We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful

Well... we don't exactly hate them.  So we'll keep selling their records.  And not so much paying them... royalties.  For their records.  Which we've kept selling.  Lots of them.  Hmmm.  Looks like Lookout has become the SST of the new millenium**.  Double-plus bad news now that Lookout doesn't have much left with which to catch the record buying public's fancy, back catalog-wise.***   Save Operation Ivy, it seems, who are apparently an increasingly rare "blue chip" punk rock investment.  Larry Livermore offers "[t]hat [Energy]'s been Lookout's best-selling record for years now, and if they lose that, Lookout is done for sure".  Oy vey, oy vey... now this -- check out the list of recent/semi-recent other big name defections from Lookout: Avail, Screeching Weasel (whose Lookout! catalog is being reissued, with nice new art, remastering, and bonus stuff, by Asian Man), The Riverdales, The Lillingtons, The Criminals, The Groovie Ghoulies, Pansy Division, and Enemy You.

Here's Lookout tepid kinda lame response (just to the Green Day deal):

After a tremendously successful decade and a half-long relationship with Lookout Records, Green Day is taking the reigns of their Lookout albums, "1039/Smoothed-Out Slappy Hours" and "Kerplunk" as well as their EPs "1000 Hours" and "Slappy." There are no details as of yet as to what the band has planned for these great early releases but "1039/Smoothed..." was already the subject of a successful remastered reissue in early 2004 and both albums are certified Gold.

Green Day are an incredible force in music and Lookout Records is proud to have been their first home. Despite any rumors or conjecture to the contrary, Lookout and Green Day's long relationship has always been based on trust, friendship and partnership and those bonds remain shared between the label and the band now and into the future.

In other words, blahblahblah... nothing. Except, y'know, to drop a couple hints that they're always on the lookout (ha!) for good bankruptcy attorneys.

Also!  This brings up a crucial question about the Green Day/Lookout legacy: will Al Sobrante finally get what's been coming to him?  If not, two more words: punitive damages. With a capital P.

Also also... Larry Livermore!  Well, he's pretty awesome.  Here's what he had to say about the current Lookout shenanigans -- OK, here's what someone purporting to be former Lookout owner Larry Livermore (seems pretty likely to me) had to say, on this thread on the Punk Rock Bored -- you may have to scroll hither and thither to find the nore meaty quotes, so let's say it's prolly easier first to check on llivermore's profile and then on the specific entries at issue:

"I don't know too many details, but I do know the problem has been going on for a long time, and that Green Day has been more than patient."

"If anyone should be griping, it should be me: I basically gave those Green Day records to the current Lookout owners, and they basically threw them away."

"It's about money, and also about bad faith. Lookout has been failing to pay Green Day (and other bands) for years now, and apparently using the money instead to put out a series of terrible records that very few people wanted to buy.  Gambling on new bands is part of what a record label does, but you don't do it with other people's money."

"Green Day could have taken their records away several years ago when Lookout first breached their contract, but they were generous enough to allow Lookout to keep licensing the records in hopes that the label would get back on its feet.  No matter how rich a band is, they shouldn't be expected to subsidize a failing label forever, especially when that label isn't doing anything particularly worthwhile.  Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it kind of makes me sick to see what's happened to a label I put so much of my heart and soul into."

The general "Green Day loves/hates/takes old records back from Lookout" thread -- it's kinda scatterschot, I think -- not exactly in ez-to-read sequence, unlike Livermore blunt-and-kinda-to-the-point quotes above.  I'm pretty certain the quotes are what they are****, and otherwise tried too cite appropriately and nix the innuendo.  Here's a pretty good (older) interview with Larry about, live, things, OP IV, etc.

Let's take an, ummm, detour.... through time... and space.  All the way back to my freshman year in high school, where I was serving (at least) one day of in-school suspension (techincally called DMC -- Discipline Management Class).  This day in question founnd me writing Larry Livermore this long, kinda geeky letter about, among other things, wanting to one day be a punk rock lawyer.  He was very kind and wrote me back, wishing me success in all my endeavors. I think he pointed out, quite presciently, that each vocation was full-time job and, done with a focused heart, balancing the two might ultimately prove to be a bit of a sticky wicket. 

So... my life today pretty much burns brightly as testament to the clear advisability of following Larry Livermore's advice to an exact fucking tee.  I wish I could find that letter (written on the back of a Lookout mailorder catalog, kinda lime-green paper if I remember) -- I know I kept it through at least early undergrad, but it was probably lost in a flurry of moves from one apartment to the next.  I also used to read a lot of those super-easy-to-smudge newsprint Lookout zines where they would talk about Tre Cool risking missing early Green Day shows because he would get grounded.

Lawrence Livermore was also the first person to turn me on to The Modern Lovers viz his always-entertaining MRR columns (or maybe Lookout,Magazine), proclaiming The Modern Lover's "Pablo Picasso" to be one of the all-time great early punk rock songs.  That's pretty mind-blowing information and wisdom for a 15 year-old to get their hands on, you know? 

**If SST had actually released any new music in the last 7 or 8 years (Greg Ginn solo projects don't count... for anything... except maybe tax write-offs, or, more likely, money laundering schemes), there could be a little competiton here.

***Don't get me started on Lookout's current roster, even for the past 6 or 7 years.  I have two words: shit sandwich.

****Although if this is not Larry Livermore, you can pretty much ignore the paragraphs/sentences herein, all atributed to what would be a fake him.

Comments

[minnie]

i just noticed your human clock photoalbum. i like it.

[Two Dishes]

I have to thank you. I was stuck in a long post office line with nothing to read but some saved blog postings and enjoyed this Green Day one.

What do we owe you for researching all this!

I massively salute your letter writing incident. And I agree that moving sucks, losing that stuff. (I finally put my molar, a chunk of Pompeii and some other stuff in a safe deposit box).