-----Original Message-----
From: Semisonic@... <Semisonic@...>
Date: Saturday, June 13, 1998 3:17 PM
Subject: Atlanta, GA and Birmingham, AL in-studio performances


>Greetings,
>
>Summer's here and the shows keep coming.  To see the latest tour itinerary,
>check our website at  http://www.semisonic.com/.
>
>Attention: Atlanta and Birmingham fans:
>
>Tuesday, June 16  ATLANTA (4 PM)
>
>Semisonic will perform a 99X "X Session" in a recording studio before a
live
>audience.  If you are free this Tuesday afternoon  at 4 PM,  be one of the
>first eight people to email jgm@... with the subject line
>"Atlanta X-Session."  Winners may bring a guest to the performance.  Please
>send an email ONLY if you are able to attend.
>
>Friday, June 19,  Birmingham, AL (Noon)
>
>Semisonic will give a special acoustic performance, live on WRAX, from a
>recording studio. If you are free this Friday at noon and would like to
>attend, be one of the first five people to email jgm@... with
the
>subject line "Birmingham Acoustic Performance."  Winners may bring a guest
to
>the performance.  Please send an email ONLY if you are able to attend.
>
>See you soon!
>
>Semisonic

>From: <Zyah@...>
>
>Yeah, that's what that show was taped for!  Where are you in the audience,
>towards the front?  maybe i'll be able to see you..i'm taping it, but i'm
>still working on being able to make copies...if i do i'll definitely let
you
>know!


I'm (if facing the stage) front right side about 5 rows of people back...I
was holding up a sign in the beginning of the set asking for Wishing Well.

kev

I'd be interested in a copy as well...

-gholl

Zyah@... wrote:

> From: <Zyah@...>
>
> Yeah, that's what that show was taped for!  Where are you in the audience,
> towards the front?  maybe i'll be able to see you..i'm taping it, but i'm
> still working on being able to make copies...if i do i'll definitely let you
> know!
>
> Lauren
>
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Yeah, that's what that show was taped for!  Where are you in the audience,
towards the front?  maybe i'll be able to see you..i'm taping it, but i'm
still working on being able to make copies...if i do i'll definitely let you
know!

Lauren

-----Original Message-----
From: Zyah@... <Zyah@...>
To: semisonic@onelist.com <semisonic@onelist.com>
Date: Friday, June 12, 1998 7:57 PM
Subject: [semisonic] (no subject)


>From: <Zyah@...>
>
>Hey Semisonic will be on Reverb, a show airing on HBO2 on Sunday at 11, if
>some of you didn't know :)


THAT RULES!  I was at this show (I believe)...it was done a few weeks
back at the 9:30 Club in Washinton DC as part of the pre-Hfsitval show.
now, just gotta find someone to tape it for me :)

kev

Hey Semisonic will be on Reverb, a show airing on HBO2 on Sunday at 11, if
some of you didn't know :)

Lauren

I don't know if this has been said before or what, but on the latest issue of
Launch CD-ROM magazine there is a section in the hang on Semisonic (obviously,
right, since they're the subject of the list) including a live performance of
closing time and an interview

Lauren

Lauren--You're on the Athenaeum list as well, aren't you?

<<I think the band has  improved over the last 6
months.  It's hard to describe the change...maybe they just got better
instruments and gear.>>

That's what a bit more money and some notariety will do to a group! =)

<<They added some nice taped strings on a couple of songs including
D.N.D,
which I thought made them sound better live.>>

I was surprised at how well DND sounded at the Detroit show... They
surely fooled a few... I had people around me asking where the string
players were.

Stephanie

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Here is the set list for the 3 shows at First Avenue this past weekend.

