User:IllaZilla/Lookout! Records

Lookout Records
Founded	1987 (1987)
Founder	Larry Livermore, David Hayes
Defunct	2012 (2012)
Status	Inactive
Distributor(s)	Mordam Records, RED Distribution
Genre	Punk rock, alternative rock
Country of origin	United States
Location	Berkeley, California
Official website	lookoutrecords.com

Lookout Records (often written with an exclamation point as Lookout! Records)^[I] was an American independent record label closely associated with the punk rock revival of the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was founded in San Francisco in 1987 by musician and zine publisher Larry Livermore and Maximumrocknroll staffer David Hayes to document the emerging East Bay punk scene centered around the non-profit music venue at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley. Lookout made a name for itself releasing records by local bands, including the sole album by Operation Ivy and the first two albums by Green Day, which remained its top sellers for much of the label's run.

For most of its first few years, Livermore ran the label from his home in the remote mountain community of Spy Rock, 160 miles north of the San Francisco Bay Area. After Hayes left Lookout at the end of 1989, Livermore moved the label's operations to Berkeley, brought Chris Appelgren and Patrick Hynes on as partners, and began signing bands from outside of California, including Screeching Weasel, the Queers, and Avail. After Green Day signed to major label Reprise Records in 1993 and achieved mainstream international success, Lookout quickly grew into a multi-million dollar business buoyed largely by sales of the band's back catalog and that of Operation Ivy. Through a partnership with Canadian independent label Mint Records, Lookout released albums by Canadian acts Cub and the Smugglers.

Livermore resigned from Lookout in 1997 amid disputes with Screeching Weasel frontman Ben Weasel over royalty payments. Hynes also stepped down to a more limited role, and ownership of the company was turned over to Appelgren, Molly Neuman, and Cathy Bauer. Under their direction Lookout purchased Weasel's Panic Button Records imprint and continued to expand its own roster, experiencing the most success with the Donnas and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. The label began experiencing financial difficulties, however, and fell into arrears with royalty payments to its artists. Consequently, in the mid-2000s most of its highest-selling artists invoked clauses in their contracts allowing them to rescind the rights to their recordings, depriving the label of much of its income. Lookout ceased releasing new material in 2005, focusing on keeping its back catalog in print, but terminated its remaining business operations in early 2012.

History

Origins (1985–1987)

Co-founder Larry Livermore, pictured in 2015

Lookout Records' founders, Larry Livermore (real name Lawrence Hayes) and David Hayes (no relation), were drawn together through Maximumrocknroll and the Gilman Street Project. Livermore, a former hippie originally from Detroit, had been living in the San Francisco Bay Area where he became interested in the punk rock movement of the late 1970s. He became a fan of the Maximumrocknroll radio program broadcast weekly on Berkeley's KPFA, on which host Tim Yohannan would play new punk rock records. In 1982 he moved to the Spy Rock community in the mountains near Laytonville, California, about 160 miles north of the Bay Area in Mendocino County, where he lived an off-the-grid lifestyle. Able to pick up the KPFA signal from a spot on a high ridge, he tuned in to the Maximurocknroll show regularly to keep abreast of the new punk music being broadcast. In 1984 he launched a self-published magazine titled Lookout! in which he wrote about urban punk rock, politics, environmentalism, counterculture, rural news, and local gossip. He distributed copies of the zine up and down the coast and in the Bay Area, and sold it through the mail. In 1985 he started a punk rock band, the Lookouts, recruiting as his drummer then-preteen Tré Cool. Maximumrocknroll had by then expanded from a radio program to a monthly zine covering the punk subculture in the Bay Area and beyond, and Livermore sent the magazine a copy of the Lookouts' demo tape, which received a positive review from Yohannan. David Hayes was on the magazine's staff, and wrote to Livermore to order a copy of the demo, asking permission to include two of its songs on a compilation titled Bay Mud that he was releasing on cassette to document the Northern California punk scene of the time. Livermore agreed, and the two continued to exchange letters, forming a tentative friendship.

In early 1986 Livermore made an extended visit to San Francisco, befriending Yohannan. The Lookouts played their first Bay Area show that May, opening for several other punk bands including the Mr. T Experience at a Berkeley pizza parlor. The show went so well that the organizers decided to find a dedicated space to put on more, leading to the founding of the Gilman Street Project, a non-profit, all-ages, collectively organized music venue in West Berkeley. Yohannan funded the project through Maximumrocknroll and provided much of the direction. Livermore was one of the club's earliest organizers and volunteers. Hayes also volunteered, and used his graphic design skills to create many of the club's concert flyers as well as its event calendar. To be closer to the emerging scene, Livermore and Hayes both rented rooms at "the Rathouse", an apartment situated midway between San Francisco's Mission and Castro districts from which they would later launch Lookout Records. For the next year and a half Livermore divided his time between the Bay Area and his home in Spy Rock, making the three-and-a-half hour drive each way several times a week.

The Mr. T Experience's debut album, Everybody's Entitled to Their Own Opinion, was released that fall and inadvertently set the template for many of Lookout Records' early releases. Livermore had known singer and guitarist Frank Portman since 1984, and asked him how he had made the album. Portman explained that they had searched the telephone directory for a local recording studio and recording engineer with the cheapest rates, recorded at Dangerous Rhythm studio in Oakland with producer and engineer Kevin Army, and had the recordings mastered by John Golden at K-Disc in Hollywood and the records manufactured at the Alberti pressing plant in Monterey Park. Livermore followed this same process to make the Lookouts' first studio album, One Planet One People, recorded that October. He paid for the recording session and for the LPs to be pressed out of his own savings, but put the fictitious record label name "Lookout Records" on the sleeve: "No such company existed;" he wrote in a later memoir, "I'd just slapped the name on there to make it look more 'official'."

924 Gilman Street, pictured in 2009

The Gilman Street Project opened on December 31, 1986 and quickly became the center of the East Bay punk scene. The Lookouts held their record release show for One Planet One People there in April 1987, and that same month Livermore began writing a monthly column for Maximumrocknroll titled "Lookout! It's Lawrence Livermore!" In June he left on a trip to Europe for several months; While he was away, Maximumrocknroll commissioned David Hayes to put together a compilation to raise money for the Gilman Street Project, featuring bands that played at the club. He shepherded a dozen local bands in and out of Dangerous Rhythm to record with Kevin Army, resulting in the double 7-inch album Turn It Around! Four of those bands—Corrupted Morals, Operation Ivy, Crimpshrine, and Isocracy—would soon comprise Lookout Records' initial roster.

Returning from his trip in September 1987, Livermore saw Operation Ivy perform at Gilman Street and was so impressed that he offered to make a record with them, already being acquainted with guitarist Tim Armstrong. He quickly made the same offer to fellow Gilman Street favorites Isocracy. Hayes wanted to put out an EP by Corrupted Morals, so the two agreed to join forces. Learning that Crimpshrine had already recorded enough songs for an EP, Livermore offered to put out theirs as well. Hayes organized the recording sessions for the other three bands, again utilizing Dangerous Rhythm and Kevin Army, and did the art layouts for the record sleeves, which were photocopied onto colored sheets of legal-sized paper at the same Berkeley copy shop where Livermore was now printing Lookout! magazine. Livermore used the last of his savings to pay for the 7-inch records to be made, and communicated with the pressing plant, mastering lab, and printers. Each record had an initial run of 1,000 copies; Hayes, being more attentive to formats and packaging than Livermore, stamped each cover sequentially as an added touch for record collectors.

