Mr JT bio

- NYNT/Mr JT current & former parties

- Mr JT press pics

“Jonathan Toubin is the only person we can call a "professional DJ" without making a jack-off motion with our hand… And his parties are like what Ancient Stonehenge was like if it was, as archeologists theorize, filled with people dressed many times better than you completely losing their shit."
- Mike de Leon, Vice, Nov 1, 2010

For years New York Night Train conductor/soul proprietor Mr. Jonathan Toubin has been the most popular, prolific, and highest-earning rock and soul DJ on the North American nightclub circuit – taking the 45rpm dance party to a whole new level conceptually, culturally, and commercially. Though known for “maximum rock and soul” dance club sets at his weekly Shakin’ All Over Under Sideways Down party, the instructional Land of 1000 Dances spectacle, the elaborately grandious multi-media worldwide "Happenings", and many more, his 1960s soul/r&b/funk/boogaloo Soul Clap and Dance-Off party has put Mr. T on the map as soul man and left a gigantic footprint on contemporary urban nightlife. Working over 1200 gigs the last six years, Mr. Jonathan Toubin has managed to keep one boot in the counter-culture from which he emerged (punk bars, DIY basements, loft parties, art galleries, music venues, and shady afterhours spots) while crossing over to dance clubs, prestigious festivals, boutique hotels, museums, ivy league colleges, fashion parties, arena pop/rock shows, and even raves – garnering press in highbrow publications and receiving nominations for nightlife awards from the fancier side of New York culture in the process. Not only a DJ, he’s a busy beaver who still produces and promotes his events – down to creating his own flers, maintaining his web site, email list, and social networks, hiring his own staff, doing his own sound, MC-ing his dance contest, and even rolling up his sleeves for such unenviable tasks such as stage managing.

Mr. Jonathan Toubin conceived the Soul Clap and Dance-Off in March 2007 as a monthly outlet to play his soul 45s to a small north Brooklyn underground art/rock social community in the spirit of the mid-1990s indie/punk scene parties. He added a brief dance-contest to the mix to make the event more interesting. As this humble makeshift neighborhood underdog evolved into an institution, Mr. T employed the party’s popularity as a weapon against tired hit nights, 80s nights, and other mediocre contemporary dance culture – offering an alternative in the possibility of dancing to exciting music most of us have never heard before. The epic size, frequency, and geographical breadth of the Soul Clap the last few years has been a seed for a new wave of soul dance culture among indie rockers, punks, and hipsters first in Brooklyn, next in Manhattan, and, in the last year, around the world – garnering slews of imitators and developing a new nightlife economy everywhere from Portland, ME to Portland, OR, from Canada to Mexico and even as far away as the Middle East.

A label-owner/veteran musician/published academic/professional journalist, Mr Jonathan Toubin began regularly DJing punk/garage/noise rock weekly at the Lower East Side’s legendary Motor City Bar in 2006. Within a year, Mr. Toubin was working nightly around New York – mixing in eclectic genres (psych, jazz, rocksteady, etc.) with the garage, rockabilly, doo wop, r&b, and soul sounds that he’s best known for today. Casting mp3s, CDs, and eventually LPs aside once he began hitting dance spots, he stepped up to the challenge of spinning exclusively the biggest and baddest musical medium ever, the 45rpm vinyl record, New York Night Train’s conductor increasingly became known from Brooklyn to the Lower East Side for his 7-inch get-downs. Focusing on dancers instead of collectors, cutting $1 commoners with $100 rarities with strategic pitching, sequencing, EQ-ing, and transitioning, Mr T distinguished his sets from typical retro DJs by developing a playfully unique selection aesthetic and focus on juxtaposition of beats. In the process he also stood far apart from the hit-players and computer jocks on the other end of culture by playing uncommon supreme music on all-original vinyl. Years of nightly gigging in a variety of settings offered NYNT’s conductor a huge advantage over his peers in that his labor also served as an infinite laboratory regarding the subtleties of how, without spinning obvious material, to make a variety of cultures and subcultures dance together – uniting even the squarest weekend dance floors under the undeniable power of his live imporvised mixes.

December 2011, while on tour in Portland, OR, a runaway cab crashed through Jonathan Toubin’s first-floor hotel room – running him over and landing on his chest. In critical condition and sedated in the ICU for a month, the soul proprietor’s friends and fans around the United States took action – throwing him dozens of benefits everywhere from New York to Los Angeles and Detroit to New Orleans – featuring everyone from Yeah Yeah Yeahs to Maragaret Cho. Many operations and months of physical therapy later, New York Night Train’s conducter proved that he would not let 26 major injuries bring him down – making his public debut as the surprise DJ for Jack White’s show at Webster Hall April 27 (less than five months after the accident!). While he’s currently working less than half as much as last year until he fully recovers, he’s nonetheless back at what he does best roughly twice a week.

2012 finds Toubin returning to his weekly Friday gig at Home Sweet Home and monthly Soul Clap and Dance-Off at the Glasslands as well as hitting prestigious festivals like Lincoln Center’s Midsummer Night’s Swing and All Tomorrow’s Parties, as well as a few road gigs per month. In general, he continues to prove that nightlife doesn’t have to be boring – spicing up an otherwise bland landscape with his distinctively explosive vinyl goodies. Get on board!

