Scott Lucas doesn’t make records halfway. So when Local H followed their ’96 alt-radio breakthrough with Pack Up the Cats, it wasn’t a safe sequel. It was a goddamn rock opera. “It was the first time I walked away going, ‘I did it. I did exactly what I wanted,’” Lucas tells me. “That doesn’t happen often.”
But it also came out in 1998—right before nu-metal took over and the major label holding their fate imploded in a merger. “The music was just out of time,” he says. “Even if the label hadn’t merged, it probably would’ve sunk. Wrong place, wrong time.”
Which is a tragedy, because Pack Up the Cats was a beast. Produced by Queen collaborator Roy Thomas Baker, it featured segues, callbacks, and Cheap Trick-sized hooks stitched together in full concept-album fashion. “We sent the label a demo with Side 1 and Side 2. Side 2 was weaker, so we kept writing,” Lucas says. The final song they added? “All the Kids Are Right.” Yes, that one. “We needed something. When that one came together, everything clicked.”
The album’s influence is still felt by diehards—Lucas says it’s probably the first time the band had the idea, the resources, and the execution all line up. It was also the last album they’d do with original drummer Joe Daniels, who returned briefly for a 20th anniversary tour. “It was fun… until it wasn’t,” Lucas says, choosing his words like someone who's been through it.
And now Local H is back with a new song, Innocents (Edited for Television)—a distorted monster with no official album home. “We just decided to throw it out there,” Lucas shrugs. “Quit screwing around.”
Still, don’t rule out another concept LP. “There are a few ideas bubbling,” he teases. “You start seeing themes, and you just steer everything in that direction.” That’s how it happened with 2008’s 12 Angry Months, their divorce record structured around the calendar year. “The breakup was real,” Lucas says. “But a lot of changed names and invented situations. The place it came from was real.”
They’re currently on the road with Everclear and Marcy Playground, proving Lucas still has a thing for ‘90s alt underdogs—especially ones who stuck to the album format. “Rock’s still about the record,” he says. “I don’t care how singles-driven it gets.”
Listen to the full interview above and then check out the track below.
