Local H's latest Twelve Angry Months is a concept record about a year of anguish following the dissolution of a long-term relationship. It's also the band's catchiest and most moving release since their 1998 life-of-a-failing-rock-star concept album Pack Up The Cats. One spin of Twelve will quickly reveal why the band has stuck around after many of their mid-90s contemporaries have faded. Not only is songwriter Scott Lucas a smart, funny songwriter with a powerful connection to drummer Brian St. Clair, but its clear the guy loves music far too much to ever let anything stop him. On the album's very first song he name checks favorite bands like The Pretends, The Libertines, AC/CD and Interpol, and live he regularly performs thrashed out covers of TV On The Radio's "Wolf Like Me" and even Britney Spears' "Toxic." Lucas recently talked to CMJ about his new album, why he can't help but make concept discs and life as a music industry survivor.

Is it hard for you to not make a concept album at this point? Both of your previous albums have an over-arching theme.
There was one time where we tried not to make a concept album, and that was Here Comes the Zoo . I said, "Well, I did the concept album about as good as I'm going to do it, so let's just make a straight-ahead rock record." And then what kind of happened was, when you look back on that record, when we performed it the other night, I kind of realized that's a concept record too. It's about getting old and losing your edge and selling out and going after the money. So even if I try not to, it kind of ends up that way.

So why did you decide to go after this theme?
Personal reasons, and also just really admiring really good breakup records, wanting to do one of our own, wanting to do [Bob Dylan's] Blood On The Tracks .

Isn't it weird to just open yourself up like a songwriter that way and put yourself all out there?
It is weird. I think people tend to think that we don't write songs about relationships, but we do, they're on all the records. They just don't tend to get the most play, people don't talk about them. But one of the rules when we were making this record was, when we were doing the vocals and the lyrics, that it had to be embarrassing. If someone I knew was listening to it and I was in the same room, if I wasn't embarrassed to have them there listening to it, then it wasn't worth doing. And that was a rule.

It seems like a lot to put yourself through.
No, I don't think so. I mean what's the point of doing something if you can't do it like that? You can't have a power ballad on your record that's going to make you sound tough, you know, "Hey I've seen a million faces and I've rocked 'em all" type of thing. If you're going to have something as cheesy as a power ballad, it better be about some real emotion, and sort of restore the idea of a shattering power ballad. We wanted real emotion.

Do you still deal with rock radio stations, or have you walked away from it?
I don't know who's walked away from it, them or us, ya know? When "Bound the Floor" was all over the radio, we didn't really like the bands we were being played next to, like Everclear and stuff. I don't think we necessarily set out to sabotage ourselves, but if you want to stay on radio stations like that, [it's] probably not a good idea to make a concept record about cats. So I look back on it and I'm like "Oh, of course it didn't work, who wants to listen to that shit." But I do. At the time you had things like Limp Bizkit happening, we were never going to be macho enough for that. So we did a lot of those radio festivals around that time, and it was really depressing because the bands playing those things were just terrible and everybody was like, "Let me see your hands!" and a lot of guttural screaming. And I was just like, there's just no way to measure up to that, no matter how many times I shave my head, I just couldn't do it.

But it seems unlike a lot of people you played with back in the day, you guys have stayed relevant, the music's stayed really good and you have a following. That's not the case for some of those people. How did you guys stay vital?
I think it's because we never got really big. This gets tiring, but there's always this thing where we feel like we have to prove ourselves all the time with every record. There're never any laurels to rest on, which is good for the music. And it's good that we're not surrounded by people who are kissing our ass because their paycheck relies on it. We're not insulated. If something sucks, we've got plenty of people who will tell us that. And I would say that's the best thing for us, as far as the health of the music. As far as the health of my bank account, I couldn't speak to that.

One thing I've always noticed about your songwriting is you add a lot of really good details to set the scene. Like the very first song on Twelve Angry Months, you name all the records, you mention that she didn't even like Kyuss, or "BMW Man (March)." That's not something you hear a lot of rock bands do. I remember reading an interview with someone from Linkin Park who said they try to keep their lyrics as vague as possible so anyone can fill in their own life details.
That's terrible, it's a terrible way to do something because then it doesn't mean anything, it's total shit. The details are what make it universal, because everyone's like "Oh yeah, you know, my girlfriend didn't like Kyuss or why did my girlfriend take my Slayer records," ya know, something macho and your girlfriend liked it. And everyone knows what a BMW is, how is that not universal? When you get into these non-specifics, and these lazy, gray lyrics about the sun and the moon, who cares? Unless you're Nick Cave, you can't pull that shit off. The thing about that excuse that drives me insane is that, he doesn't give a fuck about that shit, he's just being lazy. All that is, is test-marketed bullshit. That's like people test-marketing their movie, going "What do you think? Write down what you think." Nobody's going to tell you what they think, because they don't know what they think. But that's totally it—you want to put those details in, because that's what makes the shock of recognition happen in somebody.

So how'd you end up on Shout Factory? I wasn't even aware they were a record label, I thought they were just DVDs.
I just wanted their care package, so I'd get all the Freaks And Geeks and My So-Called Life DVDs. But they were from like Rhino, we talked to them, and it seemed like a really good idea. It also seemed like they knew how to market a record. One of the problems of (the 2004 release, Whatever Happened To PJ Soles? ) is it's really tough to put a record out and have this tree fall, and no one's around to hear it. It's really frustrating. So this was just a case of finding the best people who could let other people know that this tree is falling. And so far they've done a really good job. And the free DVDs are nothing to sneeze at.

PJ Soles was on an indie?
It was on a label called Studio E and yeah, it's an indie. That just turned into this thing where they didn't know how to run a label, we ended up having to call his dad up. So we were a little cautious this time.

You had to call his dad?
Yeah this guy disappeared and owed us money and all these terrible things were happening. You're faced with this record disappearing and going out of print, and we couldn't find the guy. So his dad's a lawyer, we ended up calling him and it was so bizarre. You can't find a better story to explain in the music business than that. I had to call the head of the record company's dad and tell on him. It's crazy. It's not a business of adults, it's not a business of men, it's not a business of people who take their word seriously. It's disgusting.

When you go through all this crap, do ever just want to say "Fuck it, I'm through with this?"
No, stuff like that probably just makes you want to do better. You can't really underestimate the need for revenge, to just want to shove it back in people's face. I think that some people are in bands and they're just in bands. But some people, their music is just a big part of who they are. And this music is so much about who I am, that I don't really think that I could just shut it off. I mean what else could I do? I've never really had a backup plan. Could be stupid, but, maybe not.

www. localh.com

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