Hit The Skids- Interviews and Articles

When you play in a band, it's like a marriage. Sometimes it works really well; such is the case with a band like Metallica. Everyone is on the same wavelength, gets along and retains the same vision. But, more often than not, members get booted or simply quit and this is usually where a band finds itself or, more often than not, starts a process of deterioration and replacing members. Local H was no different, except that when they lost their bass player and had a show upcoming, rather than trying to replace him, they just did without. It's then that things started happening. The guitar is so fat, the bass is hardly missed and the drumming is insane! That's it, baby! Scott on Guitar and vocals and Joe on the skins and a great set of songs. If you haven't heard of Local H yet, now you have.

Scott: I've got all the episodes on tape, all 85. I think Timothy Busfield is just a fuckin' great guy.

Scott: It's the name of the street where I am, where everyone used to drag their motorbikes and stuff like that. There was a really bad accident and a bunch of kids got killed when I was in high-school. So they closed it down and it goes out to Lake Michigan, and it's local road H.

Scott: Zion is about 45 minutes north of Chicago. It's sort of like on the boarder of Illinois and Wisconsin

Joe: Um, well, when I watch it today (1996 Olympics in Atlanta) I miss it. I used to do it like from freshman year until a year out of high school. We didn't have gymnastics in high-school so I had to go to US Gym which is what Olympic gymnasts come out of, you have to pay for it. So I did it all through high-school.

Joe: It's been cool, I mean it's been getting better, a lot better. I'm starting to get beat-up though, wore out, but everything's starting to take off so I don't think were going to be sittin' around. And now MTV has a video, if they start kickin' it in, you know we'll see. But that's cool, I'm willing to do the work.

Joe: Me and Scott have been together since '88. We've been playing like, what since '88 straight, '96-almost ten years, about ten years. It's kinda like we just kept chuggin' away, and one day we're gonna get signed, and we did.

Gabe: I grew up with these guys too, I went to high-school with them and I used to always sit in on their practices and stuff. Every once in a while I'd do something stupid and they'd like it. I'd do like a kazoo or I'll blow a whistle or just play a tambourine or sing back up once in a while. It's just something that I did and it all stuck and Scott writes all the lyrics but every once in a while he'll write a part that's supposed to be for me you know. And that's cool, I'm having fun and I also get paid, so I'm cool (laughter).

Gabe: My So Called Life is probably one of the best shows ever made on T.V.

Gabe: Oh (laughter) I made up these shirts and I sell them on the road to kids who like the show and I don't make any money out of it, but we all like the show. We have a T.V. in the van and we all watch, sometimes we watch these episodes, we got a lot of stuff.

Articles added April 30 1999:

You can take the boys out of the small town, but grunge duo Local H can't take the small town out of themselves.

"When Joe and I met in high school, we had this very big idea in our heads," says Scott Lucas, the 26-year-old singer/guitarist of Local H. "We started recording a double album on our four track -- it was going to be our version of The Wall. It was a pretty grandiose idea, but even now, our current record is kind of a small-town concept album."

The record he's referring to is Local H's latest, As Good As Dead (alas, a single album: "We did the arena-rock-star thing already," deadpans drummer Joe Daniels). The small town is Zion, Illinois (population 20,792), where the two grew up, met, and couldn't wait to leave. "It's got a nice nuclear power plant," offers Lucas, although the songs on As Good as Dead paint Zion as the kind of place where people marry early ("Don't you hate it / When people are in love"), alienate a chosen few ("I feel like I'm the only freak in this town"), and, as you'd expect, don't give a shit about local bands ("If I was Eddie Vedder / Would you like me any better?").

Lucas's bitter but observant lyrics are alternately whispered and shouted through powerful minor chords and crashing drums, all wrapped around poppy singalong choruses. The two aren't the only ones who realize that the formula comes dangerously close to one made famous by Nirvana. "There are some things we can't escape," Lucas admits, "but we also have things in common with Tad and the Pixies." He's so poker-faced it's hard to tell whether he knows that Nirvana, in fact, swiped from both of those bands. "But if the same five million fans want to buy our record," he says, "go ahead."