First releases and addition of Chris Appelgren (early 1988)

Operation Ivy, one of Lookout's first bands, performing at Gilman Street in 1988

The two business partners disagreed on what to call their fledgling independent record label. Hayes, an avid cyclist who worked as a bicycle mechanic, wanted to call it Sprocket Records, after bicycle sprockets (he sometimes went by the nickname "Sprocket", which he used as his credit on some releases). Livermore preferred Lookout Records, arguing that it would give them more name recognition since Lookout! magazine and his Maximumrocknroll column were widely read in the area. Livermore won out, and Hayes created the label's logo, which built on the "double-Os as eyes" concept used for the magazine and the cover of One Planet One People by turning them into the eyes of a cartoon smiley face. One Planet One People retroactively became catalog number LK 01, while LK 02–05 were Corrupted Morals' Chet, Operation Ivy's Hectic, Crimpshrine's Sleep, What's That?, and Isocracy's Bedtime for Isocracy. Taking out an ad in Maximumrocknroll (with Hayes' cheeky line "No one buys 7-inch records anymore, so we're putting out four of them"), Livermore and Hayes began selling the new EPs in mid-January 1988 at Gilman Street and through mail order, using Livermore's post office box in Laytonville as the label's business address. The royalty rate they decided on, with 60% of profits going to the bands and 40% to the label, provided a higher return per record to the bands than most other independent labels offered and would remain constant for the next ten years.

Sales surpassed their expectations; they sold out their supply within a month and did a second pressing of of each title. A few local record stores were willing to take copies on consignment, but to get them sold elsewhere Livermore approached San Francisco-based distribution company Mordam Records, founded by Ruth Schwartz, one of Maximumrocknroll's original editors. Mordam handled distribution for Maximumrocknroll and Alternative Tentacles (the independent punk label owned by former Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, which carried the lucrative Dead Kennedys catalog). Schwartz declined to take Lookout on as a client, however, judging that Mordam could not afford to take a chance on such a small startup label. Their next best option was local company Systematic Record Distribution, but Systematic went out of business shortly after being given hundreds of copies of Lookout's new releases. After this setback, Livermore and Hayes were able to get limited distribution through Caroline Records and Rough Trade Records, with mixed results.

At Yohannan's invitation, Livermore gave up his room at the Rathouse and moved into Yohannan's apartment in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood, which doubled as the Maximumrocknroll headquarters. Yohannan had suggested that Livermore could make use of his computers and publishing facilities to expand Lookout! magazine and Lookout Records in exchange for working on Maximumrocknroll. The two butted heads, however, and Livermore soon returned to living at Spy Rock full time. He would co-run Lookout remotely from his home there for the next two years, handling the increasing mail order volume through the Laytonville post office. There were no telephone lines in his rural community, so friends at a skateboarding collective in San Francisco let him install a phone line and answering machine in their warehouse for Lookout purposes; he would drive 10 miles from his home to the nearest payphone and call the answering machine to retrieve messages and return calls. When he needed to travel south to meet with bands or do recording work, he would often sleep in the camper shell of his truck so he could return north swiftly. Meanwhile, Hayes stayed in the Bay Area working with bands, attending recording sessions, and doing layouts for releases. He shared an apartment with Isocracy/Samiam bassist Martin Brohm near Dancing Dog Studio in Emeryville, where several of Lookout's bands recorded. The apartment served as Lookout's Bay Area office; Livermore would sometimes stay over after late recording sessions, and he and Hayes would discuss business and package records.

In early March 1988 Livermore organized a show of Lookout bands—Operation Ivy, the Lookouts, Isocracy, and Crimpshrine—in Arcata, California, almost 300 miles northwest of the Bay Area, at the request of some Humboldt State University students. There, he and Hayes met 14 year-old Chris Appelgren, who hosted a weekly punk rock show on community radio station KMUD in Garberville. Livermore appeared on the program as a guest and within a few weeks became its co-host, a role he would fill for the next several years, developing an on- and off-air rapport with Appelgren despite their 26-year age difference. When Hayes left for six weeks to accompany Operation Ivy on the band's first and only tour, Livermore brought Appelgren on as Lookout's first employee, paying him US$5 per hour to fold record sleeves and package mail orders a few hours a week. What was meant to be a temporary arrangement until Hayes' return soon became a weekly routine due to increasing sales: On weekends Livermore would pick Appelgren up from his home in Miranda and drive him to Spy Rock (60 miles each way), where they would package records, then drive him back home. Livermore took Appelgren further under his wing by introducing him to Gilman Street and helping him to start his own fanzine. After a while, Appelgren, a budding artist, began illustrating rudimentary Lookout advertisements and show flyers. An only child raised by a single mother, he later reflected that Livermore filled some aspects of a surrogate father role for him and "gave me some incredible opportunities."

The Thing That Ate Floyd (late 1988)

Hayes was primarily responsible for Lookout's next three releases, consisting of of the debut album by Stikky and EPs by Plaid Retina and Sewer Trout (he had previously worked with Stikky and Sewer Trout on Turn It Around!). Lookout's initial agreements with bands were handshake deals, but Livermore, acting on advice, drew up a a straightforward recording contract for Stikky. The final clause was an early version of language that would later become standard in the label's contracts; guitarist Chris Wilder later recalled that it read "something along the lines of 'Over and above the preceding agreement, the two parties agree to work together in the spirit of mutual respect and friendship, in mutual benefit, to resolve any differences or concerns as we move positively forward...'"

While Hayes worked on those releases, Livermore focused on the Yeastie Girlz, an all-girl, feminist, a capella rap trio that had formed spontaneously at Gilman Street and also had a track on Turn It Around! Their lone EP, Ovary Action (LK 09), was Lookout's first release to be distributed by Mordam Records; Tim Yohannan had pressured Ruth Schwartz to reconsider taking Lookout on as a client, and she had offered Livermore a deal. Sales swiftly increased; Mordam soon sold out Lookout's entire stock of titles and ordered more pressings. "I doubt the company would have survived without Mordam", Livermore later reflected. "Sales doubled and doubled again. Because there was a three-month lag between when records sold and when we got paid, I had to do some creative account juggling at first, but once we got caught up, and for as long as I stayed with the label, covering our bills would never again be an issue."

I was very petrified at the idea of [David Hayes] leaving. I was begging him not to. I said, you can stay under almost any terms. Part of the reason was that I couldn't do the finances, because at the time I was on still on disability for crazy people. That was my income [...] If I had to start filing tax returns and financial reports, it meant I was working. And it was the end of my guaranteed money. Lookout was making a small profit, but not enough to support one person, let alone two.