In Approximate Order:

f.n.t.
Singing In My Sleep
Down in Flames
This Will Be My Year (not played Fri)
D.N.D.
Take Me With U (Prince cover)
In Another Life (not played Fri)
Completely Pleased
Secret Smile
Delicious
If I Run
Never You Mind (Matt Wilson joined in on guitar)
Closing Time

Encore:
I Got You "I Don't Know Why Sometimes I Get Frightened" (Split Enz
cover)
Across the Great Divide
California

2nd Encore:
Temptation (not played Fri or Sat)
Made to Last

These performances seemed like they were a step above other performances
that I have seen.  I think the band has  improved over the last 6
months.  It's hard to describe the change...maybe they just got better
instruments and gear.

They added some nice taped strings on a couple of songs including D.N.D,
which I thought made them sound better live.

Also, Jake is playing the keyboards on a lot of songs now...he is almost
a full-time two-instrument player.

- Kevin
kevins@...

I have the same problem with underage shows (I'm 16, 17 in Nov.)...I couldn't
see Semisonic when they played in Philly recently because I had an obligatory
meet.  :(  If they come back, I'm definitely going.   I live in Southern NJ,
but near Philly.  Oh yeah, forgot to mention that I'm new to this
digest..Other music I like includes:
Fuel, Athenaeum, Radiohead, Third Eye Blind, Kula Shaker, Toad the Wet
Sprocket, G. Love & Special Sauce, Black Lab, Fathead, Ben Folds Five, Our
Lady Peace, Beck, Feeder, Harry Connick, Jr., The Verve, Everclear, Harvey
Danger, Superdeluxe, Kara's Flowers..Basically if it sounds good I like it.

Lauren  "baby i'm beat up and broken down, every man knows my name in this
               whole damn town"  ~G Love

>
>I'm totally jealous!  They've only ever played 21+ shows here in
>Seattle,
>and I'm not 21 yet.  Not fair!
>

I know the feeling! Sheesh, I can't even get into 18+ shows! (3 July
99... I can't wait till the day comes...)

In the words of the great Monique Powell: "It sucks to be... Under 21"

Stephanie

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>I've been to one of the best concerts I've ever
>experienced... And if ANYONE else was at that show, let me know...
>Pontiac, MI's 7th House on Wednesday night, June 3rd...

I'm totally jealous!  They've only ever played 21+ shows here in Seattle,
and I'm not 21 yet.  Not fair!

NOAH

It's about time people have posted! It's been a while since I've checked
my mail, and since then I've been to one of the best concerts I've ever
experienced... And if ANYONE else was at that show, let me know...
Pontiac, MI's 7th House on Wednesday night, June 3rd...

I'll start w/ the setlist:

FNT
Singing in my Sleep
Never You Mind
Down in Flames
If I Run (incredible instrumental break... Lasted a while)
In Another Life
DND
Brand New Baby
(some Prince cover... NOT Erotic City... I really can't remember... Last
word is "U")
Completely Pleased
Delicious
Closing Time
(Left the stage... Back out for encore..)
This will be my Year
(Another cover... I have the song stuck in my head... By the Split Enz.
Again, I can't remember the title!! Well-known song... "I don't know why
sometimes I get frightened...")
Across the Great Divide
Secret Smile (great way to end the show)


That, alone, can attest to how great a show it was... But the atmosphere,
the enthusiasm... WOW! The 7th House only holds about 450 people, and
there isn't a bad seat in the place. I was up at the stage for Athenaeum
(who also did a wonderful job... I'd been waiting to see them in
concert!), but moved back to the seats for SS... Better view (when you're
only 5'7, it's rough!) there, plus my eardrums were preserved... I loved
watching Jake play the drums and keys at the same time... I love the
talent! You could tell Dan was WAY into it... And they all looked so
happy the whole time!

We hung around for a while after the show and got to meet the guys
(again)... Dan was signing my ticket stub and noticed his autograph on my
shirt, as well (from PlanetFest '96... My first SS experience!)... He was
pretty surprised! We got to talking about that show, too, and about GD
vs. FSF, etc... It was fun. The concert itself hadn't ended till after
midnight, so by the time we were done chatting with SS and Nic and Alex
from Athenaeum, it was pretty late! So my sleep for that night was
non-existent, but it was worth it!

Stephanie

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Here's an article from the Star Tribune that was published today.

Off to see the first of three this weekend!

