Week 5, Post #2

This first chapter of the section was about how at the end of the tour with Matchbox 20, Jacob was directed into the dressing room, where Jim met him. Jacob was then presented with a Gold Record. A gold record is an achievement that musicians achieve by selling over 500,000 albums. Then later, after Jacob took pictures with it, The radio company took hold of another single by Semisonic, "Singing in my Sleep." They believed that this would be as strong as "Closing Time." Then after that, another single came in, called "Secret Smile." Once that was released, Jacob and the band received a Platinum Record. This chapter was basically about releasing two more singles, and Jacob getting the Gold and Platinum Records.
In the next chapter, Semisonic goes to Manchester, England, and land there on an October morning. They were meeting representatives left and right, right and left. It was havoc for them. Then one night, they played at the Hundred Club, which was popular for English punk. At the performance, Marilyn Manson happened to drop by and listen to a few songs. He liked what he heard, and had Dan be Marilyn's guest of honor at a local restaurant. Later on, they traveled to Canada, where their record had also gone gold. Then, after the Universal/Polygram merger in 1999, Jay decided to keep pushing that Semisonic should go international with certain companies. People started to critique them, and say that if they were any bigger, they'd be as big as "the Beatles, Spice Girls, Oasis, or Blur." But no one said they were bigger than either of them. Also, when they were listed in hotels, they were under aliases, which is the name of the chapter, "Mister Phelps," which is Jacob's alias. This entire chapter was based on Semisonic's international traveling.
This final chapter is about becoming successful in international music, and with the companies. They start off with the UK, where their success there pleased executives at MCA, but inconvienently timed, so they say. "Closing Time" was on their radio 18 months after it's debut in the U.S. Later on, another MCA executive heard the song "Chemistry," and said he could get it on to "K-ROCK" that afternoon. At that time, "K-ROCK'S" main focus was the sounds of "Linkin Park" and "Limp Bizkit." Once that song hit, MCA had one view: Semisonic had a winning single and therefore should wrap up the album quickly and get it released. But, Jim wasn't sold on "Chemistry" and he wanted the band to write more songs. As the recording stretched into the spring of 2000, Gary Ashley, the head of A&R, flew out to meet the band in Minneapolis to "discuss the progress of the recording." They didn't feel readyto finish up. But in the end, the album ended up being called "All About Chemistry," ironically enough. It turned out that the word on the street was that their next album was going to be huge.

REACTION: My reaction to this section is quite surprising because of everything that happened. I didn't know that it took so much effort to sign an international deal, yet go gold or platinum on an album also. I was also surprised to see the album go Platinum because personally, i didn't think it was that good. Another reaction was humorous because of the aliases for Jacob and the band when they go to hotels. One of my final reactions, is happy. I was happy because Semisonic needed a new album, and to finally make a new one, really helped them out because the word was that it was going to be big.