–Larry Livermore

Despite this growth, rifts were forming between Livermore and Hayes. While Livermore would have preferred that more time and scrutiny be put into the label's recording sessions, Hayes valued speed and efficiency over perfection. Livermore often spoke of Lookout's bands and records in overblown rhetoric, speculating about them gaining popularity beyond the local punk scene, but Hayes found this crass and harbored an anti-commercial instinct that reflected the Maximumrocknroll-dominated Northern California punk scene's hostility toward anything resembling traditional success. While they agreed on some of the label's signings, Livermore preferred bands with pop sensibilities and catchy songs while Hayes had a preference for abrasive, heavy metal-tinged hardcore punk which Livermore was not fond of. Fans of the label began to distinguish which of the two partners was responsible for which releases. Communication between the two deteriorated until Hayes announced he was quitting Lookout to start his own label, and began soliciting bands to be on his first release, a compilation album that was to be titled Floyd.

Livermore doubted that he could run Lookout himself, especially since he lacked Hayes' organizational and graphical skills, which became evident as he began recruiting bands for his own compilation but could not come up with recordings, artwork, or a title. "I was mostly hype", he later wrote; "Meeting with bands, talking to people, getting attention. I was more like the spark plug, and [Hayes] was the very solid engine." Livermore was also dependent on Hayes to handle Lookout's finances, which he had thus far been recording on loose leaf paper. Livermore had been collecting Social Security Disability Insurance for mental illness since 1966, when he had been arrested for setting fire to his college, and had also been on welfare since 1971. While living at Spy Rock he had somewhat reluctantly taken up illegal cannabis cultivation for additional income. With Hayes handling the label's finances and paperwork, Livermore was able to continue collecting Social Security and welfare and to keep his illicit and legitimate businesses separate. If Hayes left, Livermore would have to file taxes and report his income from the label, likely losing his Social Security and welfare, and his cannabis trade might be exposed. "The record label was too big now, too much of a legitimate business for me to be doing anything shady on the side", he later wrote; "If, God forbid, I ever got raided, the authorities would almost surely assume the label's finances were being underwritten by drug money. In reality they were not; the label had been self-sustaining since the beginning. But convincing the cops or the taxman of that would be a tough sell." The dilemma was solved when Hayes, having nearly completed putting together Floyd, lacked the financial resources to press and distribute it. Agreeing that it would be counterproductive to release two competing Bay Area compilations, Livermore and Hayes combined their efforts to make a double album, The Thing That Ate Floyd (LK 11), salvaging the Lookout partnership for another year. By the time of its release in December 1988 Lookout had doubled its number of releases and its income, grossing sales of about $20,000 for the year.

Energy, Green Day, and David Hayes' departure (1989)

Lookout's next release would prove to be one of its perennial best sellers. At the March 1988 show in Arcata, Operation Ivy had announced to Livermore and Hayes that they wanted to record a full-length album. Instead of a recording studio, they insisted on recording it at Gilman Street with the club's resident sound engineer, Radley Hirsch. Months went by, however, with only rough mixes of songs emerging from the sessions. The band eventually became dissatisfied with Hirsch's mixing job and vision for the album, and asked Livermore to inform him that they were abandoning the project. Eventually Hayes bluntly asked Tim Armstrong if the band was going to make the record or not, and in January 1989 they went into San Francisco's Sound and Vision studio with Kevin Army and recorded Energy (LK 10) in only six days. It took a few more months for singer Jesse Michaels to produce the cover art; he was also supposed to create the lyric sheet, but gave up on it at the last minute, so Hayes took over and produced it.

Green Day (pictured in 2010) joined Lookout in 1988 and released their first two albums on the label.

Another event in 1988 that would lead to later success for the label occurred when Al Sobrante, drummer of the now-defunct Isocracy, joined 16-year-olds Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt in their recently-launched band, Sweet Children, and contacted Livermore about getting them a show. Tré Cool had committed the Lookouts to performing at a high school party at a cabin in the hills above Willits, so Livermore added Sweet Children to the show. Upon arriving the bands found themselves and five teenagers standing in the snow, locked out of the cabin. They broke in and found an electric generator, and Sweet Children performed for the tiny audience by candlelight. The Lookouts never got to play, but Livermore was so impressed by Sweet Children's performance that he offered to make a record with them. At the end of the year they went into Art of Ears studio in Hayward with engineer Andy Ernst and recorded the EP 1,000 Hours (LK 17). The band changed its name to Green Day just before the record sleeves and labels were printed, forcing Lookout to redo the packaging.

Meanwhile, the Lookouts had recorded their second album, Spy Rock Road (LK 018), and Lookout had completed EPs by Surrogate Brains (Surrogate Serenades, LK 13) and Crimpshrine (Quit Talkin' Claude..., LK 15).. To celebrate the spate of new releases, Livermore and Hayes scheduled a record release show at Gilman Street on May 28, 1989 headlined by Operation Ivy, with the Lookouts, Crimpshrine, Surrogate Brains, and Green Day opening. Operation Ivy decided to break up, however, and the record release party was rebranded as their last show. The band had become so popular in the area that Livermore, who was one of the volunteers helping to count and disburse the cash collected at the door, estimated that about 1,000 people crowded into Gilman Street for the show, four times the club's legal capacity.

In addition to these releases, during the first half of 1989 Lookout released EPs by Neurosis, Eyeball, and Kamala and the Karnivores. The label missed the opportunity to release Crimpshrine's only studio album, Lame Gig Contest; when drummer Aaron Cometbus gave Livermore a cassette tape of the recordings, Livermore thought it was a demo and suggested that the band needed time to let new guitarist Idon Bryant settle into the lineup before making a record. Crimpshrine instead released the album through German label Musical Tragedies, which shocked and upset Livermore. Livermore had also wanted to sign Sweet Baby to Lookout, but Kevin Army arranged a deal for them with Ruby Records, who ended up dropping the band after their sole studio album, It's a Girl! (Lookout would re-release the album in 1996, as LK 157).

Hayes had by this time become increasingly frustrated with Lookout. According to Cometbus, he threw copies of Energy out the window of his moving car when the album was released, "to sort of christen it, and to express his frustration. That really bummed out [Operation Ivy], though. They were in the car right behind his." Cometbus also said that Hayes "would make another 20 Op Ivy records stamped 'Number One' whenever he got drunk, just to fuck with the collectors." By the end of that summer, Hayes again declared that he was leaving Lookout. Desperate to keep him, Livermore offered him half of the label's profits to act as its official face, signing checks and filing legal papers while Livermore did the day-to-day work behind the scenes. Hayes turned the offer down, saying that there was "too much golden light around Lookout right now" and that being part of the label had come to feel too much like a job. He declared that he would no longer be part of Lookout as of the end of the year, and wanted nothing more from or to do with the label. His final two projects for Lookout were LPs by Corrupted Morals (Cheese-It, LK 19) and Plaid Retina (Pink Eye, LK 20). He quickly launched his own label, Very Small Records, specializing in compilations, limited editions, and odd formats. Livermore graciously announced Hayes' departure in the winter 1990 issue of Lookout! magazine, praising his organizational and graphical talents and promoting his new label's releases, but Hayes maintained a deep resentment toward Livermore and Lookout for decades afterward, referring to Livermore derisively as "the hippie". Livermore completed the necessary paperwork with the state and county to assume sole responsibility for paying taxes and filing legal forms for Lookout Records. "I had to go to Social Security and tell them I'm making money", he said twenty years later; "I had to to take this giant leap of faith that Lookout was gonna start supporting me."