Though that figure is a work in progress, Local H (a name taken from a road sign for Local Hospital) have a fervent following comprised of mosh-driven guys who may or may not be in on a bit of irony aimed right at them. "High-Fiving MF" regularly creates a frenzy in the pit even as Scott sings, "You're just a walking billboard for all the latest brands / You've got no taste in music and you really love our band." While clever enough to level irony, Lucas, it seems, has a harder time transcending it. "We may not even realize it," he says, "but maybe we're really making fun of ourselves."

Stuck in a music world full of inside jokes they just don't get, slicked up by Queen's old producer, biracial small-town-Illinois Nirvanabee power-duo kick ass and take names like a much bigger band, keeping it copacetic by referencing the Who and Beck and "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and Dr. Pangloss from Candide. Everything's fine and good, except maybe last night's show, and you won't wear our T-shirts anymore and eventually we'll all outgrow rock'n'roll anyway. But not yet. CHUCK EDDY

LOCAL H IS "THE GREAT WHITE HYPE'S" MASSIVE HEAD WOUND.

Island recording artists Local H are the real life rock band behind "The Great White Hype's" Massive Head Wound. In the film, Peter Berg (of TV's Chicago Hope) plays great white hope Terry Conklin, a retired amateur boxer that Sultan (the Don King-esque promoter played by Samuel L. Jackson) lures back into the boxing ring to fight the champion (played by Damon Wayans). During a very key scene in the film, Sultan travels to Cleveland to see Terry, who is performing as the front man in his garage-rock band Massive Head Wound. "I don't need my ego fed. I don't need my ego fed. I just want to feel I can trust. I just want to feel I can trust," Terry lip-syncs the scream-chants over the throbbing bass lines and explosive guitar of Local H's "Feed," from the band's first album Ham Fisted (Island, 1995). The song does not appear on the film's R&B-based soundtrack.

Local H have just released their second album, entitled As Good As Dead (Island), featuring "High-Fiving MF" and "Eddie Vedder". The Zion, Illinois power-duo got together in 1987, playing at friends' house parties. The two-man band was originally a four-piece, but vocalist/guitarist Scott Lucas and drummer Joe Daniels decided not to replace their bassist and second guitarist when they left. Instead, they adapted. Lucas has a bass pick up in his guitar that is fed through a bass amplifier (his guitar is also hooked up to a standard guitar amplifier), so it sounds as if he is playing both bass and guitar at the same time. The result is incredibly full, fierce, melodic rock - not sparse indie-rock at all.

Local H takes the Stage

by Aaron Weber

Two years ago, Local H's single "Bound to the Floor" was near inescapable. With it's hypnotic beat and unforgettable chorus, the "Copasetic song" found itself firmly entrenched in radio rotation. While some viewed this guitar/drums only duo as something of a gimmick, the catchiness and back to basic approach that guitarist/vocalist Scott Lucas and drummer Joe Daniels brought to their paticular take on rock 'n roll won them many a fan and helped make their Island Records release "As Good as Dead" out an into the limelight. Their follow-up single "Eddie Vedder" kept the attention rolling, and slowly but surely this band from Zion, Illinois was soon opening up for such alternarock giants as Stone Temple Pilots.

After some much needed time off, Local H has just released their third CD, "Pack Up the Cats" and they've kicked off their supporting tour in Kansas City with a show at Rockfest II at Sandstone and a headling set during the Lazer Rock Stage's Friday kick-off.

While most fans thought that Local H exploded out of nowhere with "As Good As Dead", in reality this band has been honing their craft for nearly ten years now. Originally a four piece, Scott and Joe decided to stick to a duo when confronted with an everchanging bassists and guitarists. They decided they could do just as well on their own, and set about defining a sound that was unique and almost unheard of. To get around the obvious lack of bass, Scott added a humbucking bass pickup to his Stratocaster and ran his guitar through both a Marshall cabinet as well as a full Ampeg bass rig. They decided to eschew pursuing label deals, instead taking the time to tour extensively and build up a solid fan base.

