Semisonic’s Feeling Strangely Fine came out in 1998. I was a slouchy eighth-grader who was battling severe nodular acne, braces, and a wildly inappropriate volume of palm sweat. Lucky for me, I also played guitar. Conversations with anyone were hard, but rocking out was natural. Music is where I felt comfortable and found myself. It’s how I made friends and a life.
In So You Wanna Be a Rock & Roll Star, Semisonic drummer Jake Slichter tells a similar story. He wasn’t a particularly cool teenager, but he had a drum kit. That was enough to get him into a local Midwestern funk band, and enough to get him through adolescence. It was even enough to let him live the dream of every dork – to be cool.
Even though he has platinum records hanging on his wall and has toured the world with a popular band, Slichter’s inherent goofiness grounds this music memoir and gives a fun narrative voice to the book. It reads almost like how the video game Rock Band plays: You work your way up from dingy clubs to giant shows, fighting suits and The Man the whole time. It’s a pleasure to read. You can experience a video shoot, play a sold-out show, and meet Prince, all via a guy who was just as confused as we would be. Most endearing to me is that Jake seems most starstruck by his bandmates, Dan Wilson and John Munson. (Dan was the singer with the glasses and John was the tall bassist with long hair. Dan ended up winning a Grammy for an Adele song, by the way.)
Also apparent is Slichter’s love of music itself:
Feeling the electricity arc across the line that separates the crowd and the band during a live performance never ceases to be a thrill…the energy of the 2,000 people packed into the club will channel itself through the three people on stage and pour out again into the crowd, over and over, as we ride on waves of sound and light.
If you were ever in a band or just enjoy music, this one is well worth your time.