Lookout's Outlook
For anyone who may be wondering how you can sell more than ten million records and still go out of business, see "Kerplunk!" in the East Bay Express. It covers the impending doom of Lookout Records, now that Green Day's yanked their back catalog. Even though Ted Leo's "reinvested" some of his royalties, so many bands have pulled out due to non-payment- including as much as $2m owed to Green Day- that Lookout's been forced to drop to a skeleton staff.
So how do you go bankrupt on millions in sales without buying racehorses? One word: promotion.
With Pansy Division's star rising, unaided, in a similar arc, the next step seemed obvious. Appelgren sums up the post-Dookie Lookout mentality: "We created so much success not doing any of these things -- not doing these marketing and promotional efforts -- what would happen if we did start to do these things?" So Pansy Division shot a video that cost more than the recording budgets for its first three records combined, and Appelgren took out a costly ad in Spin. As an added oddity, the band hooked up with a Canadian minor-league hockey card manufacturer, which produced a limited-edition set of Pansy Division cards, the traditional stick of gum replaced with a condom. Total estimated promotional budget: $10,000. Total sales of Wish I'd Taken Pictures: roughly $15,000.Then he goes on to point out that The Donnas never even had a gold record. Ow. Read the whole thing here.
[...]
For [Lookout co-founder Larry Livermore], [The Donnas are] the epitome of Lookout's wasteful, overpromoting, quasimajor ways: "They threw so much money at the Donnas, it might have been more efficient for Lookout simply to send a $15 check to every kid in America and tell them to use it to go buy a Donnas record."
The take-away here is that "post-Dookie Lookout" is a phrase for the ages. And that "indie" doesn't mean "upstanding". Even if you sign to Harry Shearer's new record label, it's entirely possible you'll end up sobbing in your coke while Derek Smalls explains non-recoupable expenses.
And, in case you want to buy something from Lookout, here's a song I like from Troubled Hubble:
Troubled Hubble - "Where Racoons Don't Live" MP3 Link Expired
Posted at 1:12 PM
instead of "post-dookie lookout" it should be "dick-dookie lookout"
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what, no "first post-dookie"?
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god bless rob.
he's a great writer and a friend of mine. look up his other eastbay express articles if you want to see what music journalism should *really* be about.
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That was a really well written article.
I wonder what will happen to Troubled Hubble. They just cancelled their tour citing health reasons. I'd be pissed if it was because of this, as they're a fantastic band.
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My favorite part is that Ben Weasel, the man who from his perch at Maximum Rock and Roll indoctrinated me into the school of punk rock ethics (i.e., don't sell out, don't buy major labels, etc), refused to be interviewed on the advice of his lawyer. Punk Rock!!
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re: Troubled Hubble, they were supposed to play CMJ...did they make it? I was out of town.
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Is it beyond the pale to suggest that people who thought that Pansy Division could have mainstream commercial success are stupid?
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Jim Bob - Larry Livermore is a major stroke, I am willing to bet he's collected every paycheck he's had coming...the condom promotion is just one of the idiotic promotional schemes he' tried and always with OPM (other peoples money) next time your in the bay area check out Larrys new Beemer (8 series) ...before you start feeling sorry for him....Who can afford race horses when your promoting shit no one listens too!
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Could someone explain the Ted Leo thing? Because there are quite a few of his records I don't have yet, but if the money is just going to go back into a poorly managed record label, I don't really see the point in buying them.
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Ted Leo is trying to help some good people,, when the dust clears.. and the truth is known, everyone will know Larry Livermore is the one that got rich, and by the way he still resides in Pacific Heights not England....
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I used to love that Lookout's song "I Saw Her Standing There" (not a Beatles cover).
Ahhh, 90's East Bay punk. When's your revival gonna come? The A-Side to Jawbreaker's "Unfun" and anything by Crimpshrine could serve as a blueprint for a whole new movement...
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uh, if you're looking to buy something from lookout, just buy every ted leo cd. he's the best thing that ever happened to me, musically. and in life...
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It's a terrible thing for Larry Livermore to bad-mouth Lookout. There were some bad management moves, but Livermore's sounding like a holier-than-thou prick. And he needs to lay off the Donnas...there weren't any promotional items for the Donnas that the other bands didn't have (tour posters, pins, stickers, etc). Maybe they got more tour support (who knows) but they were playing a lot bigger venues than the Groovie Ghoulies, or whoever.
The Sweet Baby CD rocks too.
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I love Lookout. And I love Ted Leo. Poor Lookout records.
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Maybe their first mistake was spending all that money on the wrong band. Pansy Division?!
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This is in today's email from Digital Music News, in an ad for The Orchard:
"'Earlier this week, I received a check and a 75-page report containing screenshots of all the online store placements The Orchard secured for my
label in Q2. The check, and the marketing report, were both bigger than I thought they would be. This is a good thing.'
- Christopher Appelgren, Lookout Records"
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you can't just blame the donnas, there are plenty of other ways to "blow" millions...
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Man I love lookout and this article makes me quite sad as to what hapened to the label. What happend to the good old days of op ivy and crimpshrine?
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