They were picked up by Island Records in May of 1994 and released their debut LP "Ham Fisted" in early 1995. The album received little radio play and less support, but Local H toured extensivelyy behind it, playing with acts such as Corrosion of Conformity, Silverchair, Love Battery, and Eve's Plum. Frustrated with the lack of attention "Ham Fisted" received, combined with the frustrations that accompany any long tour, Scott & Joe decided to step back and take another swing at the ball. The result was of course, "As Good as Dead" which went a long way to proving that their career was quite the opposite.

I spoke with Scott before their set at the Spirit Fest and asked how it felt to be coming into their own with a new album and an emminently listenable single "The Kids Are All Right".

Zone: Do you feel you're where you should be, considering the ten years you've been at this?

Scott: Well, we've certainly worked hard enough. I was really suprised at how well "As Good as Dead" did, considering that almost no one heard our first one. But yeah, I think we've reached the point where it's been worth it.

Zone: "Pack Up the Cats". Quite the odd title. Care to explain?

Scott: "As Good as Dead" really dealt with dealing with where you're at in life. "Pack Up the Cats" deals more with moving on in your life.

Zone: So how do you fill out the sound during a live show compared to the album. I assume you actually lay bass tracks down in the studio as opposed to using your live rig?

Scott: Really it's done mostly with a wide variety of amps (note: the back line for their set consisted of six seperate amps) which are both bass and guitar. Gabe (Local H's tour manager) plays some incidental stuff during the show, same as Wes (another road crew member). They'll get up and make noise on the guitar, or tambourine or whatnot.

Zone: What's kept you from taking on a full time bassist or additional guitarist?

Scott: Well, we really don't need one. We have our sound and we're comfortable with it. It's who we are and it's the music we play.

Zone: Let's talk about "The Kids are All Right" (Local H's current single, which deals with fan reaction to shows and bands in general). What prompted you to write a song like that?

Scott: It's just something that we encountered on the road. The fan's really do make the difference in how you're received. If you don't have a good show, they're the first ones to let you know that. And for someone who's never seen us and only heard the singles, a bad show can really ruin the experience. And that's something that every band has to deal with. Living up to the crowds expectations.

Local H will be on tour in support of "Pack Up the Cats" for the next four months. If you didn't catch them at Spirit Fest, keep an eye out for their next appearance, sometime in November.

Added Feb 21 1999:

LOCAL H is the power duo who has assaulted the world of rock with 3 classic albums, including their latest effort Pack Up The Cats . Their last album As Good As Dead spawned such hits as "Bound For The Floor," "Eddie Vedder," "Fritz's Corner" and "High Fivin' MF." Pack Up The Cats is a new masterpiece from beginning to end with a power rock prescence unheard of in the 90s. They've been charting high with their first single "All The Kids Are Right" and will soon have several more hits to add to the list. ARW's l Jess Redmon recently sat down with Joe Daniels, one half of the duo, to talk about the new album and tour across the world.

Joe: No, that's why we have Wes (Kidd). Me and Scott could have easily played the songs, but they'd be lacking a solo here, a solo there, noises here, a harmony there. So we added Wes and he picks up that slack. It works out good, it sounds really good with the new addition. Plus, we've been doing the 2 piece the forever, it adds something new to the show rather than two guys beating their brains out.

ARW: How did you guys pick the title \i Pack Up The Cats\i0 for the album? \par \ul

Joe: We don't know, maybe "All Right (Oh Yeah)." "Bound For The Floor" was on the radio for 10 months, so we would like to have this on the radio for at least 6 months and then talk about another single. "Fine And Good" has been talked about, but we definitely should come out of the box with something harder next time. Something that states who we are more.

