Here's the Local H preview which ran in the San Diego Union-Tribune's Night&Day section on Thursday, June 10, 2004:
POP MUSIC
Local H gets right to the 'Soles' of the matter
By Chris Nixon
June 10, 2004
'It's 1980. Welcome to Rock 'n' Roll High School," says an announcer during the preview for the cult film, starring legendary punks the Ramones. "Rock 'n' Roll High School, the school where the students rule."
Like most 1980s party films ("Up the Creek," "Hot Dog ... the Movie"), "Rock 'n' Roll High School's" simplistic plot revolves around sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Starring actress P.J. Soles as Riff Randell, one student's love for the Ramones incites general anarchy among the student body of Vince Lombardi High School. Randell battles the evil new principal, Miss Evelyn Togar, finally blowing up the school with the help of Joey and the rest of the Ramones.
For the Chicago-based duo Local H, the fascination with Soles stems from her roles in numerous classic films from the late 1970s and early '80s: "I've seen 'Halloween' a million times," said singer Scott Lucas during a recent interview from his home in the Windy City. " 'Rock 'n' Roll High School' has always been a favorite of ours. . . . I realized: She is in all of these movies that I grew up on and have seen a million times.
"(Soles) always seemed to be around in all these movies that have been really important to me. They're not the American Film Institute's Top 100 of anything, yet they're really important to me."
With its 2004 album, "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?," Local H ponders the fate of Soles and the fleeting nature of stardom.
Emerging from Chicago's Zion neighborhood, guitarist-singer Lucas and drummer Brian St. Clair prove the adage "less is more," discovering that the sum of two is greater than four. After creating Local H as a traditional four-piece band, Lucas had an epiphany: He could play the bottom strings of his guitar through a bass pickup, allowing him to play guitar and bass parts through one instrument.
So Local H was born as a power rock duo.
Since flirting with mainstream success in the mid-'90s (warming up for bands like Stone Temple Pilots and Veruca Salt), Lucas and St. Clair have maintained a devout underground following. Banking on the 1996 breakout single "Bound for the Floor," the press saddled Local H with the albatross moniker of "grunge."
For the past decade, the pair continued to merge post-grunge rock and catchy choruses with a tip of the cap to Nirvana, S.T.P. and Soundgarden. Despite such high-quality albums as 1998's "Pack Up the Cats" and 2002's "Here Comes the Zoo," Local H still struggles to escape the grunge tag.
"The big trick with us was trying to survive that whole mid-'90s kind of thing, just try to get out of it with our dignity intact," said Lucas.
In April, Local H released "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?" with songs dealing with pop culture and the misconceptions fed by the retro VH-1 culture and America's numerous makeover shows. The opening track, titled "Where Are They Now?," begins with Lucas screaming You're never, you're never, you're never going to get it.
To obtain the album's roughed-up sound, Lucas felt obliged to mangle his vocal chords before each take for "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?"
"Before we'd record a song (for the last record), I'd stand in the corner and scream my head off," says Lucas in a gravelly voice. "I'd just try and cash my voice out until it was 70 percent gone, then do the vocal. If you listen to a song like 'Halcyon Days,' my voice is almost completely gone, and that's probably my favorite vocal on the record."
Lucas finishes the thought by giving props to an unlikely source: "I think Rod Stewart is probably the best singer of all time. How does he do it? He always sounds like he's got laryngitis. It's great."
Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
Monday, June 07, 2004
H stands for "Hoarse"
Just catching up with y'all in blogworld. I have a Local H preview coming out this Thursday in Night&Day. Lead singer and guitarist Scott Lucas sounded like his vocals chords had been sliced and diced Ginsu style. He actually works at getting a rough voice, screaming between vocal takes for the band's latest album "Whatever Happened to P.J. Soles?" He also said his favorite singer of all time is Rod Stewart...
Method to the smoothness
Here's the Night&Day story on Zero 7 which ran Thursday, June 3, 2004. I had a chance to check out the show at 4th & B. While seeing and hearing the four vocalists firsthand was a treat, the show seemed a little rehearsed and scripted. So here's the preview:
POP MUSIC
The method according to Zero 7
'We try to sit in a room together and do something that we like'
By Chris Nixon
June 3, 2004
Akin to the protagonist in Sting's "Englishman in New York," Sam Hardaker finds himself wandering around suburban Maryland searching for a proper British breakfast. The North Londoner sounds a tad lost during a phone conversation from his Ramada Inn room, where culture shock seems to be setting in – sans a spot of tea.
