Now the world has changed for Semisonic. A year 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 entering 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."