Joe: Well the difference between this record and the last record is touring experience, we did 386 shows on our last record, we learned a lot. A lot of emotions went into touring, especially towards the end, touring with STP for 5 weeks. Then we had time off, we actually had time to write a record, we had time to think about writing a record on tour on the last record. We knew where we wanted to go, we knew we wanted to make a concept record, we knew we wanted the songs to blend, we knew we wanted to answer As Good As Dead in a way. All these things we knew and we knew we wanted to go with a producer, an old school producer, versus a new school producer. It was a gameplan and we pretty much had everything in place, we knew what we wanted to do. That's why the record came out the way we wanted it to come out. There's nothing on the record that we're not happy with.

Joe: It tells the story of our career, on what we're doing, where we started and where we're coming to now. I think if you write the same record, you're lost. If you can expand and do it gradually, not trying to force it, come natural. We're a rock band, so we'll never be keyboards and all this stuff because we're a rock band. We'll never be adding synthesizers and that stuff. One thing that was really important to us is that we didn't put a stamp, a date on this record. 10 years from now you can put this record in and you can go cool, yeah it still holds up. Versus you put in, I'm not slagging Marilyn Manson or anything, but if you put in one of those records where it has loops, synthesizers, electric drums and all that stuff, 10-15 years from now you'll know what era stuff that was. All the Classic Rock, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Cheap Trick, all that stuff holds up today because it's all rock, it's all natural instruments. That's what we wanted to do.

ARW: I heard you guys were really into and influenced by Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.

Joe: With the concept, the noises, how everything blends. There's Pink Floyd on this record, there's Cheap Trick on this record, there's AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, even a little Santana, Hendrix. There's ever some blues in there if you listen close enough. We took everything we grew up on because we're not here to invent anything new, I think there's nothing you can invent. I think everything's been done, it just goes in a circle. We keep rock alive, I think that's the best thing we can do.

ARW: So is there a companion record for Pack Up The Cats like Dark Side of the Moon? (note: not a serious question)

ARW: Was the writing process basically the same on this record, how do you guys write?

Joe: Scott's out drinking one night and he comes home, picks up his acoustic and he plays a riff or a harmony with a riff. If he thinks he's got something, he'll keep it, keep playing it over and over. He tapes it for me, karaoke machine, and I'll take it and either add something to it or it's done. Then I'll try and put some drums to it, it goes in that sense. "All The Kids" we wrote a week and a half before we left for the studio. We were at practic, jamming like the Stones kind of stuff and that riff came out. I just started going with my first instinct of drums, I let him play it and sing it and it just comes up. Usually with us, our first instinct is the right one. If we start jamming, start playing something, boom. We're not a jam band, so it's not like we sit around and practice jams. We pretty much work on it separately. He works on his stuff, I work on my stuff, we come together, we tape it and then we each take a tape, work on it. We don't really write like your conventional band.

Joe: Films, mine. I can't speak for Scott, he's a big film freak, I'm a big film freak too, but we're on a different plane. I'm a horror nut, so a lot of the horror movies, and a lot of the old Sci-Fi movies. One of my favorite films is probably "A Wonderful Life." Jimmy Stewart, Christmas. I'll give that as a black/white scenario. So many movies, I'm trying to think. There's so much out there, it's great.

Joe: No, not at all. I think Scream 1 was good, for a 90s movie, but I think the first scene with Drew Barrymore is the best in the movie. No, they're horrible. "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and all that crap, they're all horrible. Now it's "Bride of Chucky," I'm interested to see that. We went and saw "Urban Legend," it sucked, it was horrible. I'm into old stuff like "Entity," "Exorcist," "Aliens," the first "Nightmare On Elm Street," the first 3 "Friday The 13ths," "Dawn of the Dead," "Day of the Dead," "Night of the Dead," "Return of the Living Dead."

(Wes Kidd steps in to get a bite to eat and leaves rather quickly. Joe's still thinking about more movies.)

Joe: This record business, it's not stable. We got a break with the song, we have to make sure we stay on our toes though, it's not stable. One thing that's important to us is that you have to learn how to say no more than you say yes. We say no to Lollapalooza, we say no to a lot of stuff. Just stuff that we don't think we should be a part of, it's not good, it's not going to do anything for us. A lot of bands want it now, they get all the airplay, they want to sell millions of records now. We make choices, try to make smart choices.

