Music titled "Uptown-Downtown: Hip Hop Music in Downtown Manhattan in the Early 1980s", which appeared in the anthology Critical Minded: New Approaches to Hip Hop Studies. He directly links this research to his approach to creating noteworthy events within the current music landscape stating, ""It definitely made me wonder what was going wrong with culture and if anybody could possibly do anything cool in terms of parties, unique music, public social culture, etc. in this day and age." He abandoned his thesis in 2005 and moved to Williamsburg in order to return to his music career. Career Austin Toubin's first professional DJ gig was The Dictators and Lunachicks show at The Back Room in Austin, TX in 1991 while he was still on student radio. Although he accepted a few more paid club gigs between bands at The Back Room, he was not interested in being a nightclub DJ and never pursued it any further. He played guitar in the band Cheezus from 1991 to 1992 and then in the band Noodle from 1992 to 1995 – with whom he toured the US and appeared on the ep's "I Sold Out to Fat Ass" (Rise Records) and "I Had A Wet Dream About the Girls from 90210" (Little Deputy) plus tracks on the compilations Live at Emo's Vol 1 (Rise), Penis Cowboy (Bunkhouse) and World War III (Bunkhouse). He then joined the band The Hamicks, with whom he would regularly record and tour with until 1998. His lead guitar can be found on the singles "Oxymorons"/”Networks" (Scooch Pooch 1996), "X-Ray Eyes"/”Dot to Dot" (Big Jerk 1996), "I Don't Believe in Valentines Day" split with the Primadonnas (Big Jerk 1996), the EP Ventriloquist Con-Artist (Framed 1997) the LP The Hamicks (Creepy Drifter 1999) and the compilations Lone Star Showdown II (Little Deputy 1997), Scooch Pooch Plays Their Original Sins (Scooch Pooch 1997) Toubin was also active in crafting the bands' aesthetics by creating their flyers and booking shows. He has appeared on a total of sixteen records as either a guitarist, bassist, organist, or vocalist. New York Not long after Toubin moved to New York in 1998, he joined the band Grand Mal – a band with a record deal on Slash in the U.S. and on London in the UK and a distribution deal on Polygram. [4] He plays bass on their Bad Timing LP (Arena Rock Recording Company, 2003)