Last week The Rapture were in town for a DJ gig at The Great Hall. We were fortunate enough to catch up with Luke and Vito from the punk-dance outfit to discuss record collecting, DJing, blogging, and… D&D?

Here is part two of the interview.

Last week The Rapture were in town for a DJ gig at The Great Hall. We were fortunate enough to catch up with Luke and Vito from the punk-dance outfit to discuss their upcoming new record, their two-year hiatus, and touring.

Here is part one of the interview.

Over the past decade, The Rapture has led New York’s dance-punk scene with two critically-acclaimed full-length albums and a reputation for being one of most exciting live acts in indie rock today.

But after touring extensively in support for 2006’s Pieces of the People We Love, the band stayed relatively quiet and out of the pages of music zines and blogs.

Then in late 2008 the guys released a !k7 mix compilation entitled Tapes, which featured a collection of rare grooves and cult classics spanning the past three decades.

Ranging from hip hop (Dances with White Girls, Ghostface Killah), disco (Vaughan Mason & Crew, Don Armando), electronica/experimental (Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter, Syclops), and even folk (Richie Havens), the compilation was an eclectic lootbag of beats.

Fortunately, the guys began playing a few shows here and there earlier this year, including last month’s The Creators Project party hosted by VICE and Intel.

Their 40-minute set was all too brief, but they proved that they haven’t lost their touch by performing melt-your-face-off renditions of “Sister Savior”, “Get Myself Into It”, “Whoo! Alright-Yeah…Uh Huh”, and the track that started it all, “House of Jealous Lovers”, which you can watch above.

Now the guys are back in the studio, recording their third album in Paris for a late 2010 release.

For all you readers in the GTA, you can catch The Rapture’s DJ set tonight (July 9) at The Great Hall, along with DJs Riveria, Lazy Ray & Gerrence, and Fathom.

Tickets will be available at the door for $20.

In a marriage of technology, art, music, corporate America, and hipster culture, Intel and Vice magazine held the New York installment of The Creators Project last Saturday at Milk Studios.

The grand affair was free to attend, but you had to be among the lucky 4,000 or so people who were randomly granted a wristband via an RSVP email system.

Despite rsvping twice through two separate email addresses, I was not one of the chosen ones. Maybe they could tell by my email address alone just how uncool I really am.

But fortunately enough, my friend Akiko hooked me up with a couple of wristbands. After watching Uruguay elminate Korea at Jack Dempsey’s in midtown, I picked up the wristbands from Akiko’s place and promptly cabbed it over to the meatpacking district just minutes before the doors opened.

Overall, The Creators Project was a smoothly-run party/art exhibit that had four floors of compelling art installations, phenomenal music performances, engaging short films, intriguing presentations, and all the free booze, burgers and gelato you could inhale.

The event’s highlights included photographs and music from Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the xx’s “A Sculpture of the Album” music video installation which played continuous video loop of the individual members playing their debut album in its entirity, Spike Jonze’s charming robot love short film, I’m Here, and a workshop where Mark Ronson, Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo and N.A.S.A.’s Sam Spiegel composed a hit song with the audience’s help in under an hour.

But the lineup of high-profile music acts, which included M.I.A., Interpol, The Rapture, Mark Ronson, Neon Indian, Sleigh Bells, Aska Matsumiya and Die Antwoord, was definitely the biggest draw of the 12-hour event.

Matsumiya is probably the least known artist of the bunch, but was the only artist I was truly excited to see since I’ve pretty much seen all the others before.

In addition to her solo work, Matsumiya has several other ongoing projects, AsDSSkA, Moonrats and LA Ladies Choir.

I couldn’t upload the videos I shot of her all-too-brief, spellbounding set following the screening of I’m Here, because my computer is being an asshole, but I’ve posted her video for “Hold On (25)” as a small consolation.

The Creators Project blog has full coverage of the event including photographs and videos of all the installations and performances.