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This Issue 11/02/2006

Also in this issue

• Wine of the week
• It's the end of the world as we know it
• Digging for Treasure

The Rapture are back.

After their meteoric rise in 2003 on the strength of hit single "House of Jealous Lovers," the band spent a few years out of the public eye. Behind the scenes, they were recording their follow-up, Pieces of the People We Love, with help from Danger Mouse (of Gnarls Barkley fame) and production duo Paul Epworth and Ewan Pearson. Fresh off a successful European tour, the Rapture are about to embark on a string of gigs in the US. Street talked Philly and the new album with drummer Vito Roccoforte as he wandered his Brooklyn neighborhood.

Street: You're coming here next week and playing with Hot Chip?

VR: Yeah that's going to be a great show, man. That's going to be awesome. It's going to be an awesome lineup.

Street: Have you played with them before?

VR: We played a TV show with them, but never a real show. It's funny, we talked to Dave P [of Making Time] cause he organized the last show we did down there. Basically, we wanted to play and he's like, "I've got Hot Chip and Justice playing there that night." We're touring with the Presets. So now it's all of them together. It's pretty awesome.

Street: I've heard it's more like a dance party than a concert.

VR: Yeah it really is. Again, that kind of lineup is something you find more in Europe - for some show or festival. I'm really excited about it. A lot of people from New York are coming down for that show.

Street: What was the response like in Europe to the new material?

VP: It was really good. It was the best time we've ever had there. I think it was good for us because a lot of people had started discovering "House of Jealous Lovers" and Echoes. There are a lot of younger kids at our shows now.

[Fans] have a different attitude. They expect to dance and have a party. Whereas before the shows would be good, but people would be checking it out not quite sure what it was all about.

Street: Did you feel like with Echoes you guys got too big too fast?

VR: I think we got a lot of hype. You know what I mean? It's one of those things you can't really control. It's kind of nasty because we were a band for years and nobody would ever write about us or check us out. So we'd take having a little too much hype over no hype any day of the week. It was what it was. Now though, it's [at] more of a reasonable level. So it does feel like there are people checking it out [for the first time] but also a lot of people who've checked us out because of the hype before and liked it. Now they're fans. They're coming to the shows again a second time around. They know what to expect and come to have a good time.

Street: Do you think they're paying more attention to the music this time, rather than what they hear about you?

VR: I think that's true. For a while they'd check us out because of what they heard. That's what I noticed here. Especially here [since] we hadn't toured in three years.