David Grubbs is an experimental guitarist, pianist, and vocalist whose work spans decades and ranges from punk rock beginnings to distinguished academia. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, Grubbs was a key member of the Chicago scene associated with Drag City Records, removing structure from song as a member of abstractionist rock group Gastr del Sol and showing up as a guest player in the studio and on-stage with Codeine, Royal Trux, Will Oldham, the Red Krayola, Pauline Oliveros, and many others. Grubbs spent many active years in Chicago before relocating to Brooklyn to work as a professor of music at CUNY's Brooklyn College and Graduate Center. He has consistently released solo work along with all of his myriad collaborations, delving into minimalism, musique concrète, experimental guitar, and other deconstructions on albums like 2013's The Plain Where the Palace Stood and 2025's Whistle from Above. Originally hailing from Louisville, Kentucky, Grubbs began his life in music as a part of early-'80s punk band the Happy Cadavers. When that band dematerialized, he went on to craft an unconventional take on hardcore as a member of Bastro and Squirrel Bait before teaming up with Jim O'Rourke in Gastr del Sol. That band issued a number of critically acclaimed albums in the mid-'90s, and then O'Rourke split to pursue solo projects and focus on his Drag City boutique label, Moikai. In this phase, Grubbs frequently worked as a side musician for friends and peers, playing on records by Codeine, Will Oldham, the Dirty Three, Tony Conrad, the Red Krayola, Matmos, and many others. Grubbs' first solo album of his own was released by the Table of the Elements label in 1997, entitled Banana Cabbage, Potato Lettuce, Onion Orange. His second album, The Thicket, garnered a lot more critical and commercial attention when it was released in 1998 by Drag City. Apertura, a project with Swedish improvising saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, followed in 1999. In 2000, Grubbs teamed up with Gustafsson again, along with Noel Akchote and John McEntire, to record The Spectrum Between. Featuring clever lyrics paired with delicate guitar work, the album was a fine addition to Grubbs' growing discography. Though it was recorded around the time of The Thicket sessions, The Coxcomb, a musical adaptation of Stephen Crane's short story "The Blue Hotel," was not released domestically until late 2000 on the Drag City subsidiary Blue Chopsticks. Thirty Minute Raven appeared in 2001, followed by both Rickets & Scurvy and the instrumental Act Five, Scene One in 2002. The next year, Grubbs released Off-Road, another collaboration with Gustafsson, and a split single with Avey Tare of Animal Collective on Fat Cat. A Guess at the Riddle, which reunited Grubbs with Rickets & Scurvy collaborator Rick Moody, arrived in 2004, while An Optimist Notes the Dusk followed four years later. In 2010, Grubbs teamed up with percussionist Andrea Belfi and guitarist Stefano Pilia for the trio set Onrushing Cloud, and Belfi and Pilia helped out with Grubbs' sixth solo album, The Plain Where the Palace Stood, a largely instrumental record of idiosyncratic post-rock tunes that arrived in 2013. Belfi, Pilia, and Grubbs issued another collaborative effort in 2014 with Dust & Mirrors. Woodslippercounterclatter, a document of a performance piece Grubbs created with poet Susan Howe, was released on his Blue Chopsticks label in 2015. In 2016, Grubbs issued Prismrose, an album of six new pieces for electric guitar, followed by the like-minded Creep Mission in 2017. His next proper studio solo LP, Whistle from Above, arrived in 2025. The album was a collection of duos between Grubbs and other experimental music figures, including guest performances from Andrea Belfi, Nate Wooley, and Rhodri Davies. ~ Stacia Proefrock, Rovi

Collateral Festival 2010

David Grubbs

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