How the world has changed for Semisonic. Not long
ago Dan Wilson, John Munson and Jake Slichter were
underdogs: the Minneapolis kings of do-it-yourself.
Working in Munson's basement, the trio was reinventing
and intensifying the combination of slinky-distorted beats,
throw-down rock riffs, and intelligent lyrics that caused
Rolling Stone to call their first LP Great Divide one of
the best albums of 1996. They were coming off a year
of touring, and now they had returned to the process the
way they liked it: away from the LA studios and back to
the home-baked method that had been their initial inspiration.

They listened to drum machine beats on Slichter's home
stereo. They recorded whole tracks in Munson's basement.
Short on space, the group rigged an abandoned Minneapolis
antique store to be a digital sampling laboratory. Then, with
the help of Australia-based producer Nick Launay, the
Semisonic entered the brand-new, vibe-heavy Seedy
Underbelly Studios to weld these elements into a unified LP.

When Feeling Strangely Fine hit the streets last summer, its
first single roared to the top of the Modern Rock charts and
stayed there - hanging out at number one for 10 weeks.
Closing Time went on to take up residence on Pop's exclusive
top ten for 15 more weeks. As the LP went gold, the band's
label ushered the Minneapolis kings of do-it-yourself onto a
large platinum bus. Semisonic has been flying down the
highway ever since.

To those who have kept track of this band, the fact that
Closing Time struck a chord in the Midwest has been no
surprise. The band has been touring the region relentlessly
since its inception in '93. According to Wilson, it was those
years of midwest nightclub shows that inspired the song's
images of last call desperation. What has been more surprising
is how the single has perched itself in the top 20 of such far-
flung territories as Singapore, Holland and South Africa.
Members of the band recall the disorienting experience of e
ntering a taxi in Milan to the radio accompaniment of their
own mega-chorus. Within 20 weeks of its release,
Closing Time had gone top 40 in nearly every European
country.

The world has responded to Semisonic because of the
graceful way they straddle two ideals: the band's sound
places them at the vanguard of progressive, end-of-
millennium pop music, and yet, at its core Semisonic is a
great rock'n'roll band. On the radio we hear Semisonic
songs gleaming with irresistible hooks and perfect structure.
The songs seem to reject the adrenaline-based machismo
of grunge in favor of pop euphoria. A Semisonic live show
is a joyous and unguarded declaration of the group's love
for classic pop artists such as Prince and the Hollies.

But filtered through the Semisonic lens, these pop songs
take on extra heft and metal. To put it simply, the band
rocks out enormously. According to the San Francisco
Examiner, they keep the edges raw, and roar as often
as they purr... Wilson, Slichter and Munson attack each
song with the joyful aggression of a garage band. And
like other great rock bands - from the Stones to R.E.M.
to U2 - Semisonic has the rare ability to reach out and
grab the hearts of its audience. Since the release of Fine ,
fans from around the globe have e-mailed a sea of
messages to the band thanking them for singing about the
true experiences of real people. Frontman Wilson's lyrics
carry a three-pronged message that seems to resonate
widely: 1. life can be a drag; 2. love will prevail; and 3.
let's make out.

The group got its start in late 1992 when Singer/Guitarist
Wilson and Bass Player Munson were still members of the
high-concept Minneapolis art-rock orchestra Trip
Shakespeare. Wilson had been an important - and sometimes
underrated - source of that group's musical invention, but by
the mid-nineties he had been aching for an outlet for his own
harder-edged sound. As he has been with Semisonic,
Munson was the physical spark of Trip Shakespeare. His
bass lines make grooves fluid and explosive. With the mission
of playing a distinctly low-brow batch of covers for some
friends at a party, the two joined up with Drummer Slichter,
friend of Wilson's from college and a roommate of Munson's
for several years. A master and a student of all things funky,
Slichter possessed a veritable library of R&B vinyl as well
as an album's-worth of his own original songs.

That night the three performed under the name Pleasure,
rendering ragged versions of such shameless delights as
Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest and In Dreams
by Roy Orbison. The joy of the evening lead to actual
rehearsals and eventually song writing collaborations. The
trio commenced to record, using the primitive 8-track gear
in Munson and Slichter's basement. Pleasure was signed
by Elektra in '93 on strength of those first demos.

Soon they found themselves recording in the posh studios
of LA with producer Paul Fox
(Sugar cubes, XTC). The
group succeeded in cutting exactly half an album before
being abruptly dropped by a newly restructured Elektra
front office. Without a label, the three musicians returned
to the familiar cellars of Minneapolis to record a sonically
adventurous EP that would prove to be a turning point in
their creative path. The new songs were charged with the
sounds of static and spacey noise-loops. The boys called
the disc itself Pleasure. They re-christened themselves
Semisonic in honor of the new sounds they were finding.

The Pleasure EP was released by the independent label
Cherrydisc even as the group came under the wing of a
new corporate behemoth, MCA. The trio re-joined with
Fox in LA to finish the debut LP they would call Great
Divide, an appropriate title referring to, among other things,
the six month gap in the middle of making the record and
their label switch. After the release of their major label debut,
the band hit the road for a grueling 250 days of touring through
the US which won them fans and critical acclaim for their
rocking live show and their first full-length cd. By the end of
1996, critics around the US named Great Divide as one of
the year's best albums.

Now as 1999 unrolls, Semisonic has plans to tour the US
beginning in late January, followed by a return to Europe

(for the third time) and, if the volume of e-mail they receive
from across the Pacific is any indication, Semisonic will pack
their bags for Australia and Japan later this year. Back at home
the band is releasing Secret Smile remixed by ace mix-master
Tom Lord-Alge. The video for Secret Smile will follow soon
after. At the end of February, Semisonic will either be in Los
Angeles or glued to a television set somewhere on the other side
of the globe to watch the 1999 Grammy Awards for which
Closing Time was nominated in the category of Best Rock
Song. When Semisonic comes off the road sometime this year,
they'll head back to the studio to begin work on their next album.
After all every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.