Lookout Records is officially out of business (wait, they were still IN business?)

Some shocking news today, punk fans.  Long standing punk label Lookout Records has just closed its virtual doors for good.  But that’s not the shocking news.  The shocking news is that they were actually still in business in the first place.  For anybody who grew up in the early 90’s listening to punk there was no way in hell you didn’t know about Lookout.  They were where Green Day got their start, and they put out that Operation Ivy album every single one of you should have in your CD collection.  Sooo many bands put out albums through Lookout back in the day.  They were HUGE, and then they just sorta disappeared (apparently a lot of it was due to them losing the rights to the Green Day releases).  I, like many of you, had thought the label was officially extinct long ago so it was news to me when label owner Ted Leo posted this official statement up on his blog proclaiming the discontinuation of Lookout Records.

Well, R.I.P. Lookout.  It was nice knowing you when.

I’ve been getting a lot of Twitter questions about why a bunch of my records have disappeared from all the digital services (Sportify, iDudes, Mandora, etc.). It’s because our beloved Lookout Records, which ceased releasing new material in 2006, but carried on keeping the catalog in print until this past December, has, sadly, shuttered it’s windows for good. A better eulogy should be forthcoming, but just to answer these questions, this means that these records have reverted to my complete ownership, which is kind of cool in some ways, I guess, except that it also means I have to basically run my own label for them now unless I wind up licensing them to someone else in the future. In the immediate, 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. Physical records are now officially out of print and will likely not be repressed for a while (but I’m sure I’ll get around to it eventually). I do have a bunch of stock laying around with no plans to tour for quite a while, so if there’s interest, maybe I’ll set up a web-store so you can buy direct from me if you want. Please feel free to email or tweet me with ideas for that. All entertaining ideas will be entertained!

And thank you, seriously, for giving a crap. I’m not happy to see Lookout gone, but having complete rights of usage and total and direct revenue from sales now, can ultimately turn this into a positive situation. I just have to get creative about it. Might try to bang one out more special.