Semisonic Goes Undercover On New B-Sides

11/25/1998 4:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Craig Rosen

(11/25/98, 1 a.m. PST) - After wowing its fans in concert with its cover of Prince's "Erotic City," Minneapolis-based trio Semisonic has made its version of the song available to fans as a B-side on the "Singing In My Sleep" CD-5, which was released last week.

The disc also includes the band's cover of the Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe," as well as "Delicious," a song from the band's 1996 album The Great Divide, and a demo version of its monster modern rock hit "Closing Time."

"We have gotten a lot of email about 'Erotic City,'" explains drummer/ keyboardist Jacob Slichter. "We've done that song for a while live, and people always asked us when we were going to release it. Finally we got into Seedy Underbelly [studio], where we recorded our album, and recorded that and 'The Air That I Breathe,' which is another song we play in concert.'"

The inclusion of "Closing Time" on the CD-5 marks the first time the song has appeared on a Semisonic single that is commercially available in the U.S. "It's an acoustic guitar and vocal-only demo that we made in [bassist] John [Munson]'s basement when we were talking to Nick Launay, who ended up being our producer," Slichter says. "He wanted to hear some of the songs we were thinking of recording on the album."

Although MCA Records opted not to release "Closing Time" as a single, a soundalike artist recorded a cover version, cutting into the band's potential profits. "The knock-off is just a perfectly legal thing to do," Slichter explains. "Evidently, the guy who went under the name Sochaotic and did the cheesy cover of 'Closing Time,' does cheesy covers of many other singles with names that sound like the original artist."

While Slichter admits to being slightly miffed by the cover, he says he wasn't too disappointed "Closing Time" wasn't issued as a single. "I might feel differently if I was a fan that bought singles instead of albums, but I'm more the kind of guy to buy an album and check it out," he says.

Nonetheless, Slichter says that more non-album Semisonic tracks may be forthcoming. "We've always had more songs than we've ever had room on an album to release, so we've been waiting for a chance to get some of those B-sides out there."

A Semisonic feature is available for your reading now on myLAUNCH, as is an exclusive Semisonic Q&A.