David Grubbs

David Grubbs


David Grubbs


Louisville-born and bred recording artist and writer. Currently resides in Brooklyn, N.Y.

In July 2000 Drag City released David Grubbs fourth full-length solo recording, The Spectrum Between, a collection of songs with a group featuring John McEntire, Nol Akchot, Charlie O, Mats Gustafsson, Dan Brown, Daniel Carter, and Quentin Rollet.

David Grubbs sound installation "Between a Raven and a Writing Desk" was recently included in the group exhibition Elysian Fields at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

1998 and 1999 saw the release of three full-length recordings by Grubbs. The Thicket (Drag City) features the contributions of Tony Conrad and John McEntire. The second is The Coxcomb (Rectangle), an adaptation of Stephen Cranes "The Blue Hotel" recorded in World Cup-mad Paris. Finally, there is Apertura, a record of harmonium and reeds duets with Mats Gustafsson released in May 1999 on Grubbs own Blue Chopsticks label.

David Grubbs released his first solo album in 1997, Banana Cabbage, Potato Lettuce, Onion Orange (Table of the Elements). Adhering strictly to the conceit that a solo album consist of solos, it contains three unaccompanied performances on piano, electric guitar, and acoustic guitar.

David Grubbs was a founding member of Gastr del Sol, whose fourth and final album (Camoufleur) was released in February 1998 by Drag City/Domino. He has participated in the Red Krayola since 1993, and appears on their most recent album, Fingerpainting. Grubbs codirected Dexters Cigar, an acclaimed reissue label that released records by, among others, Derek Bailey, Arnold Dreyblatt, and Folke Rabe. At present he directs the Blue Chopsticks record label, with releases from Luc Ferrari, Van Oehlen, and Mats Gustafsson.

Grubbs contributed music to the Red Krayolas original soundtrack to Norman and Bruce Yonemotos film Japan in Paris in LA as well as to the soundtrack of Braden King and Laura Moyas film Dutch Harbor: Where the Sea Breaks its Back and, most recently, to John Boskovichs film North. Music by Gastr del Sol appears in the P.B.S. television series The United States of Poetry and Doug Aitkens film The Diamond Sea, which premiered at the 1997 Whitney Biennial of American Art.

In previous lives, David was guitarist and primary songwriter in the widely influential mid-80s punk group Squirrel Bait, whose two records have recently been reissued; he was reincarnated into the same position in Bastro, which released two albums and toured Europe at the time of the 80s/90s cusp.

From 1997-99, David Grubbs was a part-time instructor in the Liberal Arts and Sound departments at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Grubbs was a guest curator in the 1999 Steirischer Herbst festival in Graz, Austria and artist-in-residence during the 1999 Mappe Festival in Catania, Sicily. His criticism has appeared in Texte zur Kunst, Purple, and BookForum, and he regularly contributes music criticism to the Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. He is also currently a Ph.D. candidate in literature at the University of Chicago, where he has taught a course on writing and producing radio plays.


Sendungen im ORF-Kunstradio

06. 01. 2002: "coney island, july & october, 2001"




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