- Kevin

Local trio Semisonic feeling strangely blase about No. 1 song
Jon Bream / Star Tribune

They thought about the question for a moment. Nope, none of the members
of Semisonic had ever really been No. 1 at anything.

"I was first chair trombone player in my high school," said bassist John
Munson.

"I'm the No. 1 son," chimed in singer-guitarist Dan Wilson. "That
doesn't count."

All that has changed for the members of Semisonic. As they return home
to Minneapolis for a three-night stand, they are truly No. 1: "Closing
Time," the first single from their new album "Feeling Strangely Fine,"
has been on top of Billboard's -- and other publications' -- modern-rock
chart for the past two weeks.

What's it like to be No. 1?

"I didn't have an idea of what it should feel like," Wilson said last
week. "When it happened, it didn't seem that different from the week
before when we were No. 2. I feel bad about that kind of answer because
it sounds ungrateful or arrogant. . . . Maybe in six months it'll sink
in and I'll be blown away."

Said Munson: "I don't believe it until we actually roll into town and
the radio's on, and it's 'Hey, it's our song!' "

Drummer Jake Slichter realized the impact when the trio played "Closing
Time" at a radio-sponsored festival at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.,
last month. "By the time the first chorus came, it was if a tsunami of
excitement had whipped across the stadium and hit the stage," he said.

"That's the kind of moment you dream about as a kid playing the drums
with the headphones and the record on."

Why does the song work? Because it's a primer on the virtues of classic
pop-song crafting with a dynamic rock performance, said Bud Scoppa, a
sometimes rock critic and a fulltime Sire Records talent scout. "I don't
think this classic pop-song structure has been used as effectively since
[Nirvana's] 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' " After seeing Semisonic in
concert last week, Scoppa was bowled over by the band that has made his
favorite album of the year. "Are they going to be the new Police? They
are as impressive as anything I've seen come along in a couple of
years."

When Wilson set out to write "Closing Time," it was intended to be a
finale for Semisonic's concerts. Munson recalls Wilson getting excited
when a bouncer at the 400 Bar in Minneapolis said, "You don't have to go
home, but you can't stay here." The line helped inspire the song.

However, it's not a song about loneliness. "It's a song about hope,"
said Munson. For Wilson, the key lyric is "every new beginning comes
from some other beginning's end" -- a farewell line he thinks people
could sign in a high-school yearbook. So, in the verses, he applied the
notion to graduating from high school (or college), moving out of a
bedroom you share with a sibling, and even emerging from the womb.

The birth of Wilson's first child, daughter Coco, 14 months ago was an
inspiration for many of the songs on "Feeling Strangely Fine." She
arrived prematurely a few days before the recording started, and Wilson
spent considerable time with his daughter in the hospital.

The singer-songwriter acknowledges that dealing with his preemie baby
resulted in an optimistic tone that colored the album. A dutiful dad, he
excused himself early from the interview to relieve his wife at home,
while Munson and Slichter continued to chat.

Crossing the Great Divide

Wilson, Munson and Slichter were not frustrated by the fact that their
first MCA album, the critically acclaimed "Great Divide," sold only
50,000 even though the trio played nearly 300 gigs -- often opening for
Verve Pipe, Aimee Mann and Dog's Eye View and visiting radio stations to
perform live with acoustic instruments -- to promote the recording. They
feel that kind of touring helped lay the groundwork for the success of
"Feeling Strangely Fine," which, in two months, has sold 155,000 copies,
according to Soundscan.

"I didn't feel frustrated," said Wilson. "Not that I necessarily
believed it, [but] there were a lot of people around us telling us
'Great Divide' was album of the year. We hadn't sold 50,000 copies of
anything before that."

Even though Semisonic may be the hardest-working and sweatiest power-pop
trio in the business, the group had a built-in audience in the Twin
Cities from the get-go. Wilson and Munson came from Trip Shakespeare, a
modern-rock quartet that was one of the area's top live attractions at
the turn of the decade. Fronted by Dan's brother Matt, Trip made two
albums for A&M Records before disintegrating in '93.

