Puneet Varma (Editor)

The Lookouts

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Genres
  
Punk rock

Labels
  
Lookout Records

Genre
  
Punk rock

Years active
  
1985–1990

Record label
  
Lookout Records

The Lookouts staticspincomfiles150218thelookoutsjpg

Origin
  
Iron Peak, California, United States

Associated acts
  
Green Day, The Potatomen

Past members
  
Larry Livermore Kain Kong Tré Cool

Members
  
Billie Joe Armstrong, Larry Liver

Albums
  
Spy Rock Road, One Planet One People, Mendocino Homeland, IV, Spy Rock Road (And Other Sto

The Lookouts were an American punk rock band that existed from 1985 to 1990 on Iron Peak, a remote rural mountain community outside of Laytonville, California, United States. The members were Larry Livermore on guitar and vocals, Kain Kong (Kain Hanschke) on bass and vocals, and Tré Cool on drums and vocals. All three contributed on songwriting.

Contents

The band is most famous for being Tré Cool's first band before joining Green Day.

The lookouts story official audio


History

Looking to start a punk band, Livermore had trouble finding members, citing the majority of the local musicians being hippies and "completely uninterested in the music we wanted to make." Eventually, Livermore recruited 14-year-old Kain Hanschke on bass and 12-year-old Frank Edwin "Tré" Wright III on drums. Although he had never before played drums before, young Tré showed an instant affinity for them, likely because, as Livermore said, "he loved making a lot of noise and getting everyone to look at him."

Claiming that the members needed "punk rock names," Livermore gave his fellow musicians new last names. Kain's surname went from Hanschke to "Kong," while Tré went from Wright to "Cool." It has often been claimed that Livermore was the person to dub Cool with "Tré." His family had long before given him the nickname, a play on the word "tres," or "three," as he was the third Frank Edwin in his family.

The Lookouts recorded three albums,Lookout! It's the Lookouts, One Planet One People, and Spy Rock Road, and two EPs, Mendocino Homeland and IV.

On July 10, 1990, we went into The Art Of Ears studio in San Francisco and recorded nine songs, six of which would ultimately be released [as IV], and then went over to Oakland to play what would be, though we didn’t know it at the time, our last show. I was never that great at lead guitar (or rhythm guitar, for that matter, if we’re going to be honest), so I asked a friend named Billie Joe to play on the recordings.

From there, Livermore went on to running his record label, named Lookout Records; One Planet One People was the first release in the label's history. Livermore eventually sold Lookout Records to business partner Chris Appelgren in the mid-1990s. Kong became a National Park Service park ranger. Cool became drummer for Green Day, after they were left in a lurch by their first drummer.

Studio albums

  • One Planet One People (1987)
  • Spy Rock Road (1989)
  • Extended plays

  • Mendocino Homeland (1989)
  • IV (1990)
  • Compilation albums

  • Spy Rock Road and Other Stories... (2015)
  • Compilation appearances

  • "Insane", "Recycled Love", "The Mushroom Is Exploding" & "Friends of Mine," on Limited Potential — Limited Potential Records (1987)
  • "Outside," on The Thing That Ate Floyd — Lookout! Records (1989)
  • "Why Don't You Die?" & "California" on Bay Mud — Very Small Records (1989)
  • "Recycled Love" on Lethal Noise, Vol. 2 — Very Small Records (1989)
  • "Big Green Monsters" on Make the Collector Nerd Sweat — Very Small Records (1990)
  • "Once Upon a Time" on More Songs About Plants and Trees — Allied Records (1990)
  • "Kick Me in the Head" on Can of Pork — Lookout! Records (1992)
  • Demo albums

  • Lookout! It's the Lookouts (1985)
  • Songs

    La PineThe Lookouts · 2012
    Big Green MonstersSpy Rock Road (And Other Stories) · 2015
    Living Behind BarsSpy Rock Road (And Other Stories) · 2015

    References

    The Lookouts Wikipedia