Move to Berkeley and addition of Patrick Hynes (1990)

The Mr. T Experience (pictured in 2017) joined Lookout in 1990 and stayed with the label until it folded.

With Hayes gone, Appelgren took on more graphic design responsibilities for Lookout, illustrating advertisements and catalogs. According to Livermore, his art "had an uproarious anarchic feel" that appealed the label's young audience. He made his first foray into album art with an illustration of Green Day for the inlay to their first studio album, 39/Smooth (LK 22), released in early 1990. Also released at that time was Neurosis' The Word as Law (LK 21), the label's first release to have a full-color cover. Livermore also signed the Mr. T Experience, who had formed in Berkeley in 1985 and who he had been trying to sign since starting Lookout. They had released their second album, Night Shift at the Thrill Factory (1988), and the EP Big Black Bugs Bleed Blue Blood (1989) through British label Rough Trade Records; when Rough Trade went bankrupt, the band decided to sign with Lookout, and was one of the only acts to remain with the label until it ceased doing business. They planned an album for later that year, but put together the single "So Long, Sucker" (LK 23) in time for a record release show at Gilman Street that March with Neurosis, Green Day, and Samiam, whose EP I Am was LK 24.

That June Lookout released ten EPs in a single month by a new wave of Gilman Street bands, an ambitious project made more challenging by the fact that both Livermore and Appelgren were staying in Arcata, more than 250 miles from the Bay Area: Livermore had enrolled in a summer course at College of the Redwoods in Eureka and was staying in an apartment belonging to Brent's T.V. singer John Denery; Appelgren was staying at Humboldt State University where he was enrolled in an Upward Bound program. LK 25–32, 34, and 35 were EPs by Cringer, Fuel, Monsula, the Lookouts, the Skinflutes, Filth, Blatz, the Vagrants, Fifteen (led by former Crimpshrine singer/guitarist Jeff Ott), and Green Day, several of whom would have additional future releases on Lookout (LK 33 was to be an EP by the band East Bay Mud, but it was canceled when Livermore deemed the recordings subpar). At the end of the summer came an EP by Brent's T.V. (Lumberjack Days, LK 36). Appelgren was beginning his senior year of high school and decided to quit Lookout to focus on his studies.

Livermore re-enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley in the fall of 1990 to finish his bachelor's degree (he had first enrolled there in 1975, but dropped out in his junior year), moving himself and Lookout's operations into a one-room, rent controlled apartment on Berkeley Way. He was reluctant to change the label's business address (PO Box 1000, Laytonville, California, 95454) because it was easy for fans and customers to remember, but the volume of mail that Lookout was now receiving was too much for the post office to continue forwarding, so he took out a post office box in Berkeley as its new address. The last release to bear the Laytonville address, the Mr. T Experience's Making Things with Light (LK 37), was also Lookout's first release to be issued in compact disc (CD) format; all of the label's prior releases had been phonograph records, and starting with Energy most of its full-length albums had also been released as cassette tapes. This was partly because CDs were more expensive to make and consequently were priced higher to the consumer, but also because many punks and audio purists rejected CDs as commercial and inferior (Maximumrocknroll, in which Lookout advertised, refused to review CDs). The CD version of Making Things with Light included extra tracks to take advantage of the format's longer running time and to justify its higher sale price, and within months it outsold both other formats. Lookout subsequently re-released the band's first album, 1986's Everybody's Entitled to Their Own Opinion (LK 39), and Livermore planned CD reissues of several previous Lookout releases.

With Appelgren gone, Livermore needed help running the label and doing graphic design. 18 year-old Patrick Hynes, a UC Berkeley freshman studying electrical engineering and computer science, had previously sent Lookout a package including his illustrations and fanzine, impressing Livermore and Appelgren. Livermore met Hynes at a volunteer meeting for the university's community radio station, KALX, and brought him aboard to illustrate advertisements and design catalogs. "Patrick was a priceless addition to the Lookout roster", Livermore later wrote; "His artistic style became as indelibly linked with our image as Chris' already had, and his calm, reasoned manner was the perfect antidote to the basket-of-kittens-and-headless-chickens uproar that typically characterized our operations." Appelgren met Hynes around the Christmas break, when Livermore brought him along to Garberville for his and Appelgren's KMUD show; they stayed at Appelgren's house afterward, and the three worked together on art for a Lookout ad in Maximumrocknroll.

CDs, Appelgren's return, and Screeching Weasel (1991)

Early 1991 saw the release of Fifteen's debut album, Swain's First Bike Ride (LK 40), as well as the final recordings by Lookout Records' original band, the Lookouts, whose EP IV, recorded the previous July, was released as LK 42. By the time of its release drummer Tré Cool had replaced Al Sobrante in Green Day and bassist Kain Hanschke (aka Kain Kong) was attending the University of Tübingen in Germany, effectively bringing the band to an end. Lookout's first split album, The Shit Split (LK 43) by Blatz and Filth, was also released at this time. That spring Lookout re-released the Green Day and Operation Ivy albums on CD: 39/Smooth was expanded with the tracks from the 1,000 Hours and Slappy EPs and released under the title 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, while Energy was expanded with the tracks from Hectic and the band's contributions to Turn It Around! and released as Operation Ivy. Ruth Schwartz of Mordam Records cautioned Livermore not to have too many copies manufactured, believing that there would not be much demand for them. He ignored her, ordering 3,000 Green Day CDs and 5,000 Operation Ivy CDs. The two were issued on the same day and, according to Livermore, "sold out by mid-afternoon the day they went on sale, and a frantic Ruth called to ask how soon I could get her several thousand more." He called the switch to releasing CDs "a revelation [...] our sales quadrupled overnight. That was probably the main thing that enabled me to get off welfare."

On the weekends, Pat and I would load up our skateboards with boxes of 7-inches, and go sell records. You'd stack them up on the front and you could stand on it like it was a little scooter. Our distributor was in San Francisco, so we'd take our skateboards, load up all the stuff and take BART with these big boxes. It was really bad through the turnstile, and going down the escalator. I remember thinking, I hope this is all for something. Especially since I'd flunked out of school.

–Chris Appelgren

Appelgren, meanwhile, had graduated from high school a semester early that February, moved to Oakland, and enrolled at UC Berkeley, but failed out after one semester and returned to work at Lookout full time, completing what Livermore later called the "'classic' Lookout lineup": "Many of the label's essential elements emerged during the two years David [Hayes] and I were partners, but the Chris-Patrick-Larry combo oversaw Lookout's transformation from hobby label to countercultural behemoth." Appelgren reflected that "With three of us, it was kind of perfect for the work that needed to get done. Larry was the leader, Pat was the meticulous doer, and I was the face to it all." With the success of CD sales, by mid-1991 Lookout was making a substantial profit. Livermore was only paying his two teenage employees US$5 per hour, but was unsure whether the label's lucky streak would last, so in lieu of raises he offered them profit shares: Appelgren and Hynes would each get 5% ownership of Lookout for every year they continued working, up to a maximum of five years, at which point the two would own 49% of the company while Livermore would own 51%. The two younger partners got along well, and that summer Appelgren invited Hynes to join a reconstituted version of his high school band, Bumblescrump; Appelgren sang, and Hynes learned to play bass guitar.

