats won praise from the music press. Spin Magazine called it one of the best records of the year and the Chicago Tribune concurred.
Joe Daniels Departs from Local H
The band remained on the label and on June 24, 1999, they published the following on their website, describing their changing fortunes, “Wounded and exhausted after a year of shrinking crowds, dwindling radio and label support, and a distinct leveling off from the whirlwind highs of the As Good As Dead tour, we pull into the Metro for one more show. It will be Joe’s last. And so the question again: now what?”
Following drummer Joe Daniels departure, Lucas enlisted Brian St. Clair. The band then hit a snag with their planned fourth record. Rather than being dropped, their label asked them to do a showcase, something typically reserved for bands whose labels are thinking of signing.
The Band is Dropped from Universal Music Group
Lucas took this as an insult and submitted to Universal the demos he was working on. The label wasn’t impressed and dropped the band.
Local H soon signed with a series of indie labels and released a bunch of new records starting with 2002’s, Here Comes the Zoo. The album represented a more straightforward approach, not trying to create another concept album.
Between 2002 and 2020 the band released a series of new albums while also seeing a few drummers come and go. Joe Daniels rejoined in 2016 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of As Good as Dead.
Local H released their most recent album last year titled Lifers.
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