Mister Rourke has successfully blurred the line between performance artist, hired gun, studio musician and producer by getting his greasy little fingers into everything in which he could possibly incorporate his turntables. He has served as the DJ for thousands of events, founded a successful mobile disc jockey business, held several residencies in Bostons nightclub scene and guest appeared on numerous radio shows. He has performed live and on record with countless bands in various genres of music including Hip Hop, Funk, Dub Reggae, Free Jazz, Electronica, Blues, Ambient, Moroccan, Trip Hop, R&B, African and even Gospel. His work, which has earned him four Boston Music Awards, has been featured in Boston Globes notable Up and Coming column, jambase.com, Hip Hop Nation, Billboard Magazine, MTVs The Real World and HBOs The Chris Rock Show. His music has also been used in short films, commercials, video games, made-for television movies, and a variety of local art exhibits.
Incorporating cutting, scratching, blending, and mixing with Bostons top musicians since 1989, Rourke is considered a pioneer of using the turntable in a live band setting. Throughout the nineties, he performed thousands of times with both of his eight piece ensembles Fat Bag (Interscope) and The Formula (acclaimed live Hip Hop band voted Best Unsigned Group in Boston featuring Adam Deitch, Atticus Cole, Adam Smirnoff, and Sam Kininger of Lettuce). A staple of the flourishing Boston Hip Hop scene, Mister Rourke and The Formula provided live music for MCs Shuman, Mr.Lif, Akrobatik, Insight, IllinP, Virtuoso, Skitzofreniks, Rip Shop, K.T., Breeze Evaflowin, Sage Francis, Mic Styles, Crush One, Lower Level, The Underworld Secret Service and many more.
In addition to his own projects, Rourke is a member of the rotating cast of Boston based live-dub-trance collective Club dElf (featuring Mike Rivard, Brahim Fribgane, Dave Tronzo, Reeves Gabrels, John Medeski and others). Rourke has also toured with Soulive, Guvna Dub Sessions, Bob Moses & Mozamba, Cyro Baptista & Beat The Donkey, Miracle Orchestra, Addison Groove Project, Dub & Bass, The Sam Kininger Band, The Adam Deitch Project, The Om Trio, John Browns Body, Ron Levys Wild Kingdom, The Everyone Orchestra (featuring Jon Fishman) and more. Mister Rourke has done shows supporting De La Soul (twice), Jamiroquai, Maceo Parker, The Meters, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Phish, Rhazel (twice), Trey Hardson (Pharcyde), Henry Rollins, P-Funk Allstars, Fishbone, Charlie Hunter, The Screaming Headless Torsos, Bernie Worrell, The Disco Biscuits, Ween, Galactic, Scratch (Roots), Buju Banton, Fred Wesley, Black Sheep, The Jungle Brothers, J-Live, Pharoahe Monch, PMD, Madd Skillz, Big Daddy Kane, EDO-G, Yohimbe Brothers, DJ Honda, Grand Master Flash (twice), The Executioners (twice), John Scofield, WAR, LL Cool J and KRS-ONE (Six times) in arenas such as The Fleet Center, The Apollo Theater, The Fillmore, The Orpheum, and Harborlights. Mister Rourke performs at all of the major music festivals in the Northeast including: The Adirondack Mountain Music Festival, Berkfest, Gathering of the vibes, Creekside Jamboree, Ropeadope New Music Seminar (along side DJ Logic), The Phish IT Fest, The Up North Festival, and The Boston Hip Hop Unity Festival (where he and Shuman performed for over 40,000 people). Rourkes even played at Norfolk County Prison (where he received the prestigious "rockin the state pen award").
Rourkes extensive range of projects include: TERRORVISION scratch music album, The First Night Countdown to New Years Eve 2006 at Boston Copley Square (alongside The Junkman), The Chop Shop at The B-Side Lounge (alongside DJ Axel Foley), The Jazz Meets Hip Hop concert at The Cleveland Jazz Festival (05 & 06), The Plunge Music Festival in Telluride, Colorado, Cultural Constructions IV at Bostons Institute of Contemporary Art, two featured appearances on Billy Martins release Drop The Needle-Remixes & Breakbeats, the DJ for The Truth Tour (anti-smoking campaign), the Soulive Re-Mix album, THE SIEGE (Hip Hop mix-CD), DJ Night at The San Francisco Funk Festival, Club d'Elf in Tokyo-Japan, a featured appearance on G Love's forthcoming album, The Turntable Demolition Team (improvisational scratch symphony), the musical soundtrack to Parappa the Rapper 2 for Sony Play Station 2 and "Turntables as an Instrument" a DJ workshop he developed and teaches at middle schools, non-profit organizations, music festivals and colleges.
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