Green Day screws Lookout! (probably left the cap off the toothpaste, too)

[Paul]

http://www.punknews.org/article.php?sid=13338&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Due to concerns over unpaid royalties, Green Day has pulled their catalog from Lookout!. The long-running Berkeley-based label played host to both 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours and Kerplunk! for the past decade, and also reissued a remastered version of the former last year.

As a result, six of the nine employees at the label have been laid off. Label president Chris Appelgren spoke to Punknews.org about the future for the label, explaining that despite the setback, Lookout! will continue, albeit in a scaled back form. Currently, no new releases are scheduled beyond the label DVD/CD samplers expected in September, with a focus on catalog titles after that. In 2006, Appelgren hopes to resume recording and producing new records.

The Berkeley-based staple boasts a catalog which includes seminal material from Operation Ivy, The Queers, Mr.T.Experience and many others. The label has also recently issued material from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists including 2004's Shake the Sheets, the final self-titled full length from Engine Down and Troubled Hubble's Making Beds in a Burning House.

Green Day's most recent release American Idiot earned the band a Grammy Award and has proved to be their biggest album since 1994's breakout Dookie.

[johansen smith]

so, enough people were buying two albums I've never even heard of that the lack of them in their catalog was enough to lay off 2/3 of a label's staff?

[Paul]

so, enough people were buying two albums I've never even heard of that the lack of them in their catalog was enough to lay off 2/3 of a label's staff?Despite how much internet people seem to dig Ted Leo and Mary Timony, they don't come anywhere close to the sales Lookout could generate in the mid '90s with any pop/punk band they signed. Now their current catalogue keeps them afloat, but the lion's share of their back catalogue doesn't move and the only thing that consistently sells from that era are the Green Day albums. I'd be willing to bet that the sales of those albums probably generate about a quarter of Lookout's revenue.

[TheSadDebaser]

johansson smith, have you ever heard of Green Day?

from a financial perspective:

a band on television >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> indie darlings

Green Day is fucking everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

[johansen smith]

I know Green Day is huge, I just haven't ever seen those albums sitting around on the racks. I didn't think their back catalog sold that well, but I guess I was mistaken.

[Paul]

Well, considering those two albums make up half of the essential part of Green Day's catalogue (Nimrod-onwards is entirely optional), it's safe to say they sell big.

[Miss Tasty Princess]

If Lookout is selling Green Day CDs/records and not paying the band the royalties they are due, I'd hardly say Green Day are the ones doing the screwing.

[Paul]

Well, like I said over on ILM, I want to hear more facts before I hunt down Billy Joe and give him a shiner.

Still, I find it hard to believe that Appelgren is knowingly taking advantage of his cash cow. While I don't know him personally, he's always seemed to be a pretty upstanding guy.

[TheSadDebaser]

Larry Livermore (ex-President of Lookout!) said:

I don't know too many details, but I do know the problem has been going on for a long time, and that Green Day has been more than patient. If anyone should be griping, it should be me: I basically gave those Green Day records to the current Lookout owners, and they basically threw them away. It's about money, and also about bad faith. Lookout has been failing to pay Green Day (and other bands) for years now, and apparently using the money instead to put out a series of terrible records that very few people wanted to buy. Gambling on new bands is part of what a record label does, but you don't do it with other people's money. Green Day could have taken their records away several years ago when Lookout first breached their contract, but they were generous enough to allow Lookout to keep licensing the records in hopes that the label would get back on its feet. No matter how rich a band is, they shouldn't be expected to subsidize a failing label forever, especially when that label isn't doing anything particularly worthwhile. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it kind of makes me sick to see what's happened to a label I put so much of my heart and soul into.

From Tiny Mix Tapes

[Gerard]

I sincerely hope that Mr. Livermore wasn't seriously suggesting that no one wants to buy Ted Leo's records.

[johansen smith]

I imagine he's referring to everyone BUT Leo and Timony on the roster.

[johansen smith]

hey Gerard (assuming you check back in this thread), is the new Sally Crewe album going to have any American distribution in the near future?

[Gerard]

thank you for introducing a completely unrelated topic!

The new Sally Crewe & The Sudden Moves CD, 'Shortly After Take Off' is being distributed in the United States by the following lovely people :

Matador Direct
Revolver
Carrot Top
Parasol

Persons wishing to purchase one copy (as opposed to dozens) can do so via the online shop at http://www.12XU.net, but can also do so via other online outlets including midheaven.com, Other Music, Parasol and Amazon.

The album can also be purchased in digital form from the iTunes Music Store.

GC

[johansen smith]

awesome, thanks Gerard.