X-ecutioners Hit The Road With The Eminem & Ludacris 'Anger Management' Tour
By: Source: Mi2N Newswire -
June 3rd 2002 1:03pm
The X-ecutioners, the pioneering DJ crew who've spearheaded a revolution in "turntablism," will be touring with Eminem and Ludacris on the Anger Management tour which begins July 18 in Buffalo, New York and hits 35 towns before ending September 8 in Auburn Hills, Michigan (full tour itinerary follows) having completed their first major American tour and a month's worth of U.S. festival dates since the release of their groundbreaking album, Built From Scratch. The X-ecutioners will play a unique role on the "Anger Management" shows. In addition to performing their own set featuring material from Built To Scratch, the group will DJ four additional sets between the other acts' performances, turning the entire event into one big, non-stop party! Joining the X-ecutioners as guest MC for these dates will be "Dstroy" from the Arsonists; Boogie Blind (current Vestax World Champion) will also guest DJ during the X-ecutioners' performance. 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 continued success of their album. "It's Goin' Down," the first single, charted in the Top 20 of the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart for two months. The group performed "It's Goin' Down" on "The Late Show With David Letterman" aided and abetted by rap star Xzibit and Brooklyn hardcore mainstays Biohazard May 16. 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." In Paper (February 2002) Ron Hart said: "'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. ANGER MANAGEMENT TOUR July 18: Buffalo, NY - HSBC Arena July 19: Hartford, CT - Meadows Music Theatre July 20: Scranton, PA - Montage Mountain Performing Arts Center July 21: Bristow, VA - Nissan Pavilion July 22: East Rutherford, NJ - Continental Airlines Arena July 24: Middletown, NY - Orange County Fair July 25: Camden, NJ - Tweeter Center July 26: Wantagh, NY - Jones Beach Amphitheatre July 27: Mansfield, MA - Tweeter Center July 30: Cleveland, OH, Cleveland State University July 31: Noblesville, IN - Verizon Wireless Music Center Aug. 1: Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena Aug. 2: St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center Aug. 5: Nampa, ID - Idaho Center Amphitheatre Aug. 6: Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Dome Aug. 7: Portland, OR - Rose Garden Aug. 11: Mountain View, CA - Shoreline Amphitheatre Aug. 12: Fresno, CA - Selland Arena Aug. 15: Chula Vista, CA - Coors Amphitheatre Aug. 16: Devore, CA - Blockbuster Pavilion Aug. 17: Las Vegas, NV - Thomas & Mack Center Aug. 20: Phoenix, AZ - America West Arena Aug. 21: Albuquerque, NM - Tingley Coliseum Aug. 22: Englewood, CO - Fiddlers Green Amphitheatre Aug. 24: Maryland Heights, MO - UMB Bank Pavilion Aug. 25: Bonner Springs, KS - Sandstone Amphitheatre Aug. 31: Tampa, FL - Ice Palace Sept. 1: Tampa, FL - National Car Rental Center Sept. 4: Atlanta, GA - Hi Fi Buys Amphitheatre Sept. 6: Burgettstown, PA - Post-Gazette Pavilion Sept. 8: Auburn Hills, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills
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