Although the three owners would oversee a period of tremendous growth for Lookout, their operation remained ramshackle. Piles of albums, artwork, mailing supplies, and demo tapes filled Livermore's one-room apartment, and their desk and work tables consisted of cheap wooden doors set atop file cabinets and cinder blocks. Livermore slept on a futon and would rise when Appelgren and Hynes arrived; as the business grew, he ran out of room for the futon and slept on a pile of blankets in the corner of the room. "He would fold up his futon and then we would do layout on the floor", recalled Appelgren; "Pat and I had this joke about a lot of pubic hairs getting in the layouts. There was no vacuum cleaner. There really were a lot of Larry's pubic hairs in the art. I know that's bad." They briefly tried adding a fourth employee: Janelle Hessig (known as Janelle Blarg after her fanzine, Tales of Blarg) successfully tried out for a job at the label after graduating high school, but balked at the expectation that she show up every day.

Ben Weasel in 2010

Dan Vapid in 2011

Screeching Weasel joined Lookout in 1991 and recorded four studio albums for the label.

Lookout's next signing was its first non-Californian band: Screeching Weasel from Chicago. Livermore had become familiar with frontman Ben Weasel through his acerbic scene reports in Maximumrocknroll, and met him in May 1988 when Screeching Weasel made their first trip to California, playing at Gilman Street with Operation Ivy. A friendship developed and Livermore offered the band a place on Lookout, but Weasel had already arranged for their second album, Boogadaboogadaboogada!, to come out a label called Roadkill Records that he and a friend were starting in Chicago. By the following summer Weasel was upset that he had made very little from sales of the album, so Livermore offered to put out their next one and added them to a show in Garberville with the Lookouts, the Mr. T Experience, and Green Day. Screeching Weasel and Green Day both stayed at Livermore's house in Spy Rock after the show, and the next day Livermore insisted on dragging the bands to Laytonville's annual rodeo. Weasel was not amused by the rural atmosphere, beginning his next Maximumrocknroll column with "What kind of asshole lives nine miles up the side of a goddamn mountain?" Screeching Weasel broke up soon after, but Weasel stayed in touch and by 1991 was in the habit of calling the Lookout office regularly to vent about the difficulties of pursuing a career as a musician. He and Screeching Weasel guitarist John Jughead Pierson were starting a new project called the Gore Gore Girls and hoping to sign to Lookout, but Livermore declined, urging them instead to re-form Screeching Weasel. They eventually did, and asked Livermore to serve as record producer (he later stressed that his contributions in the role were minimal) for My Brain Hurts (LK 50), recorded in July 1991 at Art of Ears with Andy Ernst for less than US$1,000. Weasel urged Livermore not to release the album on CD, believing it would not sell, but Livermore insisted. It was released in September 1991 and sold well, and Lookout subsequently re-released Boogadaboogadaboogada! (LK 62), which was even more successful. The label celebrated its fifth anniversary with an all-day matinée at Gilman Street on October 20, 1991, with all of the bands donating their profits to the club.

Kerplunk, Rancid, the Queers, and Pansy Division (1992)

Green Day's second album, Kerplunk (LK 46), recorded in May and September 1991 with Andy Ernst and with cover artwork by Appelgren, was released in early 1992 and was an immediate success by independent standards. Its initial pressing of 10,000 copies was twice as many as Lookout had done for any previous record, and sold out on its day of release. Over the next few months this figure doubled and tripled. Basking in this success, the three owners of Lookout formed a band, the Potatomen, with Livermore on guitar and lead vocals, Hynes on bass, and Appelgren on drums. They made their live debut performing on the sidewalk across from Gilman Street; once they graduated to playing inside the club, they made a tradition of not playing on the stage, instead setting up in spots such as the hallway, store, and back corner of the main room. Livermore later reflected on this period as "the time when Lookout most resembled what I'd imagined a truly awesome record label would be like."

Lookout released the debut EP by Rancid (pictured in 2006), who then moved on to Epitaph Records.

In April 1992 Lookout released a compilation album assembled by Appelgren and Hynes titled Can of Pork (LK 44). In the style of The Thing That Ate Floyd, it was a double album featuring 29 bands including some who were already on Lookout and others who would continue to work with the label in the future, such as Jüke, the Wynona Riders, Spitboy, Pinhead Gunpowder, Rice, and Jack Acid. It also featured the first appearance on record of Lagwagon, as well as one of only a few officially released tracks by Downfall, a band featuring former Operation Ivy members Tim Armstrong, Matt Freeman, and Dave Mello. Livermore had told Armstrong and Freeman that Lookout would release any project they did after the breakup of Operation Ivy. Downfall recorded enough songs for a release, but the band was short-lived and Armstrong and Freeman moved on to start Rancid. Lookout released Rancid's self-titled debut EP (LK 59), but to Livermore's surprise the band then signed to Epitaph Records, having been courted by label head Brett Gurewitz. As Rancid gained popularity with their first two albums, the Downfall recordings sat unused. In 1994 Armstrong and Freeman authorized Lookout to release the recordings, but insisted that they be remixed by Gurewitz. Armstrong recorded new vocal parts since he had used some of the lyrics for Rancid songs. Two released were planned: A Rancid/Avail split EP (LK 83) and Downfall's 10-song Get Ready for Action LP/CD (LK 99). With Operation Ivy's reputation having grown posthumously, Lookout sold numerous pre-orders for the album, but Armstrong and Freeman asked to delay its release until they had finished supporting Rancid's third album, ...And Out Come the Wolves (1995). That album was quickly successful, being certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales in excess of 500,000 within five months of its release. With Rancid caught up in their increasing success, the split EP was canceled (center labels had been printed, and were given away free with mail orders) and the Downfall album went unreleased.

Livermore's lackadaisical recruiting style and selectivity about working with bands caused Lookout to miss, pass on, or drop several artists who went on to success with other labels. Both No Use for a Name (who had tracks on Turn It Around! and The Thing That Ate Floyd) and Good Riddance submitted demos to Lookout, but Livermore passed on them; both went on to sign with Fat Wreck Chords and have successful careers. "I wasn't into signing bands just for the sake of selling records", Livermore later wrote; "I was looking for bands that I loved." Appelgren was in talks with the Offspring about contributing a track to Can of Pork, and Livermore suggested doing an album with them, but "either we weren't enthusiastic enough about pursuing them, or they weren't enthusiastic enough about being pursued. Neither the comp track nor the album ever materialized," and the band ended up signing to Epitaph. Lookout did sign Tilt, releasing their self-titled EP (LK 61) and first album, Play Cell (LK 71). Though Livermore offered to put out their next album, the band decided to shop it around to other labels. Not finding better prospects, they re-approached Lookout, but Livermore and Appelgren, feeling wronged, decided to drop them from the label: "That's not how it works, I told them", Livermore later wrote; "We put out records by bands who want to be on Lookout, not bands that see us as a fallback position when no one else is interested." Tilt went on to success with Fat Wreck Chords.

Mass Giorgini (pictured at his Sonic Iguana Studio in 1996) produced a number of Lookout releases.