"We're doing a gig in D.C. tonight. But for some reason there was a mixup with the hotel, so we've ended up in a hotel 20 miles outside of D.C.," says Hardaker. "I was just out trying to get some food and I'm kind of struggling. It's all junk food. That's all there is. We haven't been here since the last time we were touring, and it takes me a bit to re-acquaint myself with your charming ways. I guess we spend a lot of time on big roads, and big roads don't tend to have the stuff I want near them."
Big roads have taken Hardaker and childhood friend Henry Binns – who make up the core of British soulful chill-out masters Zero 7 – from their homes in London and reluctantly through America's fast food drive-ins and the meat grinder of played-out pop culture.
After serious overexposure, their beautiful songs adorn the elevators, doctors' offices and strip malls of America, making their tunes the musical equivalent of a Supersized Big Mac meal.
"Our music was used a lot on TV," says Hardaker, lamenting on his music's association with fashion and fads. "They would use 20 seconds of our music on a home makeover program or a holiday show or gardening shows. It just seemed to be everywhere. After a while, it was pretty horrible. A lot of people were like, 'I just wish this music would go away.' "
Before the big-time saturation, big roads also brought Zero 7's knack for creating lush, organic settings to the world, exposing new legions of fans to its sultry summation of 1970s soul and jazz.
Growing up in the same neighborhood, the duo bonded through their mutual obsession for music.
"We were both really influenced by underground pirate radio stations in London," says Hardaker. "You could just tune into hundreds of illegal radio stations being broadcast from the projects. So there was all this really great music being played on the radio, especially on the weekends. A lot of old stuff being played – soul, funk and jazz – stuff that we wouldn't necessarily have heard. So that was really influential as far as our musical development."
After discovering the joys of '60s and '70s grooves through pirate radio, both Hardaker and Binns worked as engineering assistants at one of London's prestigious recording studios, Mickie Most's RAK Studios. Along with Nigel Godrich (who would later produce Beck and Radiohead), the trio recorded the top bands and artists of the day, performers like Robert Plant and the Pet Shop Boys.
During their off-hours, ensconced in a tiny back room, Hardaker and Binns concocted the programmed beats and melodies that became Zero 7's 2001 debut album "Simple Things."
Bringing in the vocal talents of Mozez (pronounced "Moses"), Sia Furler and Sophie Barker, the two producers sculpted an album filled with 14 lush compositions and beautiful, organic instrumentation. "Simple Things" sold over 1 million copies worldwide, while getting nominated for the Mercury Prize and the music industry's exalted Shortlist.
After a year of touring, Zero 7 faced the daunting task of matching the critical and commercial success of the first record.
"We definitely felt pressure," says Hardaker reflecting on the making of "When It Falls," released in March on Elektra. "We felt pressure because we wanted to make a record that we were proud of and felt good about. Going from the first record – where nobody knows who you are – to having this idea that somehow people are taking you seriously, there's definitely a different atmosphere. Suddenly, you're a recording artist. At the end of the day, we try to sit in a room together and do something that we like."
For "When It Falls," Hardaker and Binns brought back the trio of vocalists from the debut ( Mozez, Barker and Furler), adding Tina Dico on the tracks "Home" and "The Space Between." The disc retains the first album's silky appeal, while delving further into orchestral composition.
Like many records that represent a place and time, "Simple Things" found critics scrambling for words of excited affirmation. But down-tempos and jazzy electronica's evolution from trendy lounge soundtrack into the elevator music of the new millennium doomed Zero 7's follow-up, proving the fickle nature of fashion.
A few critics in England panned "When It Falls," including a particularly scathing review by the Guardian's Alexis Petridis. In the United States, critics conveyed a mix of muted praise and adoration.
"It's difficult, because the first album took us into some quite mainstream places," says Hardaker, who will take the stage at 4th & B Saturday with the 10-piece version of Zero 7. "I guess naturally it will level out at a place where we can happily exist with what we want to do and any sort of commerciality the record company may want to get out of us."
Chris Nixon is San Diego writer.
the buzz > > > > > > > >
Hometown: London, England
Discography: "Simple Things" (2001), "When It Falls" (2004)
Albums Zero 7's Sam Hardaker listened to when recording "When It Falls":
David Crosby, "If Could Only Remember My Name" (1971): "It's his first solo album. I don't think it's in my all-time Top 10, but there are some good songs on it."
Common, "Electric Circus" (2002): "His record came out around the time we were making our album, and we were digging on the hip-hop vibe."
Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man, "Out of Season" (2003): "I think the production is nice in a subtle way. It's really interesting without trying to be anything really cool."
The Beach Boys, "Surf's Up" (1971): "There's a song on there called 'Surf's Up' and an instrumental called 'Feel Flows' which is pretty. And 'Til I Die' is one of the best songs I've ever heard."
– CHRIS NIXON
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