Lake Street Dive

Lake Street Dive, recognized for their spirited and eclectic fusion of neo-soul with pop and rock, has cultivated a devoted audience by threading jazz, folk, and funk through their songs. Featuring lead vocalist Rachael Price, the group surfaced from Boston’s New England Conservatory in the mid-2000s and quickly earned acclaim for their energetic concerts and original material. Their range came into sharper focus with the 2012 covers EP Fun Machine, which generated further interest. The 2014 album Bad Self Portraits tightened their approach and reached number 18 on the Billboard 200. Side Pony, issued in 2016, drew even greater notice by topping Billboard’s Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, and Folk Albums charts. The band has kept refining its direction, merging classic funk and soul grooves with feminist and socially aware lyrics on the 2018 release Free Yourself Up and the 2021 set Obviously. In 2022 they returned to covers with the playful Fun Machine: The Sequel EP, then resumed writing soul-leaning originals for the 2024 album Good Together.

The quartet formed in 2004 with singer Rachael Price, guitarist and trumpeter Mike “McDuck” Olson, bassist Bridget Kearney, and drummer Mike Calabrese. All four first met as students at Boston’s New England Conservatory. Price, daughter of composer and conductor Tom Price, had already attracted attention for her jazz singing before the band began; she issued several independent albums and reached the semifinals of the 2004 Thelonious Monk Institute Vocal Competition. Taking their name from a Minneapolis street lined with dive bars in Olson’s hometown, the members bonded over shared affection for jazz, soul, and country. They merged these influences into an artful blend and self-released two early albums: In This Episode… in 2007 and Promises, Promises in 2008.

After signing with Signature Records, they issued a self-titled album in 2011. National attention arrived the following year with Fun Machine, whose inventive takes on the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” and Hall & Oates’ “Rich Girl” showcased the group’s organic, soulful pop sensibility and spread widely online. Following hundreds of shows across the United States and abroad, they delivered the full-length Bad Self Portraits in 2014, whose wry title track helped the album reach number 18 on the Billboard 200.

In 2016 the band moved to Nonesuch Records for its fifth studio album, Side Pony, produced by Dave Cobb. Named after bassist Kearney’s signature hairstyle, the record topped three Billboard charts and landed in the Top 30 of the Billboard 200. After further touring, Lake Street Dive recorded its sixth album, Free Yourself Up, self-produced in Nashville with engineer Dan Knobler and released in 2018; the set included the singles “Good Kisser” and “I Can Change.” The same year the group issued the EP Freak Yourself Out for Record Store Day.

Keyboardist Akie Bermiss, who first assisted on tour in 2017 and contributed to the subsequent album sessions, became an official member and helped shape the 2021 Mike Elizondo-produced LP Obviously. The record marked the final appearance of founding guitarist and trumpeter Mike “McDuck” Olson, who departed several months later.

Lake Street Dive revisited the cover format in 2022 with Fun Machine: The Sequel, offering fresh versions of songs by Bonnie Raitt, the Pointer Sisters, and the Cranberries, among others. A second Elizondo-produced effort, Good Together, appeared in June 2024, led by its synthy, soul-infused title track and notable as the first album on which every member contributed to songwriting from the project’s outset.