V.A. Can of Pork 2 X LP w/ 22 Pg. Booklet (Lookout Records, 1992)

Hey! Please come check out my list of classic Lookout full-lengths at The Big Takeover.

Lookout Records has finally been pronounced dead. While this comes as no shock, after getting wounded in 2006 and hemorrhaging most of it's lifeblood bands (Green Day, Op Ivy, Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Avail etc.),  the label's been in a coma since the spring of this year but it is still a passing we should mourn. While I expect a lengthy postmortem by Lawrence Livermore and possibly a post-houmous autobiography to make for effective eulogies, I would still like to offer a heartfelt goodbye to a label that helped shape my taste in music.

We'll begin with the now-unavailable 1992 compilation, Can of Pork, which shows how Lookout, despite its pop-punk reputation, ALWAYS had a diverse array of styles represented in their catalog. This diversity acts as a blessing and a curse in ever-varying proportions throughout the label's discography. Can of Pork  brings the ska with Downfall (ex-Op Ivy'ers ), Los Rudiments and The Horny Mormons, the more hardcore sounds of Engage and Jack Acid, quirkier stuff like Pounded Clown and Lizards and even the bands here most often labelled pop-punk, The Mr. T Experience, The Lookouts, The Porcelain Boys, Pinhead Gunpowder et al, don't sound all that much alike. It sure ain't all hella rad but it's all got life in it.

Various Shitz - Can of Pork

1     Bad Trip     Pounded Clown         1:54
2     Trinidad     Brent's T.V.         1:40
3     A Promise is a Promise     Lizards         1:47
4     Evolution     Engage         5:30
5     Redneck Woman from Planet Mars     Horny Mormons         1:49
6     Gotta Get a Job     One Man Running         1:49
7     Kick Me in the Head     The Lookouts         2:59
8     Void     Anger Means         2:10
9     Piano Song from Hell     Krupted Peasant Farmerz         3:41
10     Whiners     Preachers That Lie         1:39
11     Sidetrack     Porcelain Boys         2:52
12     Hole     Drippy Drawers         3:02
13     Noble End     Lagwagon         1:40
14     Martians Don't Skank     Los Rudiments         2:41
15     The Future     Rice         0:14
16     Learning How to Smile     Blatz         1:52
17     Parents Are Really Weird     Jack Acid         1:39
18     17 Reasons     Fifteen         3:45
19     College Town     Juke         2:18
20     T-Shirt Commercial     Mystery Experience         1:11
21     Berthe     Vagrants         5:00
22     Benicia by the Bay     Pinhead Gunpowder         1:50
23     North Berkeley     Downfall         2:26
24     Break     The Wynona Riders         2:47
25     Dysfunction     Spitboy         1:44
26     Why Quit     Good Grief         2:04
27     Other Day     Freefall         3:25
28     Two     Sawhorse         3:31
29     Vive La France     The Mr. T Experience         1:19


The AMAZING 22 page booklet that is included here, is a gift from the scanner of , Alex who runs a great Tumblr called Knife Ladder, which has posted lots of Lookout-related eye candy.

 

Whose your favourite Lookout band? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Can of Pork link).