2 guys. 2 instruments, maybe 3 if you count a two-in-one bass and guitar.
Went from the underground to the
spotlight, moved from a small town to the big city. Who is this that
I am talking about? Local H, a rock duo from
Illinois. Where did they come from, who are these two guys?
Local H is Scott Lucas (vocalist/guitarist/bassist) and Joe Daniels
(drums). Plus their road manager, Gabe
Rodriguez who occasionally wanders on stage to sing back-up vocals,
bang a tamborine, or even play the
kazoo. Local H didn't happen overnight, in fact they started out 10
years ago in 1987 when they had 4 guys in
their band--so what happened?
4 guys, friends, from Zion, Illinois (my town) met in high school, Zion-
Benton Township High School (my old high
school). They decided a band was what they wanted to be in, a future
in music. But this would not happen in
Zion, for Zion was a dry and religious town. A religious town that
is built around a church, literally everything is
built around a church. A religious town where all the stores and food
places seem to go out of business. A
religious town where a nuclear power plant stands along Lake Michigan's
shore. It's a town that the four friends
didn't want to be in.
After high school graduation, the four guys continued their music career
playing clubs in Chicago to get away
from Zion. But things started to happen, members dropped out. First
it was the second guitarist (forgot his
name) and then sometime around '92 or '93 or so the bassist, Matt Garcia,
left the band. Lucas and Daniels
were left by themselves in the band with labels pursuing keen interest
in the band. Instead of the trouble of hiring
a new bassist and having him/her learn the songs, Lucas and Daniels
thought that they could go on with just
themselves. Thus the invention of Lucas' guitar. His American Strat
was transformed into a bass and guitar.
How? A bass pick- up was installed between two guitar pickups and the
the signals are run into separate guitar
and bass amps. Lucas also controls how he plays this with foot pedals,
like an octave pedal which help makes
the low end sound of his guitar also. The two thought this idea would
work for them, and it has since it is what
they are currently using. The real Local H was born, and things only
got better after that.
Local H got signed to Island records in May of 1994. They recorded their
debut in the summer of that year and
released the album on January 24, 1995. This album was entitled "Ham
Fisted" (produced by Steven Haigler,
Quicksand, Pixies). "Ham Fisted" includes such songs as the hard-edged
Cynic (Local H's first single, radio
play date Jan. 30th, but rarely was heard on the radio) to the powerful
ripping of the Chicago media in Chicago
Fanphair '93 to the soft quiet Grrrlfriend, which is an ode to Bikini
Kill vocalist Kathleen Hanna. The album didn't
bring huge success to Local H though. It was very upsetting to the
band since they toured forever for the album.
They didn't want huge success for the album, they wanted an "indie-record
on a major- label." But they hoped for
a bigger draw from the album. (I think they should've got since it
is such a great GREAT album). They toured all
over the country with bands like Corrosion of Conformity, Silverchair,
Love Battery, Eve's Plum, and sometimes
on their own. After touring for about a year, Local H went back into
the studio in December to record their follow-
up record.
Their second album, "As Good As Dead," was released in April of 1996.
"High Fiving MF" was their first single,
a song against the posuer jocks and frat idiots. The song wasn't played
much due to lyrical content, but the song
did turn some heads and catch the attention of people that didn't hear
of them when "Ham Fisted" was out.
Local H was starting to make a name for them- selves. They started
touring in February of that year to play some
of the new songs. After the album came out, they toured more, starting
to get a little bigger in the eyes of the
people. The summer was a huge breakthrough for Lucas and Daniels. They
released their second single Bound
For The Floor. Bound For The Floor, or known to some as "the copacetic
song," was something that Local H
was looking for, success! The song made it into the top 5 Billboard
modern rock charts, played a lot on the radio
and on MTV, and a song that was a bouncin' crowd favorite at shows.
Then another big story happened to Local
H, while playing a show in Los Angeles, a abnd came to watch them play
and this band thought that Local H
would be the ideal band for their opening spot on their tour. This
band is Stone Temple Pilots. STP wanted
Lucas and Daniels to open up for their shows, and they did, for most
of the tour too. Starting in November and
ending in December opening for about 20 shows. The highlight of that
tour for Local H was playing at the
Rosemont Horizon here in Chicago. It was a place where Lucas saw his
first rock concert, it was a childhood
rock fantasy that Lucas thought would never ever come true. But it
did, and Local H was playing at the Rosemont
Horizon.
The band just recently took a month and half off and just started a
headlining tour of their own, their first real
headlining tour. The future looks bright for Local H. Do we expect
a new album? Soon as I'm told. What do we
expect? Something different, something like the Wall by Pink Floyd.
Local H has surprised all thier critics,
especially trendy Chicago radio station, Q101, whom thought Local H
wasn't as good as made out to be. Well....
weren't they dead wrong, but the radio station is as good as dead anyways.
Not Local H though, once again, the
future only looks bright for Local H.
And now the time had come for the new album, Pack Up the Cats. According
to Gabe, Local H will be out on the
road as much or more than when they toured with As Good As Dead. Go
see them a bunch of times. ----by Scott
Schuman