Louisville, Kentucky-born, Grubbs – who describes his work as Melodramatic Popular Song/ Punk/ Minimalist – is a very highly thought-of and influential figure on the art rock scene.

Hid first album was released in 1982, and since then he has made ten solo records, was a founding member of Squirrel Bait, Bastro, and Gastr del Sol, and has worked with Stephen Prina, Cosima von Bonin, Angela Bulloch, Anthony McCall, Susan Howe, and Kenneth Goldsmith. He has also played in The Red Krayola and The Wingdale Community Singers.

Grubbs’ latest solo album, An Optimist Notes the Dusk (Drag City) was released in October 2008. His most recent releases include Souls of the Labadie Tract and Thiefth (Blue Chopsticks), two collaborations with poet Susan Howe; Two Soundtracks for Angela Bulloch (Semishigure); and 2004’s A Guess at the Riddle (Drag City/FatCat). In 2000, his albumThe Spectrum Between (Drag City) was named “Album of the Year” in the London Sunday Times.

Grubbs is an assistant professor of Radio and Sound Art at Brooklyn College, CUNY, and director of Brooklyn College's graduate programs in Performance and Interactive Media Arts. He has been called one of two “Best Teachers for an Indie-Rocker to Admire” in the Village Voice and “le plus Français des Américains” in Libération.