Lake Street Dive

About Lake Street Dive

Lake Street Dive started as a bunch of New England Conservatory students who probably spent too much time listening to Motown and old soul records instead of practicing their scales. The group formed in 2004 with Rachael Price on vocals, Mike Calabrese on drums, Bridget Kearney on upright bass, and Mike Olson on trumpet and guitar. They weren't trying to reinvent anything, just playing jazz-inflected pop with actual chops and a retro sensibility that felt genuine rather than costume-y.

They spent their first few years doing the typical indie band grind—self-released albums, small venues, the kind of touring where you sleep on floors and hope the guarantee covers gas. Their early records like "In This Episode" and "Promises, Promises" showed a band that could swing between straight-ahead jazz standards and original material that borrowed from doo-wop, soul, and folk without feeling like a tribute act. Price's voice was the obvious centerpiece, this big, warm instrument that could sound effortless even when she was doing technically difficult things.

The breakthrough came in the most 2010s way possible: a YouTube video. Their 2012 street performance cover of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" went viral, which is a term we all hate but accurately describes what happened. Millions of views later, they had an actual audience beyond the New England college circuit. It forced people to reckon with the fact that a band with an upright bass and a trumpet could make genuinely catchy pop music.

"Bad Self Portraits" in 2014 marked their first record for Signature Sounds, and it felt like they'd figured out how to bottle what worked live. Songs like "You Go Down Smooth" and "Seventeen" had hooks that stuck without pandering. When they signed to Nonesuch Records, it signaled they'd moved beyond being a quirky jazz-pop act into something more substantial.

Their 2016 album "Side Pony" brought in Akie Bermiss on keys, filling out their sound in ways that made sense. They started working with producer Dave Cobb, known for his work with roots and Americana artists, which gave albums like "Free Yourself Up" a different kind of polish. The title track and "Good Kisser" showed they could write straightforward pop-rock without losing what made them interesting in the first place.

By the time "Obviously" came out in 2021, they'd fully committed to being a pop band that happened to have jazz training, rather than the other way around. Akie became an official member, and the sound got bigger, slicker, more radio-friendly—though calling anything radio-friendly feels anachronistic now.

These days they're an established act, headlining decent-sized venues and appearing at festivals where people actually know the words. They've managed to grow their audience without completely abandoning what they were doing in those early conservatory days, which is harder than it sounds.

Shows feel like a really good party where the musicians somehow have more fun than the audience, which is impossible but they manage it anyway. Price commands the stage without trying. Crowds move without being told to.

Known for Good as Hell, It Happened to Me, Bad Self Portraits, Side Pony, What Would a Wise Man Do

See Lake Street Dive Live