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Chris Clavin is an American musician and record label owner from
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
, United States, with a strict DIY (do-it-yourself) punk ethic. He has been involved in numerous
punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
bands and ran Plan-It-X Records, a label founded in 1994. Clavin has been a part of many (primarily
pop punk Pop-punk (also punk-pop, alternatively spelled without the hyphen) is a rock music fusion genre that combines elements of punk rock with power pop or pop music, pop. It is defined by its fast-paced, energetic tempos, and emphasis on classic pop s ...
and folk punk) bands, including bands that have toured the world and been influential in the DIY punk scene.


Bands


Ghost Mice

In 2002, Clavin formed the two-piece folk punk band Ghost Mice with Hannah Jones. It was an American band based in
Bloomington, Indiana Bloomington is a city in Monroe County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. The population was 79,168 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the List of municipalities in Indiana, seventh-most populous city in Indiana and ...
, United States. Both members had been in a handful of pop-punk bands together: namely Disarm, The Devil is Electric and Operation: Cliff Clavin. They decided to "turn to the folk side" in the hopes that they could tour more easily and play almost anywhere, and to this end Hannah changed from playing bass to violin. The following is a quote from Ghost Mice:
We play 100% acoustic. We never use amps or mics (except at Plan-It-X Fest and on and once in
Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...
). We have been playing in bands together for about 7 years. We started Ghost Mice in 2002 because we were tired of being restricted. We were tired of having to travel in big vans and depend on amps, PA systems and electricity. With Ghost Mice we can travel very light and we need nothing to play. We often play in back yards or on the street corner in front of the venue. We have toured the United States many times and we toured
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(Germany, the
Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
, Denmark, Austria, France, Spain, Belgium, England,
Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
, Scotland, and Ireland) by foot. We hitch-hiked and took trains to all of our shows. It was fun and very liberating. We sing a mix of personal and political lyrics, we are
anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
, we are dedicated to the DIY ethic and the struggle to make the world a better place. We play music and travel for fun and to meet new people. Music is our lives. We love travel. We are nice and a little shy.
Dark Times was released initially in 2017 and re-released on the internet in June 2018.


List of bands

Below is a partial list of the bands Clavin has played in: *Last August *Drowners *The Ted Dancin' Machine * Operation: Cliff Clavin *Disarm *Pink Ass Flowers (P.A.F.) *The Trolls * The Coug * The Ground-Ups * I Like Japanese Hardcore * The Sissies *Ghost Mice *The Devil is Electric *Captain Chaos *Helter Skeletor *The Jammy Dodgers *Imperial Can *Long Duck Dong *By Blood *Inky Skulls *Tooth Soup


Solo musical projects

Clavin started working on solo recordings in the fall of 2004 when he wrote a song and recorded it in the same day to give to someone as a gift. He tried to write and record one song a day. He only made it 8 days. Those 8 songs along with 7 others are on the first album, "May All Liars Burn in Hell". The idea behind his solo projects is to write songs without thinking about them, to be pure in writing and hold nothing back. Occasionally Clavin utilized his friends "Colorblind" Joe, McKayla or others for help. Primarily playing with
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
or ukulele, he has toured the US West Coast,
Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
, and
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multiple times.


As Captain Chaos

When Clavin first started releasing solo songs, he did not want his typical moniker attached to them. Spoonboy (of The Max Levine Ensemble) gave him the name Captain Chaos. Though Clavin did not like the name, it stuck. He released six full-length albums, one split, and appeared on a handful of compilations and other small projects as Captain Chaos before using his real name on his solo work (see further below).


Captain Chaos discography


=Early works

=


=Full-length albums

=


=Box set

= All six of the full-length albums (and a bonus CDR of cover songs) were available in a hand-crafted wooden box set with hand-made art. These boxes were made by Dan Treiber of Crafty Records. Fifty-one of them were made. The first 25 were made out of recycled 99-year-old barn wood. The second 26 were made out of recycled 1960 Canadian crate wood. The box set became officially available as of April 5, 2007. It is now out of print.


=Compilations

=


As Chris Clavin

In 2008, Clavin decided to stop releasing songs as Captain Chaos, and instead use his traditional moniker. He began to tour solo again on a small scale, and has released one album so far.


Chris Clavin discography


=Full-length albums

=


Record labels

Clavin's solo projects have appeared on the following record labels (this list excludes compilations and smaller projects) * Anti-Creative Records * Big Magic Records * Boom Boom Tapes * Crafty Records * Fall of the West Records * Plan-It-X Records * The Scientist and the Duke Records * Sweet Now Records * Valiant Death Records * Rock-it Records


Anonymous accounts alleging inappropriate behavior

In 2017, a series of Facebook posts were published, followed by the creation of a public Google Doc, which aggregated accounts from unnamed individuals alleging inappropriate conduct by Clavin. The accounts were collected through an email address that did not require or request any personal identification from the writers to vet or confirm the accounts. Clavin did not admit or respond specifically to any of these claims, but instead simply announced his departure from the punk scene, stating, among other things: "I no longer play in any bands. I no longer run a record label or publishing company. I will settle all affairs and orders of course, and pay all outstanding debts and invoices." Several of the dozens of small artists Clavin collaborated with or published music for over the years - Kimya Dawson, AJJ,
Waxahatchee Waxahatchee is an American indie music project, formed in 2010 by American singer-songwriter Kathryn Crutchfield (born January 4, 1989), known professionally as Katie Crutchfield, following the breakup of her previous band P.S. Eliot. The ban ...
, Spoonboy and Ramshackle Glory - publicly condemned his alleged actions, requested that Plan-It-X Records cease distributing their products, and stated they would remove Clavin's work from future printings of these split records, although it does not appear any further physical printings of these records were produced. Rather, most of these split records remains readily available through a variety of online sources. Clavin's bandmate in Ghost Mice, Hannah O'Connor, posted the following on Facebook, quoted by PunkNews in response to the anonymous accounts: "Since I have been Chris' friend for a long time, I know that he is being accused of things he has not done. I know there are a lot of false allegations, rumors, and lies spreading very fast about him."


New music

Clavin continues as a songwriter and has released several albums under the moniker of Captain Chaos recently, including "Shawties," in 2019 and "Black Swan" in 2020.


See also

*
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References


Further reading

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Clavin, Chris American punk rock singers Living people American punk rock guitarists Musicians from Bloomington, Indiana Guitarists from Indiana American male guitarists Folk punk musicians Year of birth missing (living people)