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The Local Band - Locals Only EP


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Alexi Laiho (Children Of Bodom)
Jussi69 (The 69Eyes)
Olli Herman (Reckless Love)
Archie Cruz ( Santa Cruz)
A story of true hard rock friendship

It was a warm dark night before Christmas in Los Angeles in 2013. Jussi 69 (The 69 Eyes) and Alexi Laiho (Children Of Bodom) met in Hollywood, had a couple of drinks and...

Alexi: "Dude, we gotta get together, play some Poison, Mötley and drink some Jack."

Jussi: "Ok, when?"

Alexi: "Christmas."

Jussi: "Cool."

They shook hands and swore that they really were going to make this happen. The key word and the whole idea behind The Local Band would be to have FUN. No stress, no pressure, and definitely no business plans.

Right after Jussi and Alexi decided to do this, it was obvious they would need a charismatic singer, one who could handle all the classic hard rock super hits, from Jump to Girls, Girls, Girls, amongst all their other favorites. Jussi decided to send a message to Reckless Love´s Olli Herman.

”Naturally, I was immediately exited and kept saying: "Yes – HELLYEAH!!!", over and over again while listening to Jussi talk me through the idea. Nothing could've kept me from taking part after I heard we would only perform killer songs from all the greatest 80's hair metal bands. I couldn't believe it. All my favourites!! I was extatic”, says Olli.

To complete the line-up they got Archie Cruz from Santa Cruz to play bass. Now this crazy crew was ready to rock!

Archie: ”When I got the call from Jussi, my jaw basically hit the floor. I had been watching these guys, these huge rockstars since I was a kid, and never in a million years thought I'd be in the same band with them when I was practising Bodom riffs in my bedroom, or watching a 69 Eyes show as a kid. The fact that we're playing pretty much all of my favorite songs makes it even cooler. Being a part of The Local Band is a dream come true for me and it´s been one of the coolest things in my life to be a part of this.”

The Local Band was supposed to last for one night only, for a single show at the legendary Tavastia club in Helsinki, with just one interview, no rehearsals and half a soundcheck. But the universe had some other plans for these rock gods, and now the mighty quartet is spreading their good vibes around the world: Their upcoming Locals Only – Dark Edition debut EP, full of all-time-classics, is coming out Dec 4th!

If you ask Jussi, the idea of recording an EP was written in the stars.

Jussi: ”Some weeks after our first show I walked into a bar in New York and they were playing Shout At The Devil by Mötley Crüe – which was our opening song at the Tavastia show – followed by Sunglasses At Night by Corey Hart. I saw this as a sign, and called Alexi to say that we can´t leave this cool thing here. We have to do this, we need to record a single, and At Night is the most perfect song for us to cover. Alexi agreed immediately. We didn´t want to cover the most obvious songs that every other cover band plays, as those songs are perfect the way those bands originally recorded them. We wanted to surprise people with unexpected, twisted songs. Suddenly recording just one song expanded into an EP. And it´s A perverse, totally unexpected collection of songs that me and Alexi came up with. Those are some of our favorites that pretty much nobody knows.”

The EP was recorded in four days, and The Local Band is very proud of the result.

”It´s a killer, mind blowing party music EP which is going to blow people´s minds. Oh, and the key word, the reason why we did this, even though every one of us is busier than ever with our own bands... We had so much fun doing it, a fucking blast! I know that can be heard from the end result”, says Jussi.
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But what's the point?

Shits and giggles.

But don't waste time recording covers.

Depends on what they do with the covers. At least they chose songs you don't tend to hear covered. I'm going to watch this one with interest. Way more interesting than the last 'snake album!

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Here's the track listing.

 

1. Sunglasses at Night – Corey Hart 5:10
2. Untouched – Jessica Origliasso, Lisa Origliasso, Toby Gad 4:11
3. Promises In The Dark – Pat Benatar, Neil Giraldo 4:52
4. Out Of The Darkness – Steven Van Zandt 3:59
5. Hazy Shade Of Winter – Paul Simon 2:46
6. The Darkest Side of The Night – Fred Mollin, Stan Meissner 4:45
7. Waiting For Darkness – Ozzy Osbourne 4:36

 

There is a number of YouTube videos from them live of course...

 

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  • My Little Pony

 

Not available to us Amerkins.

Get that Proxyflo thing Russ recommended. Works great.

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  • 3 weeks later...

 

I know the name, but don't know the original song at all. I do like this cover, but I hope this thing doesn't interfere with either Reckless Love or Santa Cruz.

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I'm sorry but that's a poor selection of songs to cover. They said they got together to drink jack and play Poison and Motley Crue.

 

None of these covers have anything in common with either band.

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I'm sorry but that's a poor selection of songs to cover. They said they got together to drink jack and play Poison and Motley Crue.

 

None of these covers have anything in common with either band.

"We wanted to surprise people with unexpected, twisted songs."

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  • 4 weeks later...

”Naturally, I was immediately exited and kept saying: "Yes – HELLYEAH!!!", over and over again while listening to Jussi talk me through the idea. Nothing could've kept me from taking part after I heard we would only perform killer songs from all the greatest 80's hair metal bands. I couldn't believe it. All my favourites!! I was extatic”, says Olli.

 

And not a single hair band on the CD. Weird.

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  • My Little Pony

Naturally, I was immediately exited and kept saying: "Yes HELLYEAH!!!", over and over again while listening to Jussi talk me through the idea. Nothing could've kept me from taking part after I heard we would only perform killer songs from all the greatest 80's hair metal bands. I couldn't believe it. All my favourites!! I was extatic, says Olli.

 

And not a single hair band on the CD. Weird.

Haha. I didn't even notice that.

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Naturally, I was immediately exited and kept saying: "Yes HELLYEAH!!!", over and over again while listening to Jussi talk me through the idea. Nothing could've kept me from taking part after I heard we would only perform killer songs from all the greatest 80's hair metal bands. I couldn't believe it. All my favourites!! I was extatic, says Olli.

 

And not a single hair band on the CD. Weird.

Check out their live gigs on YouTube.. Awesome. He does say 'perform' and NOT record ;)

 

I'm digging the EP and like that I don't own any of the songs on my other CDs.

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  • 5 weeks later...

So if they decided to cover all rap-rock songs ala Papa Roach, Linkin Park and Limp Biscuit, you'd buy it up?

If they were in the style as this EP I'd definitely give it a go. Probably wouldn't buy it blind, just like I didn't buy this one blind but my ears definitely wouldn't be closed to it. Some of my fav songs are hard rock and metal versions of songs from genres and bands I would NEVER listen to!

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Yeah, I much prefer hard rock versions of non-rock songs. In any good case, the original recording of a good rock song needn't be re-recorded. I especially love covers of catchy pop songs all "rocked up."

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  • 1 month later...

Great little album/ep despite only actually knowing two of the original songs.

Love their take on the Pat Benatar song especially.

Only one I was not sure of originally was The Veronicas cover song (track 2) as it starts out sounding a bit shitty, but after repeated listens, once you get past the horrible start, its a great little song.

Would certainly like to hear their take on some actual hair metal covers though, not just the live tracks from youtube.

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