Livermore graduated from UC Berkeley in 1992 and took a trip to Europe that summer, joining up with the Mr. T Experience who were touring in support of their their second Lookout full-length, Milk Milk Lemonade (LK 49). In Walthamstow, London, he tried to set up a European base for Lookout, working with Americans Christy Colcord and Mary Jane Weatherbee and Londoner Aidan Taylor, who arranged tours of the United Kingdom for Green Day and other touring bands and helped import and sell their records. Most American record labels licensed their records to established European companies to achieve overseas distribution. Livermore was unwilling to make such a deal, preferring to work with Colcord, Weatherbee, and Taylor, but despite creating a bank account in London under Lookout's name, he was unable to make a large enough investment to set them up with a pressing and distribution network. Consequently, Lookout could not achieve the level of overseas distribution attained by other successful independent labels, and Lookout's records remained expensive and difficult to find in Europe.

Also in the summer of 1992 Screeching Weasel recorded Wiggle (LK 63) with recording engineer and producer Mass Giorgini at his Sonic Iguana Studio in Lafayette, Indiana. Ben Weasel then convinced Livermore to sign the Queers from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who recorded their Lookout debut, Love Songs for the Retarded (LK 66), at Sonic Iguana that November, with Weasel as producer and Livermore present for the session. Both relationships proved fruitful; the Queers would record four more studio albums for Lookout, and Giorgini would work with the label for the next ten years, recording albums by the Queers, Screeching Weasel, the Riverdales, the Crumbs, Cub, the Groovie Ghoulies, the Lillingtons, and his own band Squirtgun. That fall Lookout released Fifteen's second album, The Choice of a New Generation (LK 65), after which the band spent four years on other labels for financial reasons.

Pansy Division (pictured in 2007) joined the Lookout roster in 1992.

Another significant Lookout signing in 1992 was queercore band Pansy Division, an openly gay group started by Illinois transplant Jon Ginoli who were one of the first Lookout bands to sign a recording contract in advance. Lookout released the EP Fem in a Black Leather Jacket (LK 69) to introduce the band, which was followed by their debut album, Undressed (LK 70), in March 1993. Over the next six years Pansy Division would put out three more studio albums, five more EPs, and several other releases on Lookout. The label's reputation had now grown to a point where it was guaranteed to sell a few thousand copies of any release, allowing the owners to take chances on bands that did not fit the pop punk style Lookout had become known for. One example was country-tinged folk punk band Nuisance from Humboldt County, California, who released two albums on Lookout: 1991's Confusion Hill (LK 48) and 1993's Sunny Side Down (LK 64). According to Livermore, the label had broken even or made money on every release thus far, with the lone exception of Jüke's EP Don't Hate Us Because We're Beautiful (LK 53) which Appelgren had let exceed its recording budget.

Losing Green Day (1993)

1993 saw four Lookout releases by Screeching Weasel: Wiggle came out that January, followed by a split EP with New York hardcore band Born Against (LK 73) on which the two bands wrote songs for one another, then the EP You Broke My Fucking Heart (LK 75) and the band's sixth studio album, Anthem for a New Tomorrow (LK 76), recorded at Sonic Iguana with Mass Giorgini. Born Against singer Sam McPheeters, who had released his band's previous material through his own label, Vermiform Records, made an oral agreement with Livermore for Lookout to release a CD compilation of the Born Against back catalog. However, Vermiform was growing at the time and signed a distribution deal with Mordam Records in late 1993, and Ruth Schwartz pointed out that McPheeters would make more money releasing the compilation himself than through Lookout. This led to a falling out between McPheeters and Livermore, and the compilation, The Rebel Sound of Shit and Failure (1995), came out on Vermiform.

The Queers (pictured in 2014) recorded five studio albums for Lookout.

The Queers' Love Songs for the Retarded, Pansy Division's Undressed, Tilt's Play Cell, and the Mr. T Experience's Our Bodies Our Selves (LK 80) also came out in 1993. With Lookout becoming more successful, Livermore began signing acts that he found interesting despite whether they aspired or were likely to sell many records. One such group was Raooul, consisting of five 14-year-old girls "who kicked up more of a screech-laden ruckus than Blatz and Isocracy combined"; they released the EP Fresh and Nubile (LK 72), followed in 1994 by a split album with British riot grrrl band Skinned Teen (LK 88). He also signed the Arcata bands the Ne'er Do Wells and Judy & the Loadies, both of which featured former Brent's T.V. members John Denery and Chris Imlay along with bassist Jesse Hilliard. The Ne'er Do Wells included former Isocracy and Green Day drummer Al Sobrante and released the EP Hello, It Is I, thee Intolerable Bastard Child Genius (LK 67), while Judy & the Loadies included Denery's future wife Judith, who performed seated while knitting. The two bands were paired up for the split album Gift of Knowledge (LK 78). "That was one of the things I loved most about Lookout", Livermore reflected in 2015; "giving a voice to bands who otherwise would barely have been heard, let alone remembered. It was less lucrative, but felt more rewarding than trying to sign every band that showed signs of becoming popular."

In addition to its difficulties securing European distribution, Lookout faced a domestic distribution limitation: Mordam refused to sell records to Relativity Entertainment Distribution (RED) because it was owned by Sony Music, even though RED was the distributor best equipped to get Lookout's music into chain stores and had done so successfully for both Epitaph Records and Fat Wreck Chords. Despite this, by 1993 Lookout had sold over 50,000 copies of each of Green Day's two studio albums, and even more of Operation Ivy, who remained the label's best seller from 1989 to 1994. Following the success of Kerplunk, representatives from major record labels began approaching Green Day with offers. When Tré Cool informed Livermore that the band had signed with management company Cahn-Man Management (headed by attorneys Elliot Cahn and Jeff Saltzman) in hopes of landing a major label deal, Livermore tried to convince them to do one more album on Lookout. Finding that their minds were made up, he wrote up an agreement to keep their existing records on the label:

Lookout had seldom bothered with written contracts before then, but during the [band] meeting, I asked Green Day if they'd sign one to cover the records we'd already released. "Sure," they said. Working off the top of my head, I wrote a two-page statement of the understanding we had with all our bands. I felt like a kid playing lawyer as I tried to make everything sound official and legal while not straying from the original intent of our agreement [...] A real lawyer could have driven a truck through the loopholes I left, but the basic idea was that Green Day were free to move on, and owed us nothing from any future releases. Their first two albums and first two EPs, as long as we kept the records in print and payed royalties on time, would stay on Lookout. The final clause became standard in all our contracts: "Lookout Records and Green Day agree to treat each other with respect and openness at all times, and recognize that while this agreement provides specific guidelines as to what is expected of each other, the truest contract is one based on trust and friendship.

According to Appelgren, "Larry thought it would be a smart tactical move to hire [Cahn or Saltzman] to represent Lookout, thinking that he could not give us misleading advice and thus would be able to come up with a written agreement between the label and the band that would confirm our rights to the first two albums. But basically, it just was the same Lookout agreement with a few minor changes. Green Day's lawyers told them—Tré told me this later—that the records were theirs to take whenever they wanted. The lawyer we hired hadn't protected the label's interests because he was representing both sides, which was sort of Larry's theory—the band later let these lawyers go." Nevertheless, the band honored the contract and did not attempt to take the records with them when they signed with Reprise Records, a division of Warner Music Group, a few weeks later. By the end of 1993 Lookout's sales topped US$1 million for the first time.

