"Pleasure e.p." was recorded in the summer of 1995. At this time, John, Jake and Dan were recording under two names: Pleasure and Semisonic. Pleasure was what they called the rock band; Semisonic, at that time, was their all-in-studio "make-out music for the millennium" project.

Pleasure had been signed to Elektra Records in 1994. The band was halfway through the sessions that would end up on MCA as "Great Divide" (see "Great Divide" history below) when Elektra was taken over by a new president, who proceeded to shake up the label. Most of the execs who believed in Dan, John and Jake's music were fired, and the recording was put on hold by the new regime at Elektra.

During this time, the trio went into the basement studio they shared with Dan's brother Matt Wilson to write and record demos of new songs with their long time live sound man Brad Kern at the recording console. About ten new songs were recorded. As the "demos" started shaping up the guys realized that they were more like finished masters than demos. At this point, they decided to find a way to release the songs as they were.

Happily, John Horton of Boston label Cherrydisc had heard a few of the tapes through a friend and offered to put the recordings out. Thus the birth of the "Pleasure e.p." The cd includes basement versions of "The Prize" and "Brand New Baby" -- later re-recorded for "Great Divide"; along with "Star", "In the Veins", "Wishing Well", and the Minneapolis hometown favorite "Sculpture Garden."

At around the time the cd was being mixed, our heroes became aware of the existence of a funk band from the early 80's with the name Pleasure. The lawyers of this band, still active in the world of sample licensing, were adamant that there would be no sharing of the name. So our trio just slid over into the other name they'd been using, Semisonic. From then on, Semisonic referred to both the rock trio and the makeout music experimentalists. Dan says that putting both styles under one name actually helped forge the new alloy that has become Semisonic's distinctive sound.