Wilson and Munson joined with Slichter to form Pleasure, playing to
sizable crowds around the area and recording an EP for the Boston indie
label Cherry Disc. However, the trio learned that a '70s funk band owned
the name Pleasure, so the moniker became Semisonic.

Wilson, who, like his bandmates, is in his mid-30s, grew up mostly in
New Brighton and St. Louis Park. He studied art at Harvard University
and then headed to San Francisco to be a bohemian artist before brother
Matt summoned him back to Minneapolis in late 1986, teaching him how to
play the guitar parts on Trip's already-recorded "Applehead" album.

Munson grew up in St. Paul, went to Minnehaha Academy and the University
of Minnesota. He also works as a producer in his spare time, having
recently done an album with local singer Kristin Mooney.

Slichter grew up in Champaign, Ill., playing cello and tuba and
eventually drums in various funk bands. After rooming with Wilson in San
Francisco, he became a Trip Shakespeare fan and relocated to
Minneapolis, working as a computer technician for IDS in the daytime and
in recording studios at night. For "Feeling Strangely Fine," he arranged
and conducted a string section from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

What's next?

The video for "Closing Time" finds Wilson with a new look -- glasses.
The specs may set him apart from other male pop frontmen with photogenic
cheekbones and an early-Beatles hairdo. But they aren't a manufactured
image, he said. Wilson has had glasses since he was 3 years old "but no
doctor ever figured out that I was near-sighted in one eye and
far-sighted in the other eye. . . . This is the first pair that actually
works from a distance and close up."

Will the song become a Top 40 hit, crossing over the way modern-rock
hits by Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind and Marcy Playground have in recent
months? Wilson doesn't have any instincts about that. All he knows is
that "Singing in My Sleep" will be the trio's next single, and the group
will open for Matchbox 20 and Soul Asylum in a series of amphitheater
concerts in August.

Said Wilson: "To be a songwriter, you have to be compulsive in some way.
You have to keep trying even on a bad day. I think if I started dipping
into 'Are we No. 1 this week? Are we No. 2 this week? How many have we
sold?' I think it could start getting too important, just out of habit.
So I just stay away from it. So our big quote-unquote climb to No. 1, I
didn't really see it happening, because I didn't pay attention to it."


© Copyright 1998 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Out here, but the list is pretty non-active.

NOAH

>From: "Kevin Gandel" <oddsman@...>
>
>Just wondering if anyone was even out there...
>
>
>kev

     Yep, at least one person is!

William :)

OK, Patti, ya got me interested in this one...

Here are the cover songs Pleasure/Semisonic has covered..I'm sure they've
done loads more:

Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground)
You Have To Be Joking (Flaming Lips)
Lodi (that' the Creedence tune)
If I Fell(Beatles)
In Dreams (Roy Orbison)
Thirteen (Big Star...w/ guest guitarist Scott McKelvey on vocals)
Shamballa (I think that's the name..and I think the band is Todd Rundgren's
Utopia - anyone know better?)
I Can See Clearly Now (Johnny Nash)
Couldn't I Just Tell You (Todd Rundgren)
Love Hurts (Nazareth)
Tell Me Something Good (Rufus and Chaka Khan)
Erotic City (ya'll know who)
Drift Away (Dobie Gray)
Dirty Work (Steely Dan)
Love Is Alive (Gary Wright)
What Is Love (George Harrison)

and some Trip they've played:
Graveyard
Today You Move
Lulu
Look at the Moon

- Justin

Cliff Hillis wrote:

> " couldn't I just
> tell you" by todd rundgren

That's a good one.

In 1994 (as Pleasure) I saw them do "Love Hurts" by Nazareth.  John sang lead.

They also do "The Air That I Breathe" by the Hollies, which is great.  I saw
them do that on the last tour as the opening song, and then as an encore on this
toure.

