Local
H - "Here Comes The Zoo"
Best
Alternative Album
The following was originally published in our Artist of the Month section.
Review by antiGUY
When Chris Blackwell was looking for artists
to sign to his new label Palm Pictures he had to look no further than the
label he had founded many years before, Island Records. Local H like many
on the Island roster got lost somewhere in the shuffle when Island was
merged with Universal, all the key players at the label the band had built
relationships with had left and Local H founder Scott Lucas knew he had
to find a new home or it would be the end of the band.
It was a turbulent time for Local H, it
looked like it might be the end of the group that Scott Lucas(vocals, guitar,
bass) and Joe Daniels (drums) had worked so hard to make successful. Shortly
after the Island merge Joe left the band and Scott had to make a decision
whether to carry on with his dream or throw in the towel. Fortunately,
he wasn't a quitter. He recruited Triple Fast Action’s Brian St. Clair
to take Joe Daniels’ place and it resulted in a new energy within the band.
Then Chris Blackwell made the shrewd decision to offer Local H a new home
at Palm Pictures. The resulting Palm Pictures debut for Local H titled
“Here Comes the Zoo” show that it was the right move for the group and
the label.
Local H has never sounded better and “Here
Comes the Zoo” easily surpasses their previous work. While in the past
the band was sometimes dismissed as a “grunge” also-ran, with “Here Comes
the Zoo” they finally put those detractors in their place and offer up
one of the best angst ridden yet melodic guitar rock albums to hit the
airwaves since the dawn of the new millennium. No hyper bull here, since
I received this CD late last year it has very rarely left my CD changer.
Scott Lucas is still at the core of the
band as lead vocalist, guitarist, and bassist (his guitar is rigged to
play the bass parts along with the guitar). While the group still remains
principally a duo between Scott and drummer Brian St. Clair, when it came
time to record the album they recruited a host of friends to help out including
the Misfits' Jerry Only, The Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme,
Shanna Kiel from Sullen, Simi’s Simantha Sernaker and St. Clair's former
Triple Fast Action bandmate Wes Kidd. Jack Douglas (John Lennon, The Who,
Miles Davis, Aerosmith) was brought in to produce the record and his vast
background working with groundbreaking artists helped Local H find a new
sound that doesn’t quit fit the mold of any of the current music trends.
Scott and Brian went in with over 25 songs and selected the best 10 to
record for the album. Nick DiDia (Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots) took
the finished recordings into a mixing studio in Atlanta with the band and
mixed and mastered the record. The overall sound lands somewhere between
post grunge, indie rock and punk in much the same way that Nirvana was
hard to define when they first appeared on the scene the sound cultivated
by Local H on “Here Comes the Zoo” is equally hard to pigeon hole. Imagine
Radiohead playing punk influenced alt-rock with the late 80’s incarnation
of Soul Asylum along with The Smashing Pumkins and The Offspring and you
can get the general idea. While Local H may not be the next Nirvana they
do offer up music that is a nice contrast to the stale chart toppers in
the rock world these days. It’s a fine balancing act and the music is familiar
enough to not scare away would be fans but also different enough to help
the group avoid being mistaken for someone else.
The ten tracks that make up “Here Comes
the Zoo” showcase Scott’s eclectic songwriting ability, while they all
fit the general mold of the core Local H sound, they also offer us a different
side of the group. They never make the mistake that seems to plague so
many other bands, recording songs which sound too similar to each
other. The songs don’t fit the traditional hit single simplistic mindset
either; sure most of the songs are melodic and have catchy hooks but they
don’t pander to the lowest common denominator. Any of the songs on the
album are possible hits, not because they were written or recorded with
the idea of making a radio hit but because they offer the listener compelling
music that hits a nerve. True Local H’s music is a bit different than what
we find riding the top of the charts these days and that in itself is the
band’s greatest strength and what makes them so appealing. No one who seriously
listens to “Here Comes the Zoo” can accuse the band of being trend followers,
if anything Local H has the potential to be trendsetters with this new
album.
“Here Comes the Zoo” is good news for everybody;
For music fans who are looking for a rockin’ new album, for Palm Pictures
who are looking for a potential chart topper to kick their label into high
gear and for the band who have withstood the test of time and proven to
the skeptics that they are the genuine article. Only time will tell if
this album will get the attention it deserves but one thing is certain
Local H can be proud of what they have accomplished with “Here Comes the
Zoo”.
CD Info
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