Lawrence Hayes (born October 28, 1947), better known by his stage name Larry Livermore, is an American singer, musician, record producer, and author, best known as the co-founder of

Lookout Records Lookout Records (stylized as Lookout! Records) was an independent record label, initially based in Laytonville, California, and later in Berkeley, focusing on punk rock. Established in 1987, the label is best known for having released Operatio ...

Biography

In 1977, Hayes began to attend

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

shows in the San Francisco bay area. He soon adopted the "punk rock name" Larry Livermore, an allusion to the

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California, United States. Originally established in 1952, the laboratory now i ...

, a nuclear research and development facility in

Livermore, California Livermore is a city in Alameda County, California. With a 2020 population of 87,955, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley, giving its name to the Livermore Valley. It is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisc ...

, run by the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...

. In 1984, he founded '' Lookout'' magazine, based in Laytonville, California, and continued to publish it until 1995. In 1985, he formed

the Lookouts The Lookouts were an American punk rock band that existed from 1985 to 1990 on Iron Peak, a remote rural mountain community outside Laytonville, California. The members were Larry Livermore on guitar and vocals, Kain Kong (Kain Hanschke) on ...

, a punk-rock band whose 12-year-old drummer, Tre Cool, later went on to play for

Green Day Green Day is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Rodeo, California, in 1987 by lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong and bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, with drummer Tré Cool joining in 1990. In 1994, their majo ...

. The Lookouts recorded two LPs, '' One Planet One People'' and '' Spy Rock Road'', and two EPs, '' Mendocino Homeland'' and ''IV'', between 1985 and 1990, with Livermore playing guitar and singing. In 1987, with his friend David Hayes (no relation), he co-founded

, which released gold and platinum-selling albums by Operation Ivy and

, as well as scores of releases from other artists. Many of the bands on Lookout were associated with

924 Gilman Street The Alternative Music Foundation located at 924 Gilman Street, almost exclusively referred to as "Gilman", is a non-profit, all-ages, collectively organized music club. It is located in the West Berkeley, Berkeley, California, West Berkeley ar ...

, a nonprofit, volunteer-run punk-rock club based in Berkeley, California. David Hayes left the label at the end of 1989 to establish a label of his own, Very Small Records. Larry Livermore continued as president and principal owner of Lookout Records until he retired in 1997. In 1992, Livermore, Chris Appelgren, and Patrick Hynes formed the Potatomen, a pop band that has released two albums, ''Now'' and ''Iceland'', two EPs, ''On the Avenue'' and ''All My Yesterdays'', and a split EP, ''The Beautiful and Damned/The Day I Said Goodbye'', with the Canadian band Cub. From 1987 until 1994, Livermore was a columnist for '' Maximum Rocknroll'' magazine, and from 1994 to 2007 wrote a monthly column for ''

Punk Planet ''Punk Planet'' was a 16,000 print run punk zine, based in Chicago, Illinois, that focused most of its energy on looking at punk subculture rather than punk as simply another genre of music to which teenagers listen. In addition to covering m ...

'' magazine. Livermore had a scene report column on East Bay's punk zine Absolutely Zippo. He was also a contributor to the '' Anderson Valley Advertiser'', Janelle Hessig's zine ''Tales of Blarg'', and the seminal

queercore Queercore (or homocore) is a cultural/social movement that began in the mid-1980s as an offshoot of the punk subculture and a music genre that comes from punk rock. It is distinguished by its discontent with society in general, and specifically ...

zine ''Homocore''. In 2008, quarterly periodical ''Verbicide'' magazine began publishing his column, titled "Beneath the BQE". Livermore's first column for ''Verbicide'' appears in issue 23. Unfortunately, ''Verbicide'' published just three of Livermore's columns, ceasing print operations after issue 25. Livermore released his first book, ''Spy Rock Memories'', on

Don Giovanni Records Don Giovanni Records is an independent record label originally specializing in punk rock from the New Brunswick, New Jersey music scene but eventually working with a variety of artists from different genres. Its also operated out of Lansing, Mic ...

in 2013. He released his second book, ''How to Ru(i)n a Record Label: The Story of Lookout Records'', in 2015.

Discography

With The Lookouts

* ''One Planet One People'' (LP, Lookout Records, 1987) * ''Spy Rock Roads'' (LP, Lookout Records, 1989) * ''Mendocino Homeland'' (EP, Lookout Records, 1989) * ''IV'' (EP, Lookout Records, 1989) * ''Spy Rock Roads and Other Stories'' (Don Giovanni Records, Lookout Records, 2015)

With The Potatomen

* ''On the Avenue'' (EP, Lookout Records, 1989) * ''Now'' (LP, Lookout Records, 1995) * ''The Beautiful and Damned/The Day I Said Goodbye'' (Split EP with Cub, Lookout Records, 1995) * ''All My Yesterdays'' (EP, Lookout Records, 1996) * ''Iceland'' (LP, Lookout Records, 1997)

Footnotes

External links

Larry Livermore's BlogLarry Livermore at DiscogsReview of Larry Livermore's book "Spy Rock Memories" – Rocker Magazine 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Livermore, Larry 1947 births Living people Musicians from Detroit Musicians from Brooklyn Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Don Giovanni Records artists