Local H

Local H, recognized for their unusual two-person configuration, have forged a path in hard rock by balancing indie sensibilities against classic rock roots, wrapping pointedly sardonic words in layers of power chords and feedback. They gained notice amid the grunge years yet stood apart through Scott Lucas’s material and his guitar/bass approach, which lent the songs a stripped-down yet exploratory character, while his reshaping of current pop influences to suit extreme volume reflected broader musical curiosity than most of his contemporaries. The group attained both sales success and critical praise with 1996’s As Good as Dead, then presented a caustic look at achievement and its shortfall on 2004’s Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?, and 2020’s Lifers showed them still crafting sharp, forceful music a quarter-century after their first record.

The band’s history opened in Zion, Illinois, where high-school friends Scott Lucas on guitar and Matt Garcia on bass started a group called Rude Awakening. By 1987 the lineup had become a quartet that included fellow students John Sparkman on guitar and Joe Daniels on drums. In 1990 the project took the name Local H, yet Sparkman departed in 1991, leaving the band a trio. Local H began drawing label interest when Garcia exited in 1993. Unable to recruit another bassist and determined to resume live shows, Lucas, aided by friend and guitar technician Tobey Flescher, constructed a hybrid guitar-bass instrument whose bass pickup fed the two lowest strings through a separate bass amplifier. After experimentation, Lucas and Flescher produced a reliable system that supplied both Lucas’s guitar tone and solid low-end support, allowing the two-piece Local H to begin performing in September 1993. An A&R representative from Island Records was impressed by both the songs and the inventive setup, so the band signed with the label and issued their debut, 1995’s Ham Fisted, an album many critics dismissed as derivative and labeled the work of Nirvana imitators.

Its successor, 1996’s far stronger As Good as Dead, told a different story, widening Local H’s sonic range and cementing their reputation as the premier Midwestern ironists. Powered by carefully constructed power-pop singles such as “Bound for the Floor” and “Eddie Vedder,” the record eventually earned gold certification and secured the duo’s alt-rock standing while affirming their simultaneous allegiance to classic hard rock. Although less tightly focused and immediate, 1998’s still sturdy Pack Up the Cats appeared poised to sustain the group’s upward trajectory, yet corporate upheaval at Island’s parent company Polygram, then being absorbed by Universal Music, halted that progress, the album slipped through the cracks, and Local H entered a hiatus of nearly three years. During the break Daniels departed and was succeeded by former Triple Fast Action drummer and Bun E. Carlos drum technician Brian St. Clair.

Lucas and St. Clair resurfaced in 2000 on a fresh imprint with Here Comes the Zoo, issued by Palm Pictures, a subsidiary of the former Island Records. The album retained the Midwestern angst and pointed satire long associated with Lucas’s hard rock while incorporating St. Clair’s more intricate drumming. Extensive touring followed, and in 2003 the pair issued the fierce No Fun EP on Chicago’s Thick Records after parting ways with Palm. Their fifth full-length, Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?, appeared in spring 2004 and again functioned as a loose concept album addressing the acceptance of what most would call failure. Local H’s intense live performances were captured on 2005’s Local H Comes Alive, which added a new studio track in the form of a muscular cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic.” Three years later the band collaborated with Shout! Factory on 12 Angry Months, another thematic work chronicling a failed relationship. In 2010 Lucas and St. Clair indulged their taste for unusual covers on the EP Local H’s Awesome Mix Tape, Vol. 1, containing eight songs drawn from TV on the Radio, Pink Floyd, Concrete Blonde, and the Misfits; the release appeared on the band’s own G&P Records.

Local H returned in 2012 with another concept album, Hallelujah! I’m a Bum!, exploring the politics of everyday existence during a harsh Chicago winter. While touring in support, Lucas was robbed after a February 2013 show in Moscow, losing his phone, wallet, and passport and suffering vocal-cord damage that forced cancellation of several dates. The band resumed the road several months later, yet in October 2013 Brian St. Clair played his final concerts, amicably stepping aside to focus on his tour-production company. St. Clair’s last recordings with Local H, a second Awesome Mixtape of covers, surfaced in December 2014. Lucas quickly announced that Ryan Harding, previously of Brüder and Ghost Towns of the West, had joined as the new drummer. The revised lineup began touring immediately, and in April 2014 they released their first recording together, a single featuring a hard-rocking version of Lorde’s “Team.” In November 2014 Local H initiated a Pledge Music crowdfunding campaign to fund their next album; the effort exceeded the target by 176 percent, resulting in the April 2015 release of Hey Killer.

To mark the twentieth anniversary of As Good as Dead, which received a deluxe vinyl reissue that year, Local H embarked on a 2016 tour in which Lucas and Harding opened with newer songs, Joe Daniels then assumed drumming duties for a complete performance of As Good as Dead, and both drummers joined Lucas for the finale. In 2017 Metallica announced the “Hit the Stage” contest offering an opening slot on a five-date stadium tour; Local H entered and won, allowing the Lucas-Harding lineup to perform for some of the largest crowds in the band’s history. That same year Local H toured Europe with Helmet, and recordings from those shows appeared in 2018 as Live in Europe.

In April 2020 Local H issued their first studio album in five years, Lifers, recorded by Steve Albini and Andy Gerber and mixed by J. Robbins. The record arrived just as the COVID-19 pandemic halted live music, canceling planned tour dates. The band adapted by staging acoustic and electric livestreams from their rehearsal space and playing occasional drive-in movie-theater concerts. They also released the interim EP Local H’s Awesome Quarantine Mixtape, Vol. 3, another covers collection that revisited material by Prince, the Kinks, Blondie, the Eurythmics, and others. In August 2021 the group resumed touring, first supporting Soul Asylum and later co-headlining with Radkey. Despite safety measures, Lucas and Harding both tested positive for COVID-19 in early October, pausing the tour, though both recovered sufficiently to resume performances by month’s end.