Joe: I'm not really listening to much. I haven't listened to much in 2-3 years. When I go home, I'm listening to jazz, blues, just old stuff. There's nothing out there. The new Monster Magnet is really great, I listen to that before I go on stage a lot. The Queens of the Stone Age record, Julianna Hatfield's new record. There's few things out there, there's really not much to listen to unless you want to listen to Creed or something.

ARW: Do you think you'll be on tour for as long as you were on As Good As Dead? Joe: No, no way. I don't want to think about 100 shows, let alone 386. We'll probably be on this album until the Fall, Winter this year. We'll see, it's up to radio and people who are buying it, we'll see how long of a life it has.

Local H Players: Drummer Joe Daniels and Vocalist/guitarist Scott Lucas. CD: "As Good As Dead" (Island) in record stores April 16.

Sound: Nirvana beating on Teenage Fanclub Gig: 10 pm April 20, Double Door, 1572 N. Milwaukee (312-559-1212); $7.

"You got no taste in music but you really love our band/Your haircut is atrocious/It's been the same since '83/ Your glory days are over andso's your stone washed jeans." "High Fiving ----------." by Local H

Joe Daniels and Scott Lucas are laid back and have droll senses of humor. But you wouldn't know that by listening to Local H's music, whichis intense, satirical and surprisingly melodic. Signed two years ago to Island, Local H won some good reviews for last year's debut, "Ham Fisted." The follow-up, "As Good As Dead." is more cohesive and should land the band on the alternative charts. Their songs are potent odes that say what most of are thinking but would never say out loud, such as their first single, "High Fiving" you-know-what, or "EddieVedder," where they rhetorically ask, "If I was Eddie Vedder, would you like me any better?" "We've been on Island for two years now. so the excitement of being on a major label has kind of gone down," said Daniels, 25. "But I respect that we are on a major label, and I take it seriously that this is something we get to do. Someone pays us to put records out, and we're in it for the long haul." The duo formed Local H as a quartet back in their high school years in Zion, where Lucas, 25, still resides. Eventually their guitarist and bassist left. Lucas and Daniels found they liked the sound better as a two-piece,especially after Lucas combined the bass and guitar into one instrument that was fed off to a guitar amp and a bass amp. Being a two-piece also allowed them more creative control; Lucas and Daniels both are songwriters who often work on their pieces separately and turn them into a cohesive song during rehearsals or in the studio.

"We just play and don't really tell each other what to do," Lucas said,"we just do what we want and then [our songs] come out of that. Our mainconcern is that each song is really good and goes somewhere." "We'll change a song right up to the day we're recording if there's a part that's just not right. We arranged 'Eddie Vedder' in the studio onthe morning we were about to record it. If we hadn't done that and just went with what we had, I know that neither of us would be very happy with the finished product."

Local H "As Good As Dead"Island, 825 Eighth Ave., 24th Floor, New York, NY 10019

Local H is a duo hailing from Zion, Illinois, apparently a slow, dreary corner of America where vocalist, guitarist and bassist Scott Lucas and drummer Joe Daniels spent most of their adolescent years blaring heavy metal and punk rock in their tiny bedrooms, fantasizing the gruesome murders of high school jock types, and wondering when or if they would ever escape their miserable, ass-backwards existences. Their second release, As Good AsDead, serves as a brilliant, sympathetic tribute to anyone who's ever feltlike a misfit carriage in a lonely, no-horse town. The incredible catchy, metallic riffs of "High Fiving Motherfucker" begin the record with an amusing, superior job jab at steriod popping meatheads whom the boys could live without. But the humor ends there, with songs such as the bouncy "Bound For The Floor," the melodic "Eddie Vedder," and the pounding "NothingSpecial" delving into the angst-ridden hormonal imbalance that makes 13, and all the teens, such unlucky numbers. Musically, the album follows its lyrical bent, at times summing things up with an introspective acousticplucking, but more often blowing the roof off in a rage of pounding drumsand shattering feedback. Revealing, honest, and destined for lots of high-volumn airplay in tiny bedrooms all over. "As Good As Dead" may force you to revisit the growing pains of adolescence, but Local H succeeds at making thetrip well worth its price. M. TYE COMER

