Lookout Records

 ( Record Labels Established In 1987 ) 

According to Livermore, the name "Lookout" was chosen for his magazine and band and thus the label from whence it sprung was selected in reference to the United States Forest Service fire watch tower on Iron Peak, the highest point in Livermore's rural Mendocino County neighborhood.Livermore, How I Became a Capitalist: The Lookout Records Story, Part One, pg. 10. The company's iconic "beady eyes" logo was the early creation of David Hayes, who also handled much of the artwork for the label's early sleeves and LP jackets.Livermore, How I Became a Capitalist: The Lookout Records Story, Part One, pg. 11.

With Hayes's Corrupted Morals project moving forward as LK-02, a 7-inch EP entitled Chet, Livermore and Hayes jointly worked to bring about a third release later in 1987.Prested, Punk USA, pp. 10-11. This would be yet another 7-inch EP, a record by raw-edged Operation Ivy called Hectic.Prested, Punk USA, pg. 11. This third release proved to be an aural document of the right band at the right moment, with the release by the high energy local favorites selling through its first pressing of 1,000 copies within a month.Prested, Punk USA, pg. 12.

In an effort to make a splash, four 7-inch vinyl records were released simultaneously, including also releases by popular 924 Gilman bands Crimpshrine (LK-04) and Isocracy (LK-05). This initial barrage of new releases went far in cementing Lookout's place as a cutting edge local label for the Berkeley punk scene.

The "Gilman bands" began to form friendships amongst themselves and to play out together at other venues on the road. One important contact was made in the person of 14-year-old Chris Appelgren, a resident of the small town of Garberville, California who worked as a volunteer at community radio station KMUD and who had learned of The Lookouts and the burgeoning East Bay punk rock scene through the pages of Lookout magazine, which was distributed in the area.Prested, Punk USA, pg. 15. Appelgren attended a show held at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California played by Lookout Records bands Operation Ivy, Crimpshrine, Isocracy, and The Lookouts and was wowed by what he saw, meeting Livermore for the first time and making the acquaintance of Tim Armstrong of Op Ivy — later a leading member of Rancid. Before long Appelgren would be traveling to Livermore's Laytonville home to help with the stuffing of 7-inch vinyl into sleeves and packaging records for mailorder, becoming the label's first paid employee.Prested, Punk USA, pp. 15-16.

In addition, Hayes and Livermore differed greatly with respect to commercial motivation. In a 2015 memoir, Livermore recalled that

Although the winds of change had begun to blow even in 1988, David Hayes would remain very active with Lookout through the summer of 1989, albeit with dissatisfaction regarding the label's direction growing, and his expressed desires of departure becoming more frequent.Livermore, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label, pg. 81. Hayes had gradually come to find working with Livermore to be insufferable and sought peace and artistic freedom through formation of his own record label.

Believing that Hayes's participation in the Lookout project as bookkeeper and skilled mitigator of the demands of demanding bands was essential, the 16-year old Appelgren clearly not being ready for the role, Livermore tried a last-ditch effort to retain Hayes with the label, offering to take over all mundane operational tasks while leaving Hayes with "half the profits" as financial coordinator and public face of the organization.Livermore, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label, pp. 81-82. The anti-commercial Hayes flatly rejected this proposal with the declaration that "there's too much golden light around Lookout right now," adding that work on his label of love had come to feel "too much like a job."Livermore, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label, pg. 82.

With a quiet determination, Hayes declared that his departure would take effect on January 1, 1990, adding "I don't want anything more to do with Lookout, and I don't want anything more from Lookout."Livermore, How to Ru(i)n a Record Label, pp. 82-83. The speechless Livermore was left with full ownership and control of the label on the very eve of its commercial success. David Hayes would go on to start his own label, Very Small Records, releasing dozens of records over the coming decade that ran the gamut of punk styles, maintaining fidelity to his artistic and ethical vision — while the label that he exited would go on to become a multimillion-dollar commercial enterprise.

In the spring of 1994 Lookout principal Larry Livermore made a very public break with Tim Yohannan and his Maximum Rocknroll, for which Livermore had written since 1987. With punk exploding in popularity and various tangential musical forms attaching themselves to the movement and swamping MRR with promotional material, a tightening of musical focus was demanded by Yohannan — a move which led to the launch of the more eclectic rival publication Punk Planet. Livermore rebelled at the new line, charging that MRR had increasingly become "a lifestyle journal for retro-punks" who "think if they dress up in the same clothes they wore 15 years ago, if they drink the same beer and play the same guitar riffs, that somehow it'll be the glory days of punk all over again." Despite Yohannan's radical politics, Maximum had been revealed to be "simply another business," Livermore provocatively declared.

In 1995, with the help of Green Day's "1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours" and "Kerplunk", Lookout Records made $10 million in sales.

Co-founder Larry Livermore left the label in 1997.

In 1998, the label signed Palo Alto-based band The Donnas and would release 3 albums from the band between 1998 and 2001 as well as reissue their debut album. With decent sales and heavy coverage of the band from mainstream media outlets, The Donnas would depart for Atlantic Records in 2002. Other veteran acts such as The Queers, Pansy Division and Avail would depart in the early 2000s citing poor promotion and the label's increasing attention and spending on new acts.

By 2002, Lookout began to shift focus from its East Bay pop punk roots to a more diverse sound by releasing albums from bands such as Pretty Girls Make Graves, Ted Leo And The Pharmacists, The Oranges Band and Neuman's own band Bratmobile. The shift in direction and new releases from veteran acts like The Smugglers and The Mr. T Experience could not offset declining album sales and financial mismanagement including unprofitable showcases at the Warped Tour and CMJ. By 2004, the label had closed its retail store on University Avenue in Berkeley.