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25 Years Of Local H
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| | Hallelujah! I'm A bum. After 12 Angry Months and two introspective solo records by Scott with the Married Men, it was high time to get our noses out of our navels and look at what was going on around us. It's not the first time the band had gotten political. Beside President Forever, there was Half-Life and the vague working-class leanings of Bound For The Floor and Nothing Special. It's the first time we had devoted an entire record explicitly to the subject. Given the current climate of understanding and bipartisanship in this country, this caused people to dismiss the record without ever giving it a chance. After recording some demos for the record, Andy Gerber took himself out of the process, and we went looking for a producer. There was a meeting with Johnny K at his studio but that approach didn't feel right for the material. Scott had become enamored of the metal scene in Chicago and approached Sanford Parker about producing. To our surprise, he really wanted the job. We set up shop in the final days of Engine Studios during a particularly brutal Chicago winter and went to work. The results are decidedly not commercial. The songs have hooks, but stop just short of being anthemic, Cold Manor and Another February excepted. In freely giving ourselves over to Sanford's filter, it has a monolithic sound that's as thick and airless as anything we'd done since Ham Fisted. But, man, does it get the point across. It's also the most complex of our concept records. It's a record about how politics affect our every day life. It's a double record. It's not as long as The Wall, but longer than Exile In Guyville. Disc 1 is blue and disc 2 is red, signifying our twin party political system, as well as two lines on the Chicago El system. Disc one has a fall side and a winter side with songs about cold and winter and depression. Disc two has a spring and summer side with songs about hot summers, violence, and anger. And there's dogs. Lots of dogs. You could consider this Pack Up The Dogs. And while it's not as energized as Pack Up The Cats, it's also not as shallow or self-obsessed. It's one of the few records in our catalogue that repeatedly takes the point of view of a character. There's the brother in Night Flight To Paris who goes into politics because his older brother, who he idolizes, checks out of the system, and moves to Paris. There's the family of bartenders struggling to keep the car running in Another February. There's the crackpot borderline-racist old guy living in a changing neighborhood of toughs and punks who talks to his TV in Paddy Considine. Maybe it's presumptuous but, over and over, there's an effort to see outside of the world view of just a dude in a band. Adding to the album's density is the extensive use of sound to paint a picture to give the feeling that you really are there - either riding the subway in Chicago or walking under it. The guy who talks about freezing to death at the beginning of Another February was just some random dude who started talking to Scott on the train, for example. Luckily, Scott was already recording the sound of riding on the El when it happened. Limit Your Change employs loops, heavy riffage, and sax-skronk to weave a collage of paranoia and insulation. Here Come 'Ol Laptop risks bad taste by mixing metal-funk with Chicago horns. The forlorn nature of the vocal in Blue Line is recast as vibrating rage in Trash Fire Bummers, the first tune on the Red disc. There's even a long overdue foray into country music on Look Who's Walking On Four Legs Again aided in no small part by the Married Men. And even more dogs. But for all of the weirdness, buried beneath the fuzz are songs like Cold Manor, Sad History, and especially Waves Again. They contain some of the most beautiful and elegant melodies we've ever committed to tape. And let's not forget that cover! The perfect metaphor for the album and a fitting tribute to a fine pooch. There's a lot to chew on, but this might be the last word when it comes to Local H concept records. |
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