Semisonic dusts off 'Closing Time' demo to tout 20th anniversary album reissue

It's not the new album that the band's members have been offering tantalizing hints of for what feels like most of the 2010s now, but Semisonic has announced plans to reissue its best-loved '90s record to mark its 20th anniversary.

A deluxe edition of "Feeling Strangely Fine" will be released Oct. 19 with four bonus tracks and new artwork and liner notes. The repackaging will include a first-ever vinyl edition of the record, originally released at the height of the CD era in 1998.

All four of the additional tracks were unreleased songs only available on overseas CD singles. Among them is the wistful hidden-gem "Long Way from Home," which the Minneapolis trio revisited during three sold-out live performances of "Feeling Strangely Fine" at First Avenue and the Turf Club last December.

Semisonic kicked off a PledgeMusic campaign to market the new reissue directly to fans. Among the bonus options being offered are the usual posters, T-shirts, colored vinyl, etc., as well as music lessons with bassist John Munson or drummer Jake Slichter ($400) and even a house concert by the band ($15,000).

To trumpet the news of the reissue and the PledgeMusic campaign, the band posted an early demo version of the song that brought the band and the album to the fore, "Closing Time" (posted below). Even in raw form, it pretty clearly sounds like a hit. Some of the other highlights on the 20-year-old record include "Secret Smile," "Singing in My Sleep," "DND" and "Never You Mind."

As for an all-new record, there's still no formal hint yet of its arrival. If you were a band that hasn't put out a record in 17 years, though, doing a semi-ambitious reissue campaign like this one sure seems like a good way to fire up the old machinery and reconnect with old fans, doesn't it?