Lookout! Records Shuts Down Completely
Lookout! Records, the Bay Area punk label that has served as a home to bands such as Green Day, Operation Ivy, Rancid, Alkaline Trio, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Screeching Weasel and the Donnas, has officially shut down after years of financial troubles. News of the label’s demise was confirmed on Ted Leo’s website, where the rocker informed his fans that his three Lookout! albums were no longer available on digital services because the label has taken all of its titles out of circulation.
The good news for Leo is that the label has granted him complete ownership of those records, which include his breakout hits The Tyranny of Distance and Hearts of Oak. “I have to go through some legal stuff with the digital services to get the records back up online, and I’m hoping to have that all taken care of very soon,” Leo wrote on his site. Presumably, Leo’s former label mates have also been given control of their Lookout! material, though so far this is unconfirmed. Other bands, including Screeching Weasel, Pansy Division and Avail, have previously reissued their Lookout! albums on other indie labels.
Lookout! Records was founded by Larry Livermore and David Hayes in Berkeley, California in 1987. The label is best known for its emphasis on the pop-punk style, which early label signees Green Day eventually brought into the mainstream upon signing to a major label in the early Nineties.