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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!

Operation Ivy: Uncut Gilman St. Demos

Y'know Lookout records (more HERE) sure didn't start out a pop-punk label. In fact, it almost started out as a vanity label, what with it's first release being an LP by its co-founder, Lawrence Livermore and his band The Lookouts! That LP, One Planet, One People, once described as "Bob Dylan meets MDC", along with the Plaid Retina 7" that followed it as well as the Stikky LP and Plaid Retina single that came out not too much later) marked Lookout as a Maximum-Rocknroll-styled hardcore-holdover label. However it would be the three releases that I've skipped, Operation Ivy's Hectic, Crimpshrine's Sleep, What's That? and Isocracy's Bedtime for Isocracy (Lookout 3, 4 and 5 respectively), that would realy define the label's direction.

I wore mine down to the threads

While I've talked about Operation Ivy impact on me personally (see HERE), I'd like to add that I think that they were the viral band of the label's early days, the one whose records spread the Lookout brand of independently-minded but pop-friendly punk rock to the world beyond Berkley, California.





While we've offered you up a bevvy of boots of Op Ivy (see HERE) I'd like to add these Uncut Gilman St. Demos to the mix as they show the band's development well without in any way jeopardizing the need for every decent man, woman and child to own the real deal,  Energy.

So how were important were Op Ivy to the success of Lookout? Let us know in the COMMENTS section (which is where you'll find the Uncut Gilman St. Demos link).



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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).

Bob Mould: Daytroter Sessions (2011)

So I'm about half-way through Bob Mould's autobiography, See a Little Light and while it can be marred by pettiness and narcissism, (see the opening anecdote) it brings some fascinating insight into Bob the song-writer as does this acoustic Daytrotter session, which features the best song from his most recent album, Life and Times, "I'm Sorry, Baby, But You Can't Stand in my Light Anymore".





Tracks

    1  Welcome to Daytrotter
    2  The Breach
    3  I'm Sorry, Baby, But You Can't Stand in my Light Anymore
    4  Life and Times
    5  Bad Blood Better


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