Chris McCaughan (born March 30, 1977) is the guitarist and vocalist in the band
The Lawrence Arms
The Lawrence Arms are an American punk rock band from Chicago, formed in 1999. They have released seven full-length albums and toured extensively.
Band history Pre-history
Prior to forming the Lawrence Arms, the three band members were active i ...
. McCaughan was formerly the guitarist for the bands
Tricky Dick and
The Broadways (the latter also featuring fellow Arms bandmate
Brendan Kelly). His solo music is released under the name Sundowner.
Career
In 2006, Chris started writing songs for a solo project, while playing intimate shows around Chicago, and posted four demo songs on his
MySpace page. Adopting the name
Sundowner, he finished recording his debut solo album with the help of The Lawrence Arms drummer
Neil Hennessy on bass and
Jenny Choi
Jenny Choi is an American singer and cellist, who founded the Asians in Rock tour, and is the lead singer of the two-piece Chicago band, Sanawon. For many years she performed solo at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (where she ...
on cello, keys and backing vocals.
The record, ''Four One Five Two'' (named after his parents' house, where he did much of his songwriting), was released on Red Scare records on March 13, 2007 and features reworked versions of the popular Lawrence Arms songs "100 Resolutions" and "Boatless Booze Cruise" (retitled "My Boatless Booze Cruise"); the latter was a song originally written and sung by Lawrence Arms bandmate and bassist Brendan Kelly.
McCaughan went on tour as Sundowner with
Mike Park
Mike Park is a Korean American musician and progressive activist. His musical ventures include Skankin' Pickle for whom he both played the saxophone and sang, The Chinkees, The Bruce Lee Band, and Ogikubo Station, as well as an acoustic solo proj ...
in Feb-Mar 2008 in the UK and Europe on what was known as the "Beans On Toast" Tour, because that is all the pair could afford to eat. Asian Man Records released the second Sundowner album ''We Chase The Waves'' on August 10, 2010. Sundowner's third full-length album, Neon Fiction, was released on
Fat Wreck Chords
Fat Wreck Chords (pronounced "Fat Records") is a San Francisco, California-based independent record label, focused on punk rock. It was started by NOFX lead singer Michael Burkett (better known as Fat Mike) in 1990.
The label has released mater ...
in 2013.
McCaughan is known to use
Guild S-100
The Guild S-100 electric guitar is a lightweight solid-body guitar made by the Guild Guitar Company. It features two humbucking pickups and its body is styled similarly to a Gibson SG, but is slightly offset. In the 1970s, a version of this gui ...
guitars and
Mesa Boogie
Mesa/Boogie (also known as Mesa Engineering) is an American company in Petaluma, California, that manufactures amplifiers and other accessories for guitars and basses. It has been in operation since 1969.
Mesa was started by Randall Smith as a ...
mark IV amps.
References
External links
Sundowner on Myspace
1977 births
Living people
American punk rock singers
American punk rock guitarists
Singers from Chicago
Guitarists from Chicago
American male guitarists
21st-century American singers
21st-century American guitarists
21st-century American male singers
The Lawrence Arms members
The Broadways members
Sundowner (band) members
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