The roll behind the rock: An interview with Larry Livermore

In this interview, Lookout Records co-founder and long-time Maximumrocknroll contributor Larry Livermore reflects on punk as a shifting social formation. From gang life in Downriver Detroit to proto-punk in Ann Arbor and a detour into working-class hippiedom, Livermore recounts his route into punk and how the East Bay scene that emerged from 924 Gilman Street channelled his appetite for destruction into collective world-making. In this conversation with cultural historian Stefano Morello, Livermore revisits conflicts over pop, political doctrine and the policing of ‘real punk’, as well as the ethical stakes of bringing DIY infrastructure into mainstream visibility. The conversation also turns to Livermore’s relationship with higher education, the archiving of his papers at Cornell, and his ambivalence about punk’s place within academic inquiry.