User:IllaZilla/Larry Livermore
Musical artist / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lawrence W. Hayes (born October 28, 1947),[1]: 7 known by the pseudonym Lawrence "Larry" Livermore, is an American countercultural figure, author, and blogger, and formerly a columnist, zine publisher, musician, record producer, and owner of Lookout Records, an independent record label which he headed from 1987 to 1997.[2] Under Livermore, Lookout was part of the punk rock revival of the 1990s, releasing records by many bands from San Francisco's East Bay including the first two albums by Green Day.[2] During that decade Livermore "played a key role in developing the autonomous cultural apparatus of the East Bay punk scene and, through his writing and his work as a record producer, in shaping punk rock subculture in the United States and abroad."[2]
Larry Livermore | |
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![]() Livermore in Brooklyn, 2015 | |
Background information | |
Birth name | Lawrence W. Hayes |
Also known as | Lawrence Livermore |
Born | (1947-10-28) October 28, 1947 (age 76) Detroit, Michigan |
Origin | Spy Rock, California |
Genres | Punk rock |
Occupation(s) | Singer, guitarist, record producer, record label owner, blogger, author |
Instrument(s) | Guitar |
Years active | 1984–present |
Labels | Lookout |
Website | larrylivermore |
Born in Detroit, Livermore immersed himself in the counterculture of the 1960s, joining the hippie movement and eventually moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he became interested in the punk movement of the late 1970s.[2] In 1982 he moved to the remote community of Spy Rock in the mountains of Mendocino County, where he launched a self-published magazine titled Lookout! and a punk rock band, the Lookouts, recruiting as his drummer then-preteen Tré Cool, who would later achieve international celebrity as a member of Green Day.[2] Re-inserting himself into the Bay Area punk scene in the mid-1980s, Livermore became a columnist for Maximumrocknroll and contributed to other underground publications and zines.[2] He was one of the earliest organizers and volunteers of the non-profit music venue at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley.[2] He co-founded Lookout Records with David Hayes in 1987, and the label made a name for itself releasing records by local acts including Operation Ivy and Green Day.[2] After David Hayes left Lookout in 1989, Livermore ran the label out of his Berkeley apartment for the next several years. He also started a new band, the Potatomen, in 1992.[2]
After Green Day signed to major label Reprise Records in 1993 and achieved mainstream international success, Lookout quickly grew into a multi-million dollar business buoyed largely by sales of the band's back catalog as well as that of Operation Ivy, members of which had also gone on to mainstream success with Rancid. Citing discomfort with the label's rapid growth and shifts in musical output, as well as disputes with Ben Weasel of the band Screeching Weasel over royalty payments, Livermore resigned from Lookout in 1997 and moved to London for ten years, then to New York City.[2]
After a public split with Maximumrocknroll in 1994, Livermore wrote for rival zine Punk Planet until it ceased publication in 2007, then for Verbicide from 2008 to 2012.[2] In the 2010s he authored two memoirs about his life and career: Spy Rock Memories (2013) and How to Ru(i)n a Record Label: The Story of Lookout Records (2015).[2]