He has long been a prime mover in New York City's vibrant underground music scene, helping to kick-start the vital no wave movement in the late 1970s with Teenage Jesus & the Jerks and 8 Eyed Spy (both with Lydia Lunch), before playing with Sonic Youth and the Cramps.

Further to his work as a musician, Sclavunos has produced a wide range of bands including Gogol Bordello, the Horrors, the Jim Jones Revue, Black Moth, and Teenage Mothers (Lead guitarist and co-vocalist Raph Brous has dedicated his upcoming novel, Empire of Ants, to him).

In 2012, Silver Alert performed "Faustian Pact" at the Perth International Arts Festival in Western Australia, a live adaptation of FW Murnau's film Faust, produced in collaboration with director/choreographer Micki Pellerano.

In 2012, Sclavunos began an ongoing collaboration with Australian performance artist/musician Michaela Davies on a composition titled "FM-2030" (named for the transhumanist philosopher Fereidoun M. Esfandiary) utilizing programmed electro-muscular stimulation of classical string players to generate involuntary playing movements.

While attending NYU School of Arts, Jim Sclavunos co-founded No Magazine, an underground fanzine devoted to coverage of NY punk rock and the burgeoning No Wave movement.

[3] Around the time the Gynecologists were disbanding, Sclavunos joined Lydia Lunch’s band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks as bass guitarist, releasing both an EP Baby Doll (1979) and a compilation mini-album on pink vinyl on Lust/Unlust.

[9] Sclavunos ended up moving to Memphis and joining Alex Chilton's side-project Tav Falco's Panther Burns,[10] ultimately releasing an EP Blow Your Top (1982).

[12] He moved on to co-founding Trigger & the Thrill Kings with Dutch singer Truus DeGroot, with the group touring extensively throughout the Netherlands and Germany with various line-ups including Jim Duckworth on guitar and Annene Kaye on keyboards.

[15][16] In the fall of 1991 Sclavunos left Los Angeles to be reunited with Lydia Lunch, touring Europe with her and Rowland S. Howard under the band name Shotgun Wedding.

[36] On Valentine's Day 2012 Sclavunos presented Faustian Pact, a multi-media film and live magic ritual performance and musical improvisation piece at The Perth Arts Festival with Micki Pellerano.

[39] At the end of their North American stint, a stripped-down version of the band (including Sclavunos on drums) recorded the album Live from KCRW, which was released that same year.

[41] In 2014 Axels & Sockets (The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project) is released with the featured track "Nobody’s City" mixed by Sclavunos, a duet with Iggy Pop and Nick Cave, with guitar by Thurston Moore.

[48] Following the COVID-19 pandemic, Sclavunos has released multiple singles, starting in January 2021 with "Holiday Song", and continuing in April 2022 with a cover of Bob Dylan's "Lay Down Your Weary Tune".