By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
December 8, 1996
Bassists everywhere are probably shuddering in horror as Local H climbs up the music charts. The Chicago-based duo is making a name for itself without the benefit of a bass guitar.
“We have a big sound,” said drummer Joe Daniels, phoning from Rochester, N.Y. “Scott (Lucas) has a huge guitar sound, and our soundman is like the icing on the cake. He really makes everything sound good. People ask us all the time what we’d do if a cable went out or something, and the answer is the same for us as for anyone else in a band. You fix it and keep going on. We’ve been doing this a long time.”
Daniels and Lucas, both 26, formed Local H in 1987 when they were high school students in far north suburban Zion. Back then, the band was a quartet. When the bassist and second guitarist quit the group, the duo decided not to replace them.
Instead, they adapted. Lucas, also the vocalist, installed a bass pickup between the guitar’s two main pickups to amplify the low E and A strings separately. The guitar and bass pickups, which are wired to independent jacks, run into separate amps. And voila. The mutated guitar serves the group’s needs for live performances, where the duo plays without any tape machine enhancements. (On Local H’s current album, Lucas did use a proper four-string bass on some of the cuts.)
“Every so often, someone will ask whether we’re going to add members to our group,” Lucas said. “We don’t have any plans. It’s just been the two of us for so long that I don’t think anyone else could tolerate us.”
Currently on tour with Stone Temple Pilots, Local H returns to the Chicago area for a show Thursday at the Rosemont Horizon. The set will include most of the cuts on the pair’s current album, “As Good as Dead.”
The band is at the pinnacle of its career – so far. Local H’s single “Bound for the Floor” is No. 8 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart, higher than STP, Pearl Jam and the Smashing Pumpkins. And their cover of Guided by Voices’ “Smothered in Hugs” is featured in the film “Swing Blade.”
Local H’s rising popularity has meant more comfort on the road. For the last two months, Daniels and Lucas have been traveling on a tour bus instead of the maroon and white 1993 Ford Econoline that carried them for three years.
“We’re actually trying to sell it,” Daniels said slyly. “If anyone’s interested, it’s got beds in there, front and rear AC, curtains, tinted windows, a new transmission and a brand-new spare tire. We’re also selling the trailer that matches the van.”
“The duo is taking its newfound success in stride. The musicians have worked many years for this bit of stardom, and impending fame is something that neither fazes them nor particularly delights them. Like Stabbing Westward, Local H was unheralded in its hometown, while their friends in other local bands were being hyped as “the next big thing” from Smashing Pumpkins-land.
Lucas said he initially was hurt that Local H didn’t garner much local press, but then he looked at the broader picture.
“We were never mentioned, and we never got a lot of hype,” he said. “But then I thought, `This is a good thing. I don’t want to be a part of all this. The other day, me and one of my friends from Figdish were talking about all the hope that was pinned on Loud Lucy, and I was kind of relieved that we weren’t under that kind of scrutiny. It allowed us to fail without being failures.”
“Our first album, `Ham Fisted,’ sold nothing,” Daniels said. “But that just made us stronger and want to work on another record that would do better.”
Lucas continued, “Joe and I had a lot of time to figure out how we should sound and develop songs. And even though it kind of stunk that our first record wasn’t looked at carefully, it also didn’t blow up in our faces. In retrospect, (being ignored) turned out to be a good thing. It let us focus on the music.”
The songs on “As Good as Dead” are forthright and coherent. “Eddie Vedder” is less about the Pearl Jam vocalist than about hometown fans so besotted with the Seattle superstars that they ignored Local H. Lucas, who is a Pearl Jam fan, hasn’t heard from the grunge group. (“They’re busy guys who have more on their minds than what a couple of little punks have to say.”) And the chorus to “Bound for the Floor” (“And you just don’t get it/you keep it copacetic/And you learn to accept it/You know it’s so pathetic”) has the same downtrodden feel as Beck’s “Loser,” but the fierce music doesn’t allow listeners to feel sorry for the protagonist.
“Bound for the Floor” may be bound for the top of the charts, but the audience favorite still is “High-Fiving MF,” an in-your-face number crammed with the “f” word, making the song difficult to play on radio without bleeping over a good chunk of the lyrics.
“I think we like us on radio even though we like to pretend we don’t,” Lucas said. “It’s at a point now, though, where we don’t freak out every time one of our songs comes on. It’s even a little embarrassing.”
Prepare to blush, boys. Your time has come.
