Chris Clavin

For other people named Christopher Johnston, see Christopher Johnston (disambiguation).

Chris Clavin
Birth name	Christopher Johnston
Origin	Indiana, USA
Genres	punk
Labels	Plan-It-X Records

Chris Clavin (born Christopher Johnston) is a musician, anarchist and record label owner from Indiana, USA, with a strict DIY (do-it-yourself) punk ethic. He has been involved in numerous punk bands and runs Plan-It-X Records, a label founded in 1994.

Bands involved in

Clavin has been a part of many (primarily pop-punk) bands that have toured all over the world, some of them very influential in the DIY punk scene. Below is a partial list of the bands Clavin has played a part in.

• Last August
• Drowner
• 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^[1]
• The Devil is Electric
• Captain Chaos (see below)
• Helter Skeletor
• The Jammy Dodgers
• Imperial Can
• Long Duck Dong
• By Blood
• Inky Skulls

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 or ukulele, he has toured the US West Coast, Midwest, and Europe multiple times.

As Captain Chaos

Captain Chaos
Origin	Bloomington, IN, USA
Genres	Folk-punk
Years active	2004–2008
Labels	Plan-It-X Records, Anti-Creative Records, Fall of the West Records, The Scientist and The Duke Records, Sweet Now Records, Big Magic Records, Crafty Records, Valiant Death Records
Members
Chris Johnston ("Chris Clavin") - acoustic guitar, vocals and sometimes Colorblind Joe - ukulele, backing vocals McKayla - backing vocals Matty pop chart - piano

Symbol of chaos, found on Captain Chaos CD's

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

• Captain Chaos Cassette Tape
  Spoonboy's Tape Label, 2004
• Tour CD-R CD-R
  Self-Released/chaos records, 2004
  (Would later go on to make up the bulk of May All Liars Burn in Hell)

Full-length albums

• May All Liars Burn in Hell (a.k.a. self-titled) CD
  The Scientist and the Duke Records, 2006
• This is CakeCD
  Crafty Records, April 5, 2006
• Bloomington, Vol. 1 CD
  Big Magic Records, September 15, 2006
• Ireland CD-R
  Valiant Death Records, October 23, 2006
• The Fool CD
  Anti-Creative Records, March 12, 2007
• For the Devil CD
  Fall of the West Records, April 1, 2007
• Your Bright Eyes Are Gonna Kill Me For Sure CD-R
  Crafty Records, April 5, 2007
  Included in the boxed set (see below)
• Nice and Friendly/Captain Chaos Split - Have Fun/Die Hard CD
  Sweet Now Records, January 11, 2008

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

• Bella's Birthday CD Digital Album (free!)
  Plan-It-X Records, April 5, 2005
• Live At Bandit H.Q. CD-R
  DIY Bandits, 2006
• The Three Dollar Gallon CD
  Crafty Records, December 16, 2006
• Night of the Living Devilock: A DIY Tribute to the Misfits CD-R
  Playground's Greatest Records/Pop Monster! Records, 2006
• Ponies in a Stable CD
  Don't Stop Believin' Records, April 2007
• Thanks For The Floor CD
  Crafty Records March 2008

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

• The Roads Lead Everywhere LP
  Crafty Records, June 3, 2008
• Secrets (Chris Clavin / Sara Cilantro Split) Cassette Tape
  Plan-It-X Records, 2009
• Chris Clavin / Madeline Ava Split Cassette Tape
  Plan-It-X Records, November 2009
• Chris Clavin / Andrew Lips Split Cassette Tape
  Plan-It-X Records, September 2010
• Chris Clavin / Kyle Hall Split Cassette Tape
  Plan-It-X Records, 2011

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

See also

• Plan-It-X Records
• Operation: Cliff Clavin
• Ghost Mice
• The Devil is Electric
• DIY ethic
• List of record labels
• Punk rock

References

1. ^ Marcus, Andrew (30 December 2006). "The spirit of folk was everywhere this year, with a slew of tribute albums to various new hybrid forms -- from freak-folk to folk-punk and beyond". Salon Media Group. http://www.salon.com/entertainment/feature/2006/12/30/yearender_folk. Retrieved 12 May 2010. 

Persondata
Name	Clavin, Chris
Alternative names	Johnston, Christopher
Short description	Musician and record label owner
Date of birth
Place of birth	Indiana, USA
Date of death
Place of death