MRR Presents: Turn It Around!, 1987 (now with FULL booklet!!)

To see my list of ten (more) great Lookout Records singles, please visit The Big Takeover!


We'll end the series commemorating the final end of Lookout Records (more HERE), with a compilation that was actually released by the fanzine, Maximumrocknroll. Of course, this 1987 double 7", was compiled by Lookout records co-founder David Hayes ("It was a Gilman benefit paid for by MRR but I disorganized it" he later claimed).  Soon enough, eight of the thirteen Gilman St. mainstays herein would end up on Lookout Records and help to define the label's sound and aesthetic.

In fact the record explains much  much of the nineties, like a vinyl Rosetta Stone. Here we have Operation Ivy single-handedly creating third-wave ska, Sweet Baby Jesus clearing the way for pop-punk in general and Green Day in particular, No Use For A Name setting up the Fat Wreck-Chords dynasty and The Yeastie Girlz sparking the Riot Grrl Revolution. Heady stuff.



Tracklist
A1     Corrupted Morals –  Where Is He?  1:43    
A2     Sweet Baby Jesus –  She's From Salinas     2:01    
A3     Isocracy –  Confederate Flags     2:07    
A4     No Use For A Name –  Gang Way     2:00    
B1     Crimpshrine –  Another Day     2:40    
B2     Operation Ivy –  I Got No     1:15    
B3     Stikky –  Fun On The Freeway     1:49    
B4     Nasal Sex –  Freezer Burn    1:48    
C1     Yeastie Girlz –  Yeast Power    0:35    
C2     Rabid Lassie –  Contragate     1:42    
C3     Sewer Trout –  Wally & The Beaver Go To Nicaragua     2:11    
C4     Isocracy –  ZBHR     0:56    
C5     Operation Ivy –  Officer     1:55    
D1     Sweet Baby Jesus –  Pathetic     1:49    
D2     Crimpshrine –  Rearranged     1:58    
D3     Stikky –  Moshometer     1:23    
D4     Buggerall –  Two Taps     2:25

 

Let us know your favourites from this seminal compilation in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Turn It Around link).

Pinhead Gunpowder (Green Day, Crimpmpshrine): Live

Cover by GloriaWhatsername

 

Pinhead Gunpowder (named after a very strong tea) are a sort of Gilman Street super-group, the Blind Faith of NoCal punk, if you will. After all the band is centered around uber-sceneststr Aaron Cometbus and prominently features Green Day's Billie-Joe Armstrong and other Gilman/Lookout Records (more HERE) vets. Fortunately, the band always played it low-key - releasing records sporadically, rarely playing live - thereby  avoiding any vestiges of hype. They've released a string of albums, singles, split releases and compilation appearances in their twenty-plus year existence without ever becoming widely-known. The group's songs (mostly written by Cometbus but some written by Armstrong under the pseudonym Wilhelm Fink) consistently offer a cool mid-temp punk with sharp-eyed, narrative lyrics, as this live show from 2010 goes a long way to prove.

 

 

Let us know what you think of this low-key super-group in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Live at Gilman St. link)

 

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Crimpshrine: Demo (1987)

The second figure in the early Lookout Records trinity (Op Ivy HERE, Isocracy to come) is surely Crimpshrine. Drummer Aron Cometbus looms large over the entire Bay Area scene, not only for his role in Crimpshrine, Pinhead Gunpowder et al but also for the scene-defining zine, Cometbus and for having a style of printing that is one of the key visual traits of the era. Melodic growler Jeff Ott (later of Fifteen) also influenced a generation of punk singers.

Here's a 1987 demo that shows all the band's elements coming together, a reminder of just how great the band wold be. For the uninitiated, The Sound of a New World Being Born (which collects up the band's earliest work) is the best point of entry*.





*Upon further inspection (Amazon, Interpunk and iTunes), all Crimpshrine material is completely out-of-print, so enjoy this till that wrong gets righted!