Sundowner

Chris McCaughan functions as both vocalist and guitarist, best recognized as one member of the Chicago punk trio the Lawrence Arms, where his clearer delivery balances the slurred growl of fellow frontman Brendan Kelly. Active in the group since the late ’90s, McCaughan had already sharpened his punk approach through earlier local outfits including Tricky Dick and the Broadways. Persistent songwriting yielded material too minimal for the Lawrence Arms, so during the band’s tour behind its praised 2006 album Oh! Calcutta!, he began playing unaccompanied acoustic sets at coffee shops ahead of the nightly shows. Positive reactions to those performances encouraged him to record a full-length project under the Sundowner name. Although the songs followed the spare format common to most singer/songwriters, he sought help at Atlas Studios from Lawrence Arms bandmate Neil Hennessy on bass and from fellow Chicagoan Jenny Choi—who had previously collaborated with Mike Park, the Methadones, and Hanalei—on cello, keyboards, and vocals. The resulting Four One Five Two, titled after his parents’ address where the sessions took place, appeared on Red Scare in March 2007. A second album, We Chase the Waves, followed on Asian Man Records in 2010. After moving to Fat Wreck Chords, McCaughan issued his third Sundowner release, Neon Fiction, in 2013.