Following the departures of the early line-up's bassist and lead guitarist, Lucas and co-founding drummer Joe Daniels continued as an unorthodox two-piece setup.

[4][5] Local H's third album, Pack Up the Cats (1998), was a critical success and appeared on several best-of end of year lists,[6][7] but did not perform as well commercially due to its promotion being negatively affected by a corporate merger involving Island's parent company, PolyGram.

Local H formed as a result of a high school band that Scott Lucas and Matt Garcia were in called Rude Awakening, in 1987.

That year, while attending high school in Zion, Scott Lucas and Joe Daniels began jamming together, along with Matt Garcia and John Sparkman.

Ahead of the release of As Good as Dead, Lucas was informed by Island that the album needed to sell at least 100,000 copies for the band to remain with the label.

The songs "Eddie Vedder" and "Fritz's Corner" additionally made Top 40 on the Alternative and Mainstream Rock Billboard Charts.

Encouraged by the unexpected success of As Good as Dead, Island Records greenlit a third album with Local H's preferred producer, Roy Thomas Baker, along with a larger budget and a promise of no interference.

Pack Up The Cats was released September 1, 1998, peaking at number 140 on the Billboard 200 and staying on the chart for only two weeks, despite "All the Kids Are Right" achieving moderate success on MTV.

Intending to continue the band, Lucas hired Triple Fast Action drummer Brian St. Clair, who had previously worked as a drum tech for Cheap Trick.

The track was the only studio recording featured on Alive '05, a 2005 live album that constituted the sixth major release from the band.

[12] In the same interview, Lucas also suggested that a working title for the album was Hallelujah, I'm a Bum, named for a song from the Depression Era.

In early 2015, the duo created a Pledgemusic campaign in order to help fund the production of their new album, titled Hey, Killer.

[16] On March 29, 2016, Lucas announced on WKQX that the band would celebrate the 20th anniversary of As Good As Dead by playing shows where they perform the entire AGAD album with original drummer Joe Daniels in addition to other songs with Harding on drums.

[17] In April 2017, Local H was announced as the winner of the 'Hit the Stage' contest, gaining the opportunity to open for Metallica on five dates of the WorldWired tour.

On January 6, 2019, the band performed as the halftime entertainment of the Chicago Bears vs. Philadelphia Eagles NFL Wildcard Playoff game.

The album was produced by veteran audio engineers Steve Albini and Andy Gerber, features members of Deer Tick and Naked Raygun, and was mixed by J.

In 2005, Local H performed an "all request tour" in which a ballot containing a breakdown of most of the bands' songs organized into various categories, resembling a traditional sushi menu, was handed out to the audience upon admittance to the venue.

Tickets to this show were only available by spotting Scott Lucas in public and speaking the phrase "Attention all planets of the Solar Federation, we have assumed control" directly to him.

A band from New York called Kung-Fu Grip won the contest with their cover of a song from Local H's No Fun E.P.