Post-Dookie expansion (1994)

It was growing very rapidly. We were selling probably 30, 40,000 Green Day Records a year. And suddenly we were selling several hundred thousand a year. Once Dookie came out, we sold at least half a million of each of their records in a couple years. The first year Op Ivy came out, we sold 2,000 the whole year. And in '95 we were selling 2,000 a week. Of a band that had been broken up for six years.

–Larry Livermore

Green Day's major label debut, Dookie, was released in February 1994. The band embarked on an international tour, taking Pansy Division along as an opening act for some stretches. Within five months the album had sold over 500,000 copies and was certified gold by the RIAA; it would go on to reach number two on the Billboard 200, and over the next two decades sold over 20 million copies. Lookout saw a corresponding surge in sales of the band's back catalog along with a ripple effect of interest in the label's other bands, especially Operation Ivy, owing in part to Green Day's cover version of their song "Knowledge" which appeared on the Slappy EP and on 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. Before long, Operation Ivy went gold and both 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk went platinum. "There was a crazy period of time", said Appelgren, "we were getting checks that were a million dollars a month. Writing checks to Green Day that were a million dollars. We always paid all of our bills in advance. But in order to be able to meet this need, we actually had to get terms from the manufacturer and the printer, because it was more money than we had." For the first time, Lookout had to take out a line of credit to be able to order enough records to meet the skyrocketing demand. Thanks to Patrick Hynes' computer skills, the label also began developing its own computer network and website.

Molly Neuman (pictured with Bratmobile in 1994) joined the Lookout staff and pushed for the label to become more businesslike.

Amidst this growth, in 1994 Lookout issued the Ben Weasel-curated compilation Punk USA (LK 77), Pansy Division's Deflowered (LK 87), Screeching Weasel's How to Make Enemies and Irritate People (LK 97), and the Mr. T Experience's ...And the Women Who Love Them EP (LK 106). The label also released the Queers' Beat Off (LK 81) and reissued the band's first album, 1990's Grow Up (LK 90). Avail, from Richmond, Virginia, had sent a copy of their debut album, Satiate (1992), to Lookout in hopes of being signed, but it had gone unheard; while on tour, the band showed up unexpectedly at the Lookout office and insisted that Livermore give the record a listen. After hearing it and seeing the band perform live, Livermore signed them and Lookout reissued Satiate (LK 82) and put out their follow-up, Dixie (LK 103), which became one of the label's top sellers. Lookout also signed the Vindictives from Chicago, releasing an EP, two singles, and a compilation album by them between 1994 and 1995. 1994 also saw the only release by former Operation Ivy singer Jesse Michaels' short-lived band Big Rig, the EP Expansive Heart (LK 94).

Molly Neuman, drummer in the Olympia, Washington riot grrrl band Bratmobile, became involved with Lookout at this time. Appelgren had met Neuman when he attended a Bratmobile and Tiger Trap show in Sacramento in 1992. The two began dating, and moved in together in 1993. Lookout released an EP by Neuman's post-Bratmobile band, the Frumpies (Tommy Slich, LK 91). In 1992 Appelgren and Hynes' band Bumblescrump had toured with Rice, a hardcore punk band from San Diego who sang exclusively about rice. The two bands released a split EP which, though not a Lookout release, had the fake catalog number "LK 331⁄2" inscribed in its matrix as a nod to the fact that they used the regular Lookout pressing company to make the record. Both bands broke up after the tour, and in 1994 Lookout released a compilation of Rice's recorded output titled Fuck You, This Is Rice (LK 93).

Meanwhile, the Potatomen, consisting of the three owners of Lookout (Livermore, Appelgren, and Hynes) released their first EP, On the Avenue (LK 98). They opened for the Queers on a West Coast tour from Berkeley to Vancouver, where they played with Vancouverite indie rock band the Smugglers, who were on local independent label Mint Records. Mint, which was also home to indie pop trio Cub, was struggling to secure consistent, reliable distribution for its records in the United States. Lookout was having similar difficulty getting its records distributed in Canada, so Livermore worked out a partnership between the two labels. "Mint and Lookout sunk a great deal of time, effort, and money into the partnership, but it never got more than partially off the ground", he later wrote; "Our being so much bigger than Mint may have been part of the problem. It was, someone indelicately observed, like a hippopotamus trying to mate with a hummingbird." Between 1995 and 1998 the two labels co-released eight records including releases by the Potatomen, Cub, the Mr. T Experience, the Smugglers, the Hi-Fives, and Pansy Division.

Incorporation (1995)

Appelgren left the Potatomen after this first tour and started a new band, the PeeChees, with Neuman and former Rice members Rop Vasquez and Carlos Cañedo. Lookout released one of their EPs, 1996's Scented Gum (LK 119); the bulk of their material was released on Olympia label Kill Rock Stars. Appelgren proposed that Lookout pair up with Kill Rock Stars for a joint compilation album that would serve as both labels' 100th releases. The resulting double album, A Slice of Lemon (LK 100), did not please Livermore, who found it overstuffed with mediocre and poor tracks outweighing the few good ones. He later wrote that the album "marked a shift, both musically and aesthetically, not just into left field, but into a whole new ballpark. Many longtime fans of the label agreed. I received more letters of complaint about A Slice of Lemon than anything we'd done up to that point. I told Chris about this, but he didn't think it was a problem. It was our job, he argued, to challenge the listeners rather than continually spoonfeed them the same predictable pap." "Some people thought it was not enough Can of Pork and too much Kill Rock Stars-ish stuff and didn't feature enough established Lookout bands", reflected Appelgren; "We tried to get more Lookout mainstays but they didn't come together."

Lookout was still being run out of Livermore's one-room apartment, which was by now taken over by telephone and fax lines, computers, a printer, digital audio equipment, archives of album art, and a refrigerator used to store master tapes. Literally living in the office became a source of anxiety for Livermore, and he began experiencing increasingly severe bouts of depression compounded by growing alcoholism. He tried to find another apartment in which to live, but was turned down by a potential landlord who refused to believe that he was running a million-dollar business out of such a run-down apartment building. Instead he began to travel more for business, pleasure, and escape. He finally rented a small room in a house next door to the Lookout office, which provided some respite, but his drinking worsened as he had more time away from his coworkers. Rop Vasquez of the PeeChees and Utrillo Kushner (who served as the Potatomen's road crew, briefly replaced Appelgren as their drummer, and later joined Comets on Fire) were hired on to help with the mail order side of the label, which grew so large that it was moved out of the apartment and into a corner of the Mordam Records warehouse. "We'd get over 50 letters a day", recalled Vasquez, "with 40 of those only for Green Day merchandise and records." Appelgren asked if Neuman could join the Lookout staff; Livermore and Hynes agreed based on her reputation built through her bands and zines, and she was hired on to do promotion work. Livermore soon found that Neuman had a much more businesslike vision for Lookout:

What I had failed to notice was that [Neuman] wasn't really a punk. Not an East Bay punk, anyway. From her first day on the job, it was clear that she wasn't impressed by Lookout's ramshackle and chaotic ways, nor by the constant clowning around that was woven into our daily routine. Even though I was twice her age, it felt like Chris, Pat, and I were poorly behaved kids, and Molly was the new nanny. Our lackadaisical approach to business seemed to embarrass as well as annoy her. It was time, she informed us, that Lookout became a more "professional" operation. I could see her point. [...] At the same time, childish or unrealistic as it might sound, my vision for Lookout had always involved keeping the label as resolutely unprofessional as possible. That had been fine in the past, Molly maintained, when we were pressing a few thousand 7"s for our friends' bands, but now it was time to grow up and begin acting like a "real" record company.

