Having now succeeded in getting rid of most of my record, cassette and CD collection, I rarely listen to music in any format other than the random shuffle served up by my computer and/or iPod. I've got a few thousand songs stored, but for purposes of working out at the gym, which is where I do most of my iPod listening (some people ride around town on trains and buses wired into their white earphones, but in increasingly lawless London, that's virtually begging for a mugging), I've winnowed it down to about 1,400 songs, predominantly of the upbeat pop-punk variety.
The other morning I was flailing away at the cross-trainers, debating whether to fall over with exhaustion or simply give up and go home - I've only just started back at the gym after a two-month hiatus enforced by my foot surgery, so my endurance is a shadow of its already anemic self - when some bombastic but vaguely familiar guitar chords came blasting into my ears. Because of all the new songs I've recently added to the iPod, it's not unusual to hear something that I barely if at all recognise, but it didn't take more than a few seconds this time to figure out what I was hearing: my own band, the Lookouts.
Except for a couple compilation tracks that were issued on CD, much of the Lookouts material - apart from Spy Rock Road, which was also released on cassette - exists in the vinyl-only realm, and since I haven't had a record player for a while now, it's been literally years since I've heard some of the songs. But recently, Gabe Meline, of the excellent Santa Rosa band Santiago (and formerly of Ground Round, Tilt and MTX), was kind enough to convert my old Lookouts records into mp3s for me, giving me an opportunity to get reacquainted with my musical past. This particular song was "Out My Door," from our last and by far best EP, IV, which was issued sometime around 1991, after the band had already... well, I don't want to say broke up, because we never officially did, but perhaps reached its natural conclusion.
A big part of why it was our best, besides the fact that by the time we recorded it in 1990, we'd had five years of much-needed practice, was that in essence it consisted of two thirds of Green Day. Billie Joe Armstrong, who in those days was a little more available for this sort of work, came into the studio to play lead guitar and sing backing vocals, and of course Tre Cool, who would join Green Day later that year, was still our drummer. As far as I know, it would have been the first time he and Billie ever played together, so very possibly that's when the seed was planted that ultimately resulted in his becoming one of the best and most famous drummers in modern rock and roll history.
Of course Tre was already an astoundingly good drummer long before he joined Green Day, but I sort of doubt he would have ever got the kind of recognition and success he's enjoyed if he'd stuck with the Lookouts. By 1990 we were rarely playing, and in fact were living in three different places and only got together on kind of a whim to record that last EP. Even more to the point, I was at best a mediocre guitarist, and that's probably putting it kindly. Which makes it all the more startling when you hear me start "Out My Door" and hear me starting the song with some adequate but hardly memorable power chords, only to have Billie Joe come zooming in with some extraterrestrial pyrotechnics.
And then on the chorus and bridge, which were decent, anyway - I don't mind acknowledging that I'm a better singer than guitarist - Billie adds some haunting whoa-ohs that instantly kick the song into a whole new dimension. There's another song on IV called "Agape." It's sung by our bassist, Kain Kong, who also wrote it, so my only job was to play guitar. Feeling uncharacteristically ambitious at the time, I actually devised a rudimentary lead for it, one of only a handful I ever attempted in my career. This was before I knew Billie was going to be joining us for the recording, so we ended up with dual - maybe even dueling - leads. It actually sounds pretty good, though it's not difficult, even for the rank musical novice, to tell which one is me and which is Billie.
But anyway, back to the initial point: I'm on the cross training machine, ready to fall over, and suddenly I'm hearing this blast from the past that so energizes me that I all but pedal and pummel the machine into scrap metal. It's a bouncy, upbeat little number, true, and that kind of music often has a similar effect when I'm exercising - Aqua, for example, will have me bouncing off the walls - but this time it wasn't just about the tempo or the beat. It was as least as much a matter of me thinking - to paraphrase that slightly dreary REM song - hey, that's me up there in the spotlight, that's me jamming with Green Day.
P.S. As he finishes converting my vinyl collection to mp3s, Gabe will be auctioning off a number of the records via eBay. Here's a list of some that he's already put up for sale.
The other morning I was flailing away at the cross-trainers, debating whether to fall over with exhaustion or simply give up and go home - I've only just started back at the gym after a two-month hiatus enforced by my foot surgery, so my endurance is a shadow of its already anemic self - when some bombastic but vaguely familiar guitar chords came blasting into my ears. Because of all the new songs I've recently added to the iPod, it's not unusual to hear something that I barely if at all recognise, but it didn't take more than a few seconds this time to figure out what I was hearing: my own band, the Lookouts.
