Local H

Formed In:Zion, IL

You Know Them From:“Bound To The Floor” – their 1996 hit alternative rock song.

Local H was originally a three-piece band which was formed by Joe Daniels on drums, Scott Lucas on vocals and guitar, and Matthew Garcia on bass. In 1987, while attending high school in Zion, Illinois, Daniels and Lucas began jamming together. Later, Garcia joined them, and Local H was formed in 1990. In 1993, Garcia left the band, and Lucas and Daniels began looking for a replacement bassist. They eventually decided to carry on as a duo with Lucas singing, playing guitar, and bass guitar (by having a high school friend modify his guitar with an added bass pick-up and second output).

Local H recorded and released three studio albums with the Lucas/Daniels lineup: Ham Fisted (1995), As Good as Dead (1996), and Pack Up the Cats (1998). With 1996’s ‘As Good as Dead’ the band found a moderate commercial success in “Bound for the Floor” which rose to No. 5 on the US Alternative Billboards and No. 10 on the US Hot Mainstream Rock Billboards. Tracks “Eddie Vedder” and “Fritz’s Corner” both made Top 40 on the Alternative and Mainstream Rock Billboards.

In July 1999, after a complicated year with their label, original drummer Joe Daniels and Scott Lucas parted ways for reasons unknown to the public. Joe was replaced by former Triple Fast Action drummer Brian St. Clair, who had previously worked as a drum tech for Cheap Trick. Lucas and St. Clair released the band’s fourth album Here Comes the Zoo in 2002 under the Palm Pictures record label. Director Bill Draheim documented the making of “Half-Life” which appears on the album “Here Comes the Zoo”. Save Me from my Half- Life Drive is the result of that edited EPK footage. 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 track was the only studio recording featured on Alive ’05, a 2005 live album that constituted the sixth major release from the band.

In 2008 the band released their sixth studio album Twelve Angry Months, a concept album in which each of the twelve songs represented a stage in a year long process of overcoming a failed relationship.

On April 5, 2011, the ICON release of the band’s Island recordings became their first “best-of” compilation. In an April 22, 2011 interview with The Delaware County Daily Times, Scott Lucas commented on the release saying, “It’s kinda weird but kinda cool because it doesn’t cover our entire career, so I was like, “Let’s call it The Island Years.”

In a June 28, 2011 guest appearance on the movie review podcast/website “CinemaJaw,” Lucas claimed that the next album would be out before the upcoming 2012 elections—mainly because so much of the album’s content deals with it directly—expecting it to be released by February 2012. In the same interview, Lucas also suggested that a working &!@*#le for the album was “Hallelujah, I’m a Bum,” named for a movie from the Depression Era.

On January 1, 2012, during the band’s New Year’s show at The Bottom Lounge in Chicago, Scott announced that he and Brian would begin recording for the next album in Chicago within 2 weeks. On July 11, the band announced that their next studio effort, entitled “Hallelujah! I’m a Bum” would be released on September 18. A full track listing was also published.

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, signing autographs and selling band 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, such as allowing one fan to select an album name from a hat, and then playing that album in its entirety. In 2005, Local H performed an “all request tour” in which a ballot containing a breakdown of most of the bands’ songs organized into various categories, resembling a traditional sushi menu, was handed out to the audience upon admittance to the venue. Audiences were allowed to pick seven songs from the “menu” and the setlist for each show was derived from these ballots.

Source: Wikipedia