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.