Except for a couple compilation tracks that were issued on CD, much of the Lookouts material - apart from Spy Rock Road, which was also released on cassette - exists in the vinyl-only realm, and since I haven't had a record player for a while now, it's been literally years since I've heard some of the songs. But recently, Gabe Meline, of the excellent Santa Rosa band Santiago (and formerly of Ground Round, Tilt and MTX), was kind enough to convert my old Lookouts records into mp3s for me, giving me an opportunity to get reacquainted with my musical past. This particular song was "Out My Door," from our last and by far best EP, IV, which was issued sometime around 1991, after the band had already... well, I don't want to say broke up, because we never officially did, but perhaps reached its natural conclusion.
A big part of why it was our best, besides the fact that by the time we recorded it in 1990, we'd had five years of much-needed practice, was that in essence it consisted of two thirds of Green Day. Billie Joe Armstrong, who in those days was a little more available for this sort of work, came into the studio to play lead guitar and sing backing vocals, and of course Tre Cool, who would join Green Day later that year, was still our drummer. As far as I know, it would have been the first time he and Billie ever played together, so very possibly that's when the seed was planted that ultimately resulted in his becoming one of the best and most famous drummers in modern rock and roll history.
Of course Tre was already an astoundingly good drummer long before he joined Green Day, but I sort of doubt he would have ever got the kind of recognition and success he's enjoyed if he'd stuck with the Lookouts. By 1990 we were rarely playing, and in fact were living in three different places and only got together on kind of a whim to record that last EP. Even more to the point, I was at best a mediocre guitarist, and that's probably putting it kindly. Which makes it all the more startling when you hear me start "Out My Door" and hear me starting the song with some adequate but hardly memorable power chords, only to have Billie Joe come zooming in with some extraterrestrial pyrotechnics.
And then on the chorus and bridge, which were decent, anyway - I don't mind acknowledging that I'm a better singer than guitarist - Billie adds some haunting whoa-ohs that instantly kick the song into a whole new dimension. There's another song on IV called "Agape." It's sung by our bassist, Kain Kong, who also wrote it, so my only job was to play guitar. Feeling uncharacteristically ambitious at the time, I actually devised a rudimentary lead for it, one of only a handful I ever attempted in my career. This was before I knew Billie was going to be joining us for the recording, so we ended up with dual - maybe even dueling - leads. It actually sounds pretty good, though it's not difficult, even for the rank musical novice, to tell which one is me and which is Billie.
But anyway, back to the initial point: I'm on the cross training machine, ready to fall over, and suddenly I'm hearing this blast from the past that so energizes me that I all but pedal and pummel the machine into scrap metal. It's a bouncy, upbeat little number, true, and that kind of music often has a similar effect when I'm exercising - Aqua, for example, will have me bouncing off the walls - but this time it wasn't just about the tempo or the beat. It was as least as much a matter of me thinking - to paraphrase that slightly dreary REM song - hey, that's me up there in the spotlight, that's me jamming with Green Day.
P.S. As he finishes converting my vinyl collection to mp3s, Gabe will be auctioning off a number of the records via eBay. Here's a list of some that he's already put up for sale.
4 comments:
Hey, nice info on the songs in IV. And its true in Agape, the two lead guitars sound pretty good. I must admit though that my favorite song on that ep is Story. The way Tre comes in, perfect. The lyrics are pretty good. I'd say this was a pretty good recording as well. I love the intro to The Green Hills of England in Spy rock road. Now, the song that has always been close to me, and makes me cry every now and then, "I saw her standing there" :) . I dunno, The Lookouts were indeed an excellent band Larry.
I forgot, from One Planet, One people, I love the song Miss Trendy Burrhead or maybe Fucked Up Kid haha...
Hey Larry, really enjoying your blog. I've missed your writing for a long time; I used to really love it but haven't read anything for a while once I stopped buying Hit List (which, if I'm not completely mistaken, went belly-up shortly thereafter--as go my literary tastes, so goes the nation!) and haven't seen Punk Planet in....Well, a while, that's for sure. You've written some truly cool columns and you put out some of my favorite records. So, I'll be back. Late, yo :-)
I like the "from larry livermore's personal collection" angle. 7"s aged like a fine wine...
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