Music: Lake Street Dive

It’s been a year and a half since the stratospheric breakout success of Lake Street Dive’s Bad Self Portraits album and its ubiquitous title track. In a heartbeat, the Boston-born/Brooklyn-based quartet was getting face time on every late-night/mo

click to enlarge Lake Street Dive originally intended to have more of an Avant Garde Jazz sound, but ended up finding its successful Soul/Pop formula in the band members’ varied influences.
Lake Street Dive originally intended to have more of an Avant Garde Jazz sound, but ended up finding its successful Soul/Pop formula in the band members’ varied influences.

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t’s been a year and a half since the stratospheric breakout success of Lake Street Dive’s Bad Self Portraits album and its ubiquitous title track. In a heartbeat, the Boston-born/Brooklyn-based quartet (vocalist Rachael Price, guitarist/trumpeter Mike “McDuck” Olson, upright bassist Bridget Kearney and drummer Mike Calabrese) was getting face time on every late-night/morning television show, notching adds in every conceivable radio format and scoring prime real estate in every music and entertainment magazine.

Much of this attention was framed within the context of Lake Street Dive as a “new” band, which was ironic since it had formed in 2004 and had released four albums before hitting with Bad Self Portraits. That kind of scantily researched media coverage could make a hard-working and long-neglected band feel just a little bitter, but Lake Street Dive preferred to be grateful for the breaks that propelled them to the top rather than dwell on the inordinate amount of time it took to get there. Read a full interview with Lake Street Dive here.

Lake Street Dive plays Tuesday at Newport’s Southgate House Revival. Tickets/more info: southgatehouse.com.


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