John D.

my favorite cover I've heard semisonic do would be " couldn't I just
tell you" by todd rundgren. rock on! cliff

=========================================

Ok, I'll start a discussion topic then:

Does anyone have a list of what cover songs Semisonic/Pleasure has performed
live? It's something I've been meaning to compile for awhile now, but I never
get around to it...

Off the top of my head, known covers are:

Erotic City - Prince (duh -- is it true this is going to be a b-side for the
next single???)
Tell Me Something Good - Rufus & Chaka Khan
Drift Away - Dobie Gray
What Is Life - George Harrison
A creedence clearwater song, but I've forgotten which one...

and there are loads more, but I can't think of them. I'll have to cross-
reference my tape collection when I get home, I guess...

Patti

Yeah we're out here! It's just that no one is talking for some reason.

Mark S.

At 10:43 AM 6/3/98 -0400, you wrote:
>From: "Kevin Gandel" <oddsman@...>
>
>Just wondering if anyone was even out there...
>
>
>kev
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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>

Just wondering if anyone was even out there...


kev

Hope this one's more active than the treble charger discussion list I'm
on... Or the 19 Wheels list, for that matter.

Anyway, hello, everyone... Especially the people from the Semisonic MMC
board =) A few of you must be on here...


Stephanie

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GREAT DIVIDE is definitely a better album! FSF is growing on me though.

Mark



> From: cantwell@... (Cantwell)
>
> Hi all,
>
> Just curious.  Who out there thought Great Divide was a better album than
> FSF?  Don't get me wrong, FSF is a great album, it's just that I like GD
> better.  Maybe it's cuz I've listened to it for so much longer.
>
> NOAH

Hi all,

Just curious.  Who out there thought Great Divide was a better album than
FSF?  Don't get me wrong, FSF is a great album, it's just that I like GD
better.  Maybe it's cuz I've listened to it for so much longer.

NOAH

> From: jleiter@... (Justin Leiter)

Hey Justin!

It's great to see a familiar name from the Jelly-L and other Jellyworld things,
here on the Semisonic discussion list!


> Still waiting for a commercial single for 'Closing Time' - hopefully one of
> the other 50 or so tunes written for the album will make it on as a b-side.
> I know that they've played other tunes in concert only that are as good or
> better than some on the album.

I saw the video for "Closing Time" on eMpTyV last night! GREAT VIDEO!!!! Has
anyone
else seen it yet?I saw the band for the first time when they opened for Aimee
Mann
in D.C. back in 1995. I was really knocked over when I heard them do Wishing
Well,
Star, and Sculpture Garden. I had not heard of them before that show but I
became
an instant fan after that. To this day those three songs are my favorites.

> PS Saw a band is playing tonight in NYC with the name TripSonic...hmmmm...

   INTERESTING!!! Have you checked out the search engines for a web site? I am
curious to see if these guys are influenced by Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic.

Later!
Mark

Hey y'all...hi Patti..

Just checkin' in and saying 'whas' up'...

listened to FSF again yesterday..first time with lyrics in front of me.
Beautiful album.

Still waiting for a commercial single for 'Closing Time' - hopefully one of
the other 50 or so tunes written for the album will make it on as a b-side.
I know that they've played other tunes in concert only that are as good or
better than some on the album.

Anyone wonder what that tune 'Mouseboy' could be...? It's pictured in the
new CD booklet as a sheet of paper in the recording studio.  At least I'm
figuring it's a tune...

- Justin

PS Saw a band is playing tonight in NYC with the name TripSonic...hmmmm...

> From: PattiVill <PattiVill@...>
>
> to see if anyone's out there?
>
> I'm looking forward to participating in this discussion list. :-)
>
> Patti


Hello Patti and Welcome!

As of today there are six people subscribed to the list, but as word spreads it
should start growing pretty rapidly. I am looking forward to some pretty cool
discussions myself!

see ya round!
Mark Strong

Yep, people are out here.  On a semisonic related note, they have a show
here on Saturday, but I can't go b/c I'm 18 and it's a 21 and over show.
Life sucks!

NOAH

to see if anyone's out there?

I'm looking forward to participating in this discussion list. :-)

Patti