Mr. Jonathan Toubin/NY Night Train Current Parties:

Mr Jonathan Toubin has DJ-ed with: Andy Rourke (The Smiths) - Beyonda (I’ve Got a Hole In My Soul) – Billy Miller and Miraim Linna (Norton Records) - Brian DeGraw (Gang Gang Dance) – Calvin Johnson (Beat Happening, Dub Narcotic, etc) - Cosmo Baker (The Rub)- Dale Crover (The Melvins) - Danny Kroha (The Gories) – David Johansen (New York Dolls, etc) – Devendra Banhardt – Don Bolles (The Germs, 45 Grave, etc.) – Dusty Sparkles (Danava) – Frankie Rose (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls, etc.) – Gabriel Roth (Dap-Tone Records, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings) - Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV) – Gibby Haynes (Butthole Surfers)- House of House (DFA) - Howie Pyro (Intoxica Radio, Danzig, D-Generation, The Blessed, etc) - Ian Svenonius (Make-Up, Nation of Ulysses, Chain and the Gang, etc) - Ivan Sunshine (Hidden Fees) – James Chance (The Contortions), James White and the Blacks) - James Murphy (LCD Soundsystems) – Jared Swiley (Black Lips) - Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedy’s etc) - Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Grinderman, etc) - Jon Spencer (Blues Explosion, Pussy Galore, etc) - Josh Styles (Smashed! Blocked!) - Kid Congo Powers (Gun Club, Cramps, etc)- Kembra Pfahler (Veloptuous Horror of Karen Black) – Kool Herc (father of Hip-Hop music) – Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio) – Moses Archuleta (Dear Hunter) - Mr. Fine Wine (WFMU’s Downtown Soulville) - Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) - Paul Ryder (The Happy Mondays) - Phast Phreddie (Backdoor Man, Subway Soul, etc) - Pieter Schoolwerth (Wierd Records) – Primo (Oldies Night) – Ryan Schreiber (editor/founder – Pitchfork Media) Sammy Yaffa (New York Dolls, Hanoi Rocks) - Sean Yseult (White Zombie) – Simeon Coxe (Silver Apples) - $mall Change- Steve Krakow (Plastic Crimewave Sound)- The Shins - Tim Kerr (Big Boys, Poison 13, Monkeywrench, Jack of Fire, Lord High Fixers, etc.) – Tim Warren (Crypt Records) – Todd-O-Phonic Todd (WFMU, Telstar, Candy, and Satan Records)

New York Night Train throws parties featuring DJ Jonathan Toubin and live acts like: …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead (2-piece hardcore lineup) - April March – A.R.E. Weapons – Andrew WK - Awesome Color - Beets – Black Time - Blank Dogs - Brimstone Howl – Calvin Johnson - Chain and the Gang - Cheap Time - Crystal Stilts - Daddy Long Legs – Danny Kroha – Death Set - Digital Leather - Drones – Dum Dum Girls - Excepter - Frankie Rose – Fresh and Onlys - Garotas Suecas - Gogogo Airheart - Golden Triangle – Grass Widow – Greg Ashley - HEALTH - Heavy Trash - Homosexuals - Indian Jewelry - Intelligence – James Chance – Julee Cruise – K-Holes – Kid Congo and the Pink Monkeybirds - King Khan and the BBQ - King Khan and the Shrines - Mark Sultan – Mika Miko - No Bra – Notekillers – Oh Sees - Pink Reason – Psychic Ills - Psychedelic Horseshit – Pterodactyl – Quintron and Ms Pussycat - Screaming Females – Sky "Sunlight" Saxon – The Slits – So Cow - Spits - Stalkers – Strange Boys - Suckers – Surfer Blood - Talk Normal – Thalia Zedek – Turbo Fruits – Vietnam – Wreckless Eric

Mr Jonathan Toubin also DJs at shows of bands like: Black Keys – Black Lips – Black Mountain – Bon Iver – Boyd Rice – The Contortions – Davilla 666 - Death From Above 1979 (DFA) – Dinosaur Jr - Erykah Badu – Faith No More - F*cked Up – Gang Gang Dance – The Go - Glass Candy – HEALTH - Interpol – Jack White – Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Katy Red – King Khan and the BBQ - King Khan and the Shrines - LCD Soundsystems - Les Savy Fav - The Men – MGMT - MIA – Mission of Burma - Monotonix – Nicole Atkins – Odd Future – Off – Ponytailt – Rick Ross – Spank Rock – Ty Segall – Vivian Girls – White Fence

Mr Jonathan Toubin DJs at festivals/special events like: All Tomorrow’s Party’s (Monticello, NY) – Bruise Cruise (Miami/The Bahamas) – Chaos in Tejas (Austin) – CMJ (NYC) – Fashion Week (NYC) – First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum (NYC)- Fun Fun Fun (Austin) – Lucha VaVoom (East Coast Dates) – Mardi Gras (New Orleans and Mobile) – Music Fest NW (Portland, OR) – NXNW (Toronto) – Ponderosa Stomp (New Orleans) – Pop Montreal – Sled Island (Calgary) – SXSW (Austin) – Vice Scion Garage Rock Festival (Portland, OR) – WFMU Record Fair (NYC)

Mr. Jonathan Toubin Press Pics

web jpeg 300 dpi print image by Brian "B-Dub" Williams		web jpeg 300dpi print image by Eleanor Logan
web jpeg 300dpi print image by Julie Patterson		web jpeg 300dpi print image by Julie Patterson
web jpeg 300dpi print image by Angela Wieland		web jpeg 300dpi print image by Angela Wieland

Follow New York Night Train on:
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– Email list (MailingList – at – NewYorkNightTrain.com)

To book Mr. Jonathan Toubin, the Soul Clap and Dance-Off, or any other NY Night Train party
contact Michelle Cable at Panache Booking. For Europe conact Buzz at U-Turn Touring.

Download the printable Soul Clap/Mr JT press kit here.

Find Mr Jonathan Toubin’s promotional pictures for print and online here.

Listen to Mr. JT’s "NY Night Train Soul Clap Classics Volume 1" mix here.