Week 3, Part 1

1.) This section was about Semisonic launching their career even further than before. What happens is, Semisonic is asked to make a video off of their hit, "Down in Flames." Originally, the budget offered was $40,000 to make the video, but Jim, being the negotiator that he is, increased the budget to $65,000, which is a fraction of the high-performance videos made. The band believed that once the video was made, it would be pretty hard for MTV to reject their video. But first they needed to hire a director: Doug Gayeton. Doug was a director when he was young, but retired in (no year given) from directing videos for MTV because he was fed up with bands and labels. In 1995, he came back to direct a home movie for Semisonic, and now they wanted to hire him again. So they hired him, and the shoot lasted 2 days. Semisonic re-ran the video over and over and over, until finally they had a completed video. Once that was over, Doug went back to MTV, and after that stint, he was finished making videos for good.

What happened next, is things got pretty hectic in L.A. and New York. Bands were piling into hotels, and made the music businesses look deserted. During the few weeks leading up to the release of their album "Great Divide," they was crammed in the upstairs lounge at Roxy in L.A., where Jay Boberg (MCA's new president) met Semisonic after one of their performances so the band could meet the new employees of MCA. After that, they had a concert at the "South by Southwest," where they had an unbelievable performance. Journalists and newspaper writers were at the scene, boosting their band's popularity. Then April of 1996 rolled around, and the release of the album was finally here. The band was on the road when it was released into stores, but Jacob finally saw one in a Detroit store, under "Miscellaneous Rock-S." He bought one for himself. Now, it's all about sales for the band. Eventually, they opened up for the band called "The Verve Pipe," which was their first BIG concert.

In this last part of the section, the band is at home. Jim calls Jacob and tells him that The Verve Pipe is their new single is "going to e a smash." Then Jacob came up with a new sound for their new album: "Intimate." Jim suggested others, but Jacob wanted "intimate." The band was arguing too much about it being too soft, or not loud enough, or that it takes too long to build. Then, Jim had written one of the most well songs that he had written in anticipation of fatherhood. It's called "Closing Time."

2.) BIOGRAPHY:

Jacob Slichter was born in Champaign, Illinois, on April 5, 1961. Jacob was a Harvard graduate, accepting a degree in "African American Studies." Obviously, he is the drummer for the band Semisonic (I've been writing about it for 2 weeks!). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Slichter. Jacob would play and sing in his basement as a kid, and he always wondered if he could actually take it to the next level. He and the band wrote one of the most well known songs, "Closing Time," in 1996-1997(?). Jacob is the author of the book, "So you wanna be a Rock and Roll Star." http://www.randomhouse.ca/author/results.pperl?authorid=58615