X-ecutioners Hit the Road for 'Adrenaline Rush,' First Major Tour Since Release of Best-Selling Breakthrough Album 'Built From Scratch'
Current Single, 'It's Going Down,' Lights Up Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks Chart
PRNewswire
NEW YORK
04/02/2002
The X-ecutioners, the pioneering DJ crew who've spearheaded a revolution in "turntablism," are hitting the road for the group's first major U.S. tour since the release of their groundbreaking album, "Built From Scratch." Released on February 26, "Built From Scratch" debuted at #15 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Roc Raida, Rob Swift, and Total Eclipse -- the turntable wizards originally known as "the X-men"--are enjoying the success of their album and "It's Going Down," the first single, which is currently charting on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The X- ecutioners' "Adrenaline Rush" tour opens April 3 at La Zona Rosa in Austin, Texas, scene of the group's triumphant set at this year's SxSW Festival (full tour itinerary follows).
Press and audience acclaim for "Built From Scratch," the X-ecutioners, and the group's live gigs has been running rabid. In the March/April 2002 issue of Request magazine, critic Eric Demby wrote: "(The X-ecutioners) ... knock your socks off with their mind-boggling mastery of scratching and beat-juggling on one track, then lock in a hot groove on the next, exhibiting a vastly improved knack for proper song production ... " while the Washington Post's Craig Smith raved in the paper's February 27, 2002 issue: "The group's major label debut couples scratch-happy treats with enough trunk-thumping rappers and rockers to satisfy turntable junkies and pop fiends alike."
USA Today (February 26, 2002) gave the album three-and-one-half (*** 1/2) stars with writer Steve Jones placing the group in proper historical context: "Hip-hop was built on the lightning-fast skills of DJs working dual turntables to create percussive, party-rocking soundscapes from samples and scratches. But, in recent years, that's become something of a lost art, one (these) New Yorkers boldly reclaim here ... . In moving to the mainstream over the years, hip-hop may have lost some of its street-born fire. The X-ecutioners take it back to its essence."
Soren Baker, writing in the Los Angeles Times (February 24, 2002) called the album " ... a sonic gem ... " while Todd Inoue, in the February 2002 Pulse!, noted that 'Built From Scratch' appeals to adventuresome music lovers of all stripes, not just DJ heads. Really great, genre-pushing stuff. Cop this."
Paper (February 2002) sent Ron Hart to review the album: 'Virtuoso' may be a label normally reserved for rock guitar gods or free jazz giants, but there is no better term to describe the uncanny DJ skills of the ... New York City wrecking crew ... " while Evan Serpick, in Entertainment Weekly's "A-" (January 25, 2002) review of the album wrote, "While their lighting-fast deck skills evoke nostalgia, the X-ecutioners still sound like the freshest crew on the block."
The X-ecutioners were already fully accomplished and internationally known as champion battle DJs (as the X-men) when they released their debut album "X-pressions" (Asphodel Records) in 1997. Raising the bar on hip-hop DJ skills in live performance, the X-ecutioners began creating synchronized routines involving up to six turntables at once. They developed the kind of telepathic chemistry more often associated with improvisational bands, taking cues from each other while playing," combining the best elements of spontaneous live jazz, the electricity of a sizzling rock jam, and the futuristic technological pulse of electronica.
The X-ecutioners spent three years crafting "Built From Scratch" and the result is a watershed moment in the evolving art of turntablism, offering an impressive range of new school songwriting and DJing.
A virtual symphony orchestra of turntables, the X-ecutioners received a standing ovation following their performance at Lincoln Center's 20th Century Electronic Music series and was invited to perform at the Smithsonian Institute's Multicultural/Multimedia Festival on the Great Lawn in Washington, DC during the 2001 Fourth of July weekend. The group has performed more than 300 shows in major cities in Europe, Canada, and the United States as well as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Senegal, Iceland and Lebanon.
X-ECUTIONERS "ADRENALINE RUSH" TOUR 2002
04/03/02 Austin, TX La Zona Rosa
04/04/02 Dallas, TX Trees
04/06/02 New Orleans, LA House Of Blues
04/07/02 Birmingham, AL Five Points Music Hall
04/08/02 Jacksonville, FL The Marquee Theater
04/09/02 Tallahassee, FL The Moon
04/10/02 Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL Masquerade
04/11/02 Atlanta, GA Earthlink Live
04/15/02 New Haven, CT Toad's Place
04/16/02 New York, NY BB Kings
04/17/02 Providence-New Bedford, RI "Hell/Lupos"
04/18/02 Philadelphia, PA TLA
04/19/02 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
04/20/02 Boston, MA Axis
04/21/02 Northampton, MA Pearl Street
04/23/02 Cleveland, OH Agora Theater
04/24/02 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall
04/25/02 Cincinnati, OH Bogart's
04/26/02 Chicago, IL House Of Blues
04/27/02 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
04/29/02 Boulder, CO Fox Theater
05/01/02 Seattle, WA Showbox
05/02/02 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
05/03/02 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
05/04/02 Santa Barbara-Santa Maria, The Hub - University Center -
CA UC Santa Barbara
05/05/02 San Diego, CA The Scene
05/06/02 Los Angeles, CA House Of Blues
05/07/02 Pomona, CA The Glass House
SOURCE: Columbia Records
Contact: Howard Wuelfing of Columbia Records, Media, New York,
+1-212-833-8891, howard_wuelfing@sonymusic.com, or Online press - Lisa Linder
of Columbia Records, Online & Emerging Technologies, Columbia Records, New
York, +1-212-833-6666, lisa_linder@sonymusic.com
Website: http://www.x-ecutioners.net/
http://www.columbiarecords.com/