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Pack Up the Cats

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Pack Up the Cats
Studio album by
Local H
ReleasedSeptember 1, 1998
RecordedApril–May 1998
StudioRTB Audio Visual Productions (Lake Havasu City, Arizona)
Genre
Length47:38
LabelIsland
ProducerRoy Thomas Baker
Local H chronology
As Good as Dead
(1996) 		Pack Up the Cats
(1998) 		The '92 Demos
(1999)
Singles from Pack Up the Cats
  1. "All the Kids Are Right"
    Released: August 1998
  2. "All-Right (Oh, Yeah)"
    Released: 1998

Pack Up the Cats is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Local H, released on September 1, 1998, through Island Records. This would be their last album released on Island before they split from the label, as well as the last album with original drummer Joe Daniels.[2] Local H described the album as "our little concept record about a shitty mid-level band".[3] The album was released around the time when PolyGram, the parent label of Island, merged with Universal, causing the album to be all but forgotten during the transition.

Production

[edit]

Pack Up the Cats was recorded in the space of six weeks between April and May 1998 at RTB Audio Visual Productions in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.[4][5][6] In May 1998, the band mixed the album at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia.[5][6] The album's working title was That Fucking Cat.[4][6] The album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker, who was chosen in part because Local H was listening to classic rock while writing the songs for Pack Up the Cats.[7] The band was hoping for a huge rock sound that wasn't overly polished.[8]

Critical reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
Chicago Sun-Times[10]
Entertainment WeeklyA−[11]
MusicHound Rock[12]
The Philadelphia Inquirer[13]
Rolling Stone[14]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[15]
The Village VoiceA−[16]
Wall of Sound77/100[17]

The Hartford Courant wrote that the band has "lightened their sludgy sound on the surprisingly strong 15-track Pack Up the Cats by emphasizing melodic strength over brute force."[18] The Sydney Morning Herald noted the "air of clipped, hard wariness" and wrote that "Local H's small-sized wall of sound has been marshalled without grandeur."[8] The Morning Call praised the "chunky, jagged, joke's-on-me songs about the psychic dislocation that is part and parcel of the power duo's love affair with rock 'n' roll."[19] In his review for Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau called the album "an impassioned testament of the endangered alt life."[14] Less than two weeks after the review's publication, he stated in his Village Voice Consumer Guide: "At first I was just glad to ascertain they [Local H] weren't a fluke. Now I think they've gone and made themselves the straight rock album of the year."[16]

Pack Up the Cats was ranked No. 20 on Spin's list of the 20 best albums of 1998,[20] No. 17 on Robert Christgau's 1998 Dean's List,[21] and No. 2 on Greg Kot's list of the best albums of 1998.[22]

Track listing

[edit]
No.TitleLength
1."All-Right (Oh, Yeah)"3:09
2."'Cha!' Said the Kitty"2:57
3."Lucky"0:48
4."Hit the Skids or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rock"4:38
5."500,000 Scovilles"1:36
6."What Can I Tell You?"4:52
7."Fine and Good"4:08
8."Lead Pipe Cinch"1:04
9."Cool Magnet"4:07
10."She Hates My Job"4:08
11."Stoney"1:41
12."Laminate Man"3:17
13."All the Kids Are Right"3:48
14."Deep Cut"2:26
15."Lucky Time"4:59
Total length:47:38

Bonus disc

[edit]
  1. "It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll)" (AC/DC cover) - 4:52
  2. "Answering Machine" - 7:41

Personnel

[edit]

Personnel per liner notes.[5]

Local H
Guest musicians
Production
  • Roy Thomas Baker – producer, mixing
  • Nick DiDia – engineer, mixing
  • Lisa Ellis – assistant
  • George Marino – mastering
  • Eric Hoffman – assistant
  • Ryan Williams – engineer
  • Kevin Allison – assistant

Charts

[edit]
Chart (1998) Peak
position
US Billboard 200[23] 140
US Heatseekers Albums (Billboard)[23] 7

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Martins, Jorge (December 25, 2023). "Top 10 Post-Grunge Albums From the '90s That Actually Stood the Test of Time". Ultimate Guitar. Archived from the original on December 26, 2023. Retrieved December 26, 2023.
  2. ^ "Local H - Here Comes The Zoo - On Second Thought - Stylus Magazine". March 29, 2006. Archived from the original on March 29, 2006. Retrieved October 28, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "Archived copy". Facebook. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved December 31, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ^ a b Fischer, Blair R. (April 15, 1998). "Local H Heading Back Into Studio: Local H : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Pack Up the Cats (booklet). Island Records. 1998. 314-524 549-2. {{cite AV media notes}}: Unknown parameter |people= ignored (help)
  6. ^ a b c Layne, Anni (May 14, 1998). "Local H "Pack Up The Cats" For New Album: Local H : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  7. ^ Ferguson, Jon (September 25, 1998). "How does all that splendid noise come from just two guys?". Happenings. Intelligencer Journal. p. 9.
  8. ^ a b Mathieson, Craig (November 27, 1998). "H Two Go". Metro. The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 5.
  9. ^ "Pack Up the Cats - Local H". AllMusic.
  10. ^ DeRogatis, Jim (September 1, 1998). "Local H, 'Pack Up the Cats'". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 28. ProQuest 258475835.
  11. ^ Kim, Jae-Ha (September 4, 1998). "Music Review: 'Pack Up the Cats'". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on August 28, 2023. Retrieved August 28, 2023.
  12. ^ Fuoco, Christina (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Visible Ink Press. p. 1127. ISBN 978-1-57859-061-2 – via Internet Archive.
  13. ^ Moon, Tom (September 6, 1998). "The Music Report". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. F10 – via newspapers.com.
  14. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (September 17, 1998). "Pack Up the Cats". Rolling Stone. No. 795. pp. 98, 100. Retrieved March 24, 2024 – via robertchristgau.com.
  15. ^ Kot, Greg (2004). "Local H". In Brackett, Nathan (ed.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. Simon and Schuster. pp. 492–493. ISBN 9780743201698.
  16. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (September 29, 1998). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. p. 68. Retrieved March 24, 2024 – via robertchristgau.com.
  17. ^ Graff, Gary. "Wall of Sound Review: Pack Up the Cats". Wall of Sound. Archived from the original on February 11, 2001. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  18. ^ Orefice, Mat (September 7, 1998). "Pack Up the Cats Local H". Calendar. Hartford Courant. p. 7.
  19. ^ Righi, Len (January 2, 1999). "1998: The Year in Review—Pop Music". The Morning Call. p. A29.
  20. ^ Eddy, Chuck (January 1999). "Top 20 Albums of the Year". Spin. Vol. 15, no. 1. SPIN Media, LLC. p. 91.
  21. ^ "Robert Christgau: Pazz & Jop 1998: Dean's List". Robertchristgau.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  22. ^ Kot, Greg (December 6, 1998). "Sound Decisions". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  23. ^ a b "Local H". Billboard. Archived from the original on March 12, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2022.
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