From Jayne County to Against Me!'s Laura Jane Grace and more, these LGBTQIA+ artists of the past and present have crafted the genre to be what it is today.
Aidin Vaziri April 28, 2021Updated: April 28, 2021, 9:40 pm
Filmmaker John Waters hosts the 2017 Burger Boogaloo music festival at Mosswood Park in Oakland. Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle 2017
Burger Boogaloo, an annual music festival that typically takes place over the Fourth of July weekend at Oakland’s Mosswood Park, is scheduled to return as Mosswood Meltdown but not until 2022, organizers announced Wednesday, April 28.
Last year, Oakland’s Total Trash Productions, which has co-produced the outdoor concert since 2009, postponed the festival date several times due to the coronavirus pandemic and a slew of sexual abuse allegations that surfaced involving its longtime partner Burger Records.
How Green Day’s Dookie captured the spirit of a generation
The rags to riches story of Dookie, the album that made Green Day global superstars and pariahs of the punk rock scene.
Words: Stevie Chick
The year was 1993 and, notoriously, sharks were patrolling the waters of rock’n’roll’s subterranean scenes. In the wake of Nevermind’s paradigm-shifting success, major labels had scrambled with their chequebooks to every percolating punk rock scene across the U.S., in the hope of snagging the next Nirvana and copping some of that sweet crossover action.
So maybe it’s a testament to the modesty of Billie Joe Armstrong that, when A&R bods began phoning Larry Livermore, founder of Lookout! Records, in a bid to sign Green Day, the frontman waved them off, believing they had to be crank callers.
Zack Ruskin January 31, 2021Updated: February 19, 2021, 12:24 pm
Grant Lawrence performs in 2017 at 924 Gilman at an event celebrating the venue’s 30th anniversary. Photo: Aaron Rubin
When Grant Lawrence talks about Lookout Records, he’s talking about his family.
As the singer of Vancouver punk outfit the Smugglers, Lawrence spent eight years signed to the legendary East Bay record label. Co-founded by Larry Livermore and David Hayes in 1986, Lookout Records is remembered for being an early champion of local punk acts like Green Day and Operation Ivy. Though the label would ultimately dissolve in 2012, Lawrence says the importance of Lookout has transcended generations.
In the spirit of UNITY, togetherness, community, friendship, good times, and yes, nostalgia, Oceanside Productions announces the first in a monthly online live performance series for 2021 called LOOKOUT ZOOMOUT.
The reunions will bring together the singers and songwriters from Lookout Records, the iconic pop-punk record label founded in 1987 by Larry Livermore and David Hayes. Until its demise in 2012, the label had one of the most recognizable logos in the world, and was most notable for bands like Green Day, Operation Ivy, the Donnas, the Mr. T Experience, and Screeching Weasel. If your band was lucky enough to land on Lookout Records like ours did in the 1990s, it felt like winning the lottery , states the Smugglers frontman Grant Lawrence, who will lead the conversation between performances. It was an incredible community of artists, bands, and friends. It didn t end well, but there were some amazing times and some really, really great records while it lasted.