People handle success in different ways. Some people buy a piano. Some people rent an apartment in New York. And some folks get a canoe. All of these people are Semisonic.

Success came to the band with the 1998 hit "Closing Time," from its sophomore album, Feeling Strangely Fine. Originally written as a set-closer, "Closing Time" took off at radio and on bar jukeboxes across the land. Although Semisonic went on to sell 2 million albums and have a second smash hit in the U.K. with "Secret Smile," they're still one of pop's best-kept secrets.

"I don't want to go for that 'secretly aim high but pretend to stay low' kind of thing," singer and guitarist Dan Wilson told Q magazine from the band's Minneapolis headquarters. "We're not like that at all. There isn't anything downtrodden about what we do."

There can't be, because the lives of Wilson, drummer Jake Slichter, and 6-foot-4-inch bassist John Munson could have been very different. Born on the island of Guam in 1966, Wilson attended Harvard University and studied art. Slichter also attended the Ivy League school, majoring in Afro-American studies and history. Munson speaks Chinese. The drummer also plays keyboards - often simultaneously.

Music called them all, but it was a while before they discovered one another. Slichter was first taken on by a funk band called Instant Kool, who wanted him only for his drum kit. Wilson played in local bands like the Raves and the Panic, and Munson was in a new wave group called the Particles. When Wilson's younger brother Matt formed Trip Shakespeare in the late '80s, Dan and Munson both enlisted.

Trip Shakespeare were a dry run for Semisonic, disguising crafty lyrics with harmonies at a time when most acts were moving to Seattle and playing too loud on the choruses. But although they released four albums on A&M, Trip Shakespeare never got past the square marked "cult following."

Wilson and Munson kept playing around Minneapolis and invited Slichter, then living on the West Coast, to play drums for their new group, briefly called Pleasure before reason prevailed. Demos and a no-holds-barred live show attracted MCA's interest and in 1996 the band released its debut, The Great Divide. Rolling Stone's David Fricke declared: "Semisonic could sing about shoveling elephant sh*t in a windstorm and still sound like manna from Badfinger heaven." Wilson was sure their song "Delicious" would launch them. It wasn't to be.

The musical climate in the late '90s was such that most acts would be lucky not to be dropped after their debut's failure, but Semisonic took advantage of subsequent staff upheavals at MCA and stuck around. Maybe the difference between them and other blink-and-you'll-miss-them outfits was that people actually liked them.

By 1998, Semisonic were no longer a novelty; after all, this was when Seven Mary Three were breaking. But the songs on Feeling Strangely Fine - about mix-tapes ("Singing in My Sleep"), post-sex exhaustion ("Completely Pleased"), and Wilson's daughter (although "Closing Time" has been adopted by ad salesmen) - marked them as considerably brainier - and more excited by their craft - than the competition.

"Success is a funny trade-off," said Wilson. They may never play Minneapolis' 400 Club again, but Wilson has his piano, Slichter spent a year in Brooklyn, and Munson owns the canoe. They tackled their third album with renewed purpose. "I wanted us to make something that would be really fun to play on big stages," Wilson told his record company. "And I wanted it to be an album that had the vibe of a big party."

All About Chemistry does all that, but not without a few trademark twists. First single "Chemistry" and the Munson-sung "Who's Stopping You?" subject love to scientific and algebraic metaphors. Depending on whom he's talking to, Wilson describes "Get a Grip" as either the acknowledgement that there's a wallflower at every party or "one of the greatest songs about wanking ever written." "She's Got My Number" may purposely be one of the most overproduced records of all time. Oh, and the drummer did the string arrangements.

Will it work? Semisonic are hedging their bets. Wilson contributed a song to former You Oughta Know stars Evan & Jaron's last album. There's always art. Or teaching Ralph Ellison. Or taking "Closing Time" to China. One thing's for sure. When your drummer can play the skins and keyboards at the same time, he'll always work.