Local H is the premier two-man band. Created in 1987, Zion, Illinois, the band featured a fully-fleshed three-man layout. With Scott Lucas on guitar and vocals, and high school friends Joe Daniels (drums) and Matt Garcia (bass) rounding things out, the band was completely normal in every aspect. It wasn't until the early 1990s that Matt left and things changed, leaving the two to decide upon finding a new bassist or working around it. Opposed to the gruelling job of finding a new bassist in a small town, Scott was open to the idea of placing a bass pickup in his guitar and running a separate lineout for it, and voila, their two-man line-up was born.

Grinding out the grunge-based, punk-influenced sound like Cheap Trick possessed, Local H take 'hooky pop' rules and apply them at will. If AC/DC, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Rocket from the Crypt, and numerous other psychedelic/hard-rock outfits were to be tossed into a blender set on frenzy, add a bit of Buffalo Trace and Neil Young into the mix, shake well with some Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jimi Hendrix, Black Sabbath, and Chicago deep-dish pizza, you'd have something that is at the same time completely like and entirely unlike Local H: Layers upon layers of guitars; strict, heart-pumping drums; and the best in ironic home-fried lyrics lead to the sound that powered, and continues to power, some of the best rock albums in existence.

As Good As Dead

Following a demo release (The '92 Demos, 1992) and a full-fledged album (Ham-Fisted, 1995), which fell victim to many scathing attacks about its Nirvana roots, Local H released As Good As Dead (1996). Sporting two singles, the often misidentified 'Bound for the Floor'¹ and the all-out attack on glam-rock 'High Fiving MF', the album would go on to become one of the most-played records on the radio in 1996.

Starting and ending with a set of bookends, the album steamrollers through eleven songs that detail 'life as a rock star kid' who just can't seem to leave his dead-end town. Still coming off life as 'Kurt Cobain's son' (Rolling Stone), Scott and Joe find themselves pushing hard for their own identity. With each having their own wide array of influences and the muscle to exercise their talent, the group was out to prove that they are, indeed, their own band.

Pack Up The Cats

The group's experience on the previous tours and albums would become the basis for 1998's Pack Up The Cats. Roy Thomas Baker's last job as a producer, the album was a focused concept piece about selling (and burning) out. Perhaps picking up from where As Good As Dead left off, the album opens with the first single to hit the charts, 'All Right, Oh-Yeah.' As opposed to the breakneck speed found on earlier records, the duo prefer to slow it down and let their own unique sonic vices find their footing.

Lucas's guitar work on this album finally digs in and embraces the roots in which it is entrenched. Controlling feedback like only Hendrix or Gilmour can, Lucas allows the noise to create a harmony all its own. Fortunately, Baker's solid production (as always) files away any rough edges the two could make, giving Daniels a clear shot to drive things home.

Some songs instantly remind one of Pink Floyd's Have A Cigar, minus the subtle in-jokes, instead sucker-punching any offending record executives in the face. Others, such as the second single, 'All The Kids Are Right,' come across as one of the most honest soul-searching efforts committed to tape: a band having the worst night of their lives, at the worst gig of their lives.

Perhaps it was the fact that the band looked in the mirror and saw the odds that were building against them that caused the final blow to the band's career. Nirvana knock-off? One hit wonders? No, wasn't that. As 'All The Kids Are Right' was climbing the charts the band's label Polygram merged with Universal. Pack Up The Cats was promotionally dead, along with most of Polygram's catalogue, within weeks.

Joe left the band in 1999, and for a two-man band, that isn't any small thing.

Here Comes The Zoo

A year and a new drummer later, Local H were back in action. Having recruited Brian St Clair, former Triple Fast Action drummer, and stockpiling plenty of demos, friends, and a full touring band, Local H started playing various shows in the Midwest. Charged full of ideas from the debacle of two years earlier, Lucas was ready to commit his thoughts to pen and vinyl, making full use of St Clair's harder-edged, punk-influenced playing style. The result was an oft-delayed, much promised comeback called Here Comes The Zoo (2002).

Ten songs fuelled by midwestern irony, Zoo plays just like a comeback album should: hard and fast. Running through 40 minutes of music in what feels like ten, the songs all play tribute to various sins, crimes, and quite bad things. Abortion, drugs, greed, lust, and the worst crime of all, just plain being lame, are all parts of this concept, all pulled together and wrapped up in a multi-layered jam that would make Yes and Pink Floyd quiver.

Like the first two albums, however, Zoo has more in common with AC/DC and Led Zeppelin, yet surprises as one finds the duo indulging in their Cheap Trick fanboyism².'Half Life' and 'Hands On The Bible' did little to muscle into radio outside of Chicago, but did get some play on MTV and VH1.

No Fun

Local H continue to this day. They released a midsize EP entitled The No Fun EP in May of 2003, followed by a tour of the Midwest and the West Coast. This EP deserves special markings due to the fact that it's the first EP that Local H have released that doesn't contain any singles from a previous album. Like Alice In Chain's Jar of Flies, The No Fun EP was meant as a bridge between albums. Touring the States and too busy to write a full album? Road gettin' ya down and you need to vent? Write an EP.

Manifest Destiny

It's a special moment when you're able to do with grace what you haven't had the willpower to do in years. For Local H, this means bringing on two friends to play with you on New Year's Eve 2003, playing a load of songs that you haven't played in nearly half a decade, and simultaneously sounding the best and worst you've ever sounded.

For Scott Lucas and Brian St Clair, the future means doing things that might not be that sane to do, but doing it out of the sheer sanity of it all. Nothing makes for some nice licks and fat rhythms like a really tight group of guys playing together - if you can do it with two, why not do it with four? For Local H, the dawn of 2004 brought change. With a new album on the horizon, the group focused on touring with a full band, and what interpersonal problems were there seem to have vanished. If you can kill the competition with two guys with jumbled personal lives, then obliterate it with four who just want to have fun.

Whatever Happened To PJ Soles? Those who manage to pick up the new album from 6 April, 2004, will have found out.