Joe Daniels

Heavy metal drummers like to play hard, some of them utilizing sticks the size of small baseball bats. This image and even the sonic memory of twin bass-drum pedals fluttering at hummingbird speed may still not be enough to prepare the listener for Joe Daniels. He is best known as a member of the band Local H, hailing from the nowhere land of Zion, IL, and making so much noise that the group's duo instrumentation is being considered as a Ripleys: Believe It Or Not subject. The group's name first emerged professionally in 1987 when both Daniels and his collaborator guitarist Scott Lucas were both still in high school. This version of the band had a more traditional rock combo strength in numbers, but the Local H that regrouped several years later to cut three albums consisted of just Lucas and Daniels. The pair sent sound-measurement devices into "tilt" mode between Daniels' hyper drumming and a combination electric bass and guitar that Lucas had invented. The duo were also buddies, huddling together over song lyrics. "High-Fiving M. F." may be a compositional high point in 1995, including a line that established once and for all that these were players with the right attitude: "You've got no taste in music, and you really love our band."

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