Articles of organization filed by Livermore in 1995, making Lookout Records a limited liability company.

At Neuman's urging, in April 1995 Lookout moved out of Livermore's former bedroom and into a third floor, six-room office suite on University Avenue in what had once been Berkeley's first apartment house. With Lookout's record sales on track to top $10 million that year, the label could afford the larger space, which though only a two minute walk from the Berkeley Way apartment cost 15 times more to rent. Until this point, for tax purposes the company had simply been Livermore doing business as Lookout Records; that May, he filed articles of organization with the State of California to turn the label into a limited liability company (LLC). Lookout began taking on more employees, including Chris Imlay (guitarist in Brent's T.V., the Ne'er Do Wells, Judy & the Loadies, and the Hi-Fives) to do graphic design, Andy Asp (of Nuisance and later the Pattern) to do bookkeeping, and Cathy Bauer, who eventually became the label's operations manager. In a short span of time, Lookout expanded from a three-man operation to a staff of a dozen. Livermore had previously paid his staff out of petty cash or his own pocket; now, the expanding company adopted a computerized payroll system with automated tax deductions and began offering employee benefits including sick leave and fully paid health insurance. Neuman conferred the title of President and CEO on Livermore, and pressured him to hire publicists, make music videos, and run ads in mainstream magazines. Livermore began to concede, though such ideas ran counter to the frugal way he had run the label so far. Not having much interest in being a businessman, he sunk further into depression and suicidal thoughts and spent more time away from the office. Appelgren later recalled that Livermore was trying to distance himself from the label's business aspects:

Around this time, I was given the title "President" but really we were all doing a little bit of everything. [...] For a time, Larry had an idea that I would be the good-natured business face to the label, Pat would be the CFO type, Molly would be the sort to say "no", and Larry could kind of phase out of the day-to-day business. Larry was always trying to back off and had been since '91 but it wasn't feasible. He was sort of grooming Pat and I to take over the biz and have him remain an owner, but he wanted to make recommendations, talk to bands, do the more fun stuff and not really get too bogged down in the bummer hard work.

Artists

The following artists released albums, EPs, or singles on Lookout. Artists who only contributed tracks to compilation albums are not included. Artists whose releases were on the subsidiary Panic Button Records are listed separately.

• Alkaline Trio
• American Steel
• Ann Beretta
• Auntie Christ
• Avail
• Avengers
• The Basicks
• Big Rig
• Bis
• Black Cat Music
• Black Fork
• Blatz
• The Bomb Bassets
• Boris the Sprinkler
• Born Against
• Bratmobile
• Brent's T.V.
• Citizen Fish
• Cleveland Bound Death Sentence
• Common Rider
• Communiqué
• Corrupted Morals
• The Cost
• Couch of Eureka
• The Criminals
• Crimpshrine
• Cringer
• The Crumbs
• Cub
• The Cuts
• The Donnas
• Dr. Frank
• The Enemies
• Engine Down
• Evening
• Eyeball
• Fifteen
• Filth
• The Frumpies
• Fuel
• Fun Bug
• Furious George
• Gaza Strippers
• Gene Defcon featuring the Genettes
• The Go-Nuts
• Go Sailor
• Green Day
• Groovie Ghoulies
• The Hi-Fives
• Hockey Night
• The Invalids
• Isocracy
• Jack Acid
• Judy & the Loadies
• Jüke
• Kamala and the Karnivores
• The Lashes
• Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
• The Lookouts
• Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
• Monsula
• The Mopes
• The Mr. T Experience
• Ne'er Do Wells
• Neurosis
• Nuisance
• One Time Angels
• Operation Ivy
• The Oranges Band
• Pansy Division
• Parasites
• The Pattern
• The PeeChees
• The Phantom Surfers
• Pinhead Gunpowder
• Pitch Black
• Plaid Retina
• The Potatomen
• Pot Valiant
• Pretty Girls Make Graves
• The Queers
• Rancid
• Raooul
• The Reputation
• Rice
• Riverdales
• Samiam
• Scherzo
• Screeching Weasel
• Servotron
• Sewer Trout
• The Shotdowns
• The Skinflutes
• Skinned Teen
• Sludgeworth
• Small Brown Bike
• The Smugglers
• Spitboy
• The Splash 4
• Squirtgun
• Stikky
• Surrogate Brains
• Sweet Baby
• Tilt
• Mary Timony
• Toilet Böys
• The Tourettes
• Towards an End
• Troubled Hubble
• Uranium 9 Volt
• Vagrants
• The Vindictives
• The Washdown
• Wat Tyler
• Worst Case Scenario
• The Wynona Riders
• Yeastie Girlz
• (Young) Pioneers

Panic Button artists

• Common Rider
• The Dollyrots
• Enemy You
• Even in Blackouts
• The Eyeliners
• The Jackie Papers
• The Jimmies
• The Lillingtons
• Moral Crux
• Screeching Weasel
• The Wanna-Bes
• Ben Weasel
• Yesterday's Kids
• Zero Boys

Notes

^ I The name was first used on One Planet One People (1987), the debut album by co-founder Larry Livermore's band the Lookouts, on which it was written as "Lookout! Records". Co-founder David Hayes created the label's original logo in 1987, using the exclamation point in the same manner. The label used various logos throughout its run; some included an exclamation point and some did not. The articles of organization filed with the State of California in 1995, and renewed in 2001 and 2003, list the company name as "LOOKOUT RECORDS LLC", with no exclamation point. A trademark for the wordmark "LOOKOUT RECORDS", with no exclamation point, was issued to the company in 1997, however the United States Patent and Trademark Office lists the owner of the trademark as "Lookout! Records LLC" (with exclamation point). Livermore, who left the company in 1997, wrote in 2009 that the exclamation point was not part of the company's name but "has increasingly become established usage", noting that sources such as Wikipedia and the recently-published book Gimme Something Better presented the company's name as "Lookout! Records": "It's true that we often used an exclamation point in some of our logos, so perhaps the misunderstanding is, er, understandable. Also, the new owners of the label were apparently very keen on the exclamation point, and went to some lengths – apparently successful – to get it established in the public mind." The company canceled its trademark in 2008 and terminated its business operations in 2012. Hopeless Records purchased ownership of its remaining intellectual property, and was granted a trademark in 2016 for the wordmark "LOOKOUT! RECORDS" and the original logo, both including the exclamation point.

External links

• Official website
• punk-usa.typepad.com – A companion website to the book Punk USA: The Rise and Fall of Lookout! Records by Kevin Prested, containing descriptions and interviews regarding many Lookout artists and releases