From: Zion, Illinois

Active: 1991–present

I first heard them: when “Bound for the Floor” became a moderate hit on the modern rock stations

Sound: Enough like Nirvana that on Halloweens Scott Lucas puts on a blond wig and does a very convincing set of Nirvana covers.  The vocal texture in particular is quite similar.  The songwriting has fewer dissonant-candy hooks and more straight-ahead rock riffs, but Local H does do some interesting conceptual stuff.  Consider their 2002 album Here Comes the Zoo: nine excellent songs with many guest performers, and then after the tenth and final song seems to be over, at the six-minute mark, it suddenly barrels onward for several more minutes, playing the previous songs layered on top of each other to make something new.  There’s no way this should actually work, but somehow it does.

Further listening: Local H is another band whose “further listening” section could be arbitrarily long.  In fact, I’m going to hit you with two batches of songs—​originals first, then covers:

		“Sports Bar” (1995)
		“Bound for the Floor” (1996)
		“Lucky Time” (1998)
		“The One With ‘Kid’” (2008)
		“Cold Manor” (2012)
		“The Last Picture Show in Zion” (2015)

		“Toxic” (2005)
		“Wolf Like Me” (2010)
		“Time” (2010)
		“2112 Overture / Temples of Syrinx” (2013)
		“Team” (2014)