So, who is the greatest two-person band you never heard of? Well, their name is Local H. They are an independent band from Chicago that is not on a big record label blah blah blah.
Now, when I hear the term "indie rock" I immediately picture some nerd with glasses who thinks that the music they listen to is the best. You know, the type of person who thinks Radiohead has way better songs than "Creep". And this type of person also says "phenomenal" a lot.
So I first heard Local H on 103.9 WDRE before it became whatever unlistenable channel it has become today. I think it was in 1994. I remember hearing this song where the singer just kept singing "I don't need my ego fed" over and over again. Then the guitars and louder version of the same line was repeated over and over again. The song was the same exact line throughout, and the music would pick up slow to fast, low to hard. I thought it was cool and just happened to catch the radio at the right time. You know, that time when you are in the middle of a bunch of songs but the announcer comes on to tell you who you just heard. I hated when I would hear a good song and not get to hear who it was. Luckily with the advent of Shazam (and I am talking about the app "shazam" and not Russia's number 1 movie 10 years running featuring Shaqueel Oneil as a genie) you do not even really need a DJ anymore. Anywho, I heard this song, then my mom took me to Blockbuster Music. That store was awesome. You could preview an entire CD before you purchased it. I listened to 3 songs and knew I had to have their first CD - Ham Fisted. They have one of my favorite songs of all time, and I have loved it for almost 20 years. The song is called "Cynic" and the music is just so great - fast, rocking, catchy. The lyrics could have been applied to any part of my life up until a few years ago. Good rock songs on this CD and a great initial effort.
The next album, "As Good as Dead" I think was maybe their most successful? It has the one or two songs everybody probably knows who listened to alternative rock in the 90s - Bound for the Floor (you may know it if I just told you it had the word "copacetic" in it). The other "hit" song on it was High-Fiving MF. It was like two years after I had bought Ham Fisted and the announcer gets on the air and says, "Well, this song will probably get me fired, but it has to be heard." Sure enough there was a drum beat, and that went on for like half a minute before I heard Scott Lucas' voice singing "You high fiving mother fucker". I was like whoa this guy is fired. The song's verses are that line over and over again, with a chorus about how cheesy some guy is that he knows. And it ends with him screaming you high fiving mother fucker over and over again. It sounds cheesy, but it rocks. This album was pretty good. The best song on the album is "Fritz's Corner" and is one of the best rocking songs they have. I love it just a little less than Cynic.
Two years later (1998), they released "Pack up the Cats". I heard this was their most critically acclaimed album. The feature song was "All the Kids are Right". This song was good, but in just "meh" to me when I compare it to the rest of their catalog. The 4th through 14th tracks are just so good for a rock album (especially these days when the Britney Spears and backstreet Boys started coming up my favorite song is the first song, "All right, oh yeah." This song often helps me start my day on the right foot.
Local H left their label after it was bought out by some giant label and then went independent for the rest of their career up to the presentthe next album was "Here Comes the Zoo". The black guy on the drums was replaced with some guy called Brian St. Claire. The abum starts with a lot of drumming power the only bad thing on his album is the first song on this album, "Hands on the Bible". I find it to be both shallow and padantic. however, every song after that I would put up in my top 10 of Local H songs. My favorites are "Keep Your Girlfriend" and "What Would You have me Do?" The latter is a good song for 5 minutes, then the next five minutes is the chorus of this song, and they slowly add vocals from all of the other 9 songs, one by one. I love it.
The next album was "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?" if I could rone album from their catolog it would be this one. The songs are not terrible, just nothing really stands out with the exception of "How's the Weather Down There?" Like I said, it is nowhere near worthy of the top 3 Local H albums, but a bad Local H album is better than none.
Four years later, they released a "concept album" called 12 Angry Months. When I hear concept album I immediately want to tell the band to just shut up and sing music. I do not care about what theme you are trying to portray and the bottom line is I pay you to sing for me. So just fucking sing. That being said, this album is pretty good. There are twelve songs. The songs are either numbered or listed as months, and then the title. All the emotions that go on over the first year after a big breakup and so on. I had certainly started my long recovery from a breakup as this album came out. I have a tie for best songs, "The One With Kid" and "Hand to Mouth". Those are both the first and last song. The first song starts slow and then just rocks out the rest of the way. The last song is a slow build where they sing about how when you are able to live at rock bottom, you can appreciate everything else big or small.
There are some other miscellaneous albums out there. There is the "Local H Mixed Tape" - a collection of cover songs of other independent bands (not as bad as it sounds and best song is Wolf Like Me); "No Fun E.P." - just a collection of 6 or 7 songs, I like the title track to this; "Alive '05" - a live album up to the PJ Soles album years followed by a cover of the ultimate Britney Spears song Toxic; some other demo albums they released with nothing very impressive.
There is nothing else really to say about this band. I saw them live once, and they rocked. Their fans are loyal, and the band rewards their fans. The electricity went out in the X-Games parking lot in 2002 and Local H finished the last song, playing the drums harder and Scott singing louder.
They are in my top five for as long as I can remember and will always hold that spot as well.
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