XXXCHANGE

Cutting-edge producer can now sell salad dressing

By MARTÍN CABALLERO

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Alex Epton (aka Armani XXXchange) isn't the typical product of The Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University in Baltimore. Regarded as one of the most prestigious music academies in the country, its alumni usually go on to perform in large concert halls for the best orchestras—or in Epton's case, for sweaty dancefloors packed with scenesters in hormonal overdrive. As an independent producer and one of the driving forces behind the frenetic music machine known as Spank Rock, the ex-drum performance major has merged hip-hop's sexual swagger with the spastic energy of punk, creating a grand symphony for the ass-shaking crowd.

"I don't even know what to call it, it's like party rap or club rap," said Epton, who mans the decks with fellow B-Morian and Spank Rock DJ Chris Devlin at the Milky Way Thursday night. In the two years since Spank Rock's debut disc YoYoYoYoYo, he's seen the leading artists of this new style—M.I.A., Diplo, Sinden amongst them—go from best-kept secrets to heavy iPod rotation.

"In terms of everybody else making music, now what we did four or five years ago, which seemed pretty radical at the time, has become pretty normal and kind of everybody is doing that sort of style. M.I.A. was definitely more influential than us but we kind of helped on that first wave of stuff that came out."

Before slowly creeping into the mainstream, that style bubbled out of the club scene around Philadelphia. Aided by the success of parties like Hollertronix, the Spank Rock team—XXXchange and Devlin (aka Rockswell) plus Amanda Blank and DJ Ronnie Darko—built their reputation through Epton's genre-splicing production, packed with the energy of a Red Bull & Cialis cocktail. After YoYoYoYoYo put them on the map, the group soon found itself touring with the likes of Beck and fielding offers to license their music for everything from the Madden video game franchise to an episode of Entourage. Even Wishbone anted up to use their single "Bump" to introduce a new salad dressing line called Bountifuls.

"[The music] is commercial in the sense that the culture is starting to catch up to it and other people are starting to emulate it," said Epton. "I don't think making money off of it makes it any less valid as art. I still feel pretty confident that the record was a statement of who I was and where I was at at the time."

XXXchange's current state of mind has him looking toward the next wave of artists for inspiration. He's recently done remixes for Santogold and completed work on tracks by Chicago MC Kid Sister. The next Spank Rock album isn't in the works quite yet, but by the time it's ready we may need to invent yet more names to describe it. "I like to do different stuff just to keep it fresh. Doing rap music all the time ... I might get tired of it."

XXXCHANGE

WITH PRINCE KLASSEN, DJ KNIFE & CHRIS DEVLIN

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THURSDAY 9.4.08

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