There are just two of them, guitar and drums- plus some tape I suppose, although I'm not sure (where else do the basslines come from?), and a roadiewho ducks onto the stage to sing a harmony or bang something every once in awhile (nice touch, that). They're Illinois boys, look real young. They write songs you'll remember first time you hear them even though their debts to grunge out weight all the others. Kind of a knockout, I say. With StanfordPrison Experiment and Limblifter. Thursday, Tramps, 51 West 21st Street,727-7788. (Christgau)

Responsibility. Dedication. Talent. Illinois duo (that's right, two band members) Local H subcribe to all of the above, proving just how easy it is to make a little noise. WIth the release of their second album "As Good As Dead," Local H have found themselves at the threshold of the fast-paced band life, touring alongside Magnapop and Nada Surf, as well as getting airplay on college and national radio, including the all important KROC. All the right ingredients for success of an average rock band are here, though these guys are hardly average. Judging from the cool, collective tone vocalist/guitarist (and bass pickup extradinaire) Scott Lucas, Local H's success is no big deal by now."We've been together since high school," Lucas says of drummer and partner in crime, Joe Daniels. "The other guys just left one by one; it's not like we kicked them out or anything. It took a little while getting used to [just two members], but it's not the toughest job in the world. We thought it would give us an edge, make us a little more unique than we were." To compensate for members absent, so to speak, Lucas plays guitar alongside Daniels' percussion; the two determine where to fill in bass linesin mixing the songs. "We had no problem just putting whatever we needed toput on the record," Lucas explains, "but playing live I've got a bass pick-up and a guitar, and it goes into the bass amp and accounts for all the basssounds. I play the bass lines on the bottom two strings of the guitar, and that's how we do it." Local H takes a more slightly subtler, more genuine approach to earning fan respect than others. Lucas believes in the satisfaction of loyalty through repeated touring, rather than succombing to the fad of instant popularity for whatever sound is big at the moment. "It's good to see every-body come back to the show," he says. "I like building up people like that,so that you see that people are coming to see you because they like the showand they like what you're doing, not because they have the music shoved downtheir throat." Though Local H are currently happy -- "Everything's good," Lucas says,"and things are moving up at a pretty comfortable pace" -- there are focused goals in mind for graduating past the barriers of an unknown band. A few more records are on the horizon, and in now way is the band confined to continue a traditional sound in years to come. "Where this record is a growth from the first one, I want to make sure the third one is an even larger growth," Lucas says. Focused on the future,but still maintaining a keen point of view on their current presentation, Lucas is satisfied with the band thus far. "Even if you don't like us, you come away from the show going, 'Wow, I saw two guys and they made a lot of noise.' So I think we definitely have something to offer, I feel good about it." Lauren M. Viera

I was supposed to meet Scott Lucas - the singer, guitarist, and bassist for Local H inside the WBRU Birthday Bash, but I couldn't find him and Imperial Teen was looking pretty good, and there was only two dressing rooms and G Love had the one that was big to himself, so I just kinda blew it off and figured Id catch up with him later. Eventually I did find him, but it was right before Orange 9mm went on, so we were both kinda anxious to get back inside. Here then is the quickest interview ever.

I just don't give a shit. I honestly don't think it matters. I know everyone's on this 'you gotta vote' thing - but I just don't care. So I probably won't vote this year. I have before, but now it's like 'why waste my time, what's the point?'

It didn't last very long, but telecommunications - phone selling that's probably the worst job anybody could have. I hated it.

We're going out on tour with Orange 9mm next month. It should be fun we're doing the whole country and doing tons of all ages shows. Well Orange 9 is starting lets go back inside.

Articles added September 24th 1999:

Articles added April 30 1999:

LOCAL H IS "THE GREAT WHITE HYPE'S" MASSIVE HEAD WOUND.

Added Feb 21 1999: