Lake Street Dive - Obviously

May 12

Listen to a condensed audio version of this review by Greg

“Obviously” is the first word, soulfully sung by lead singer Rachael Price on the album’s opener, Hypotheticals. The album I’m referring to is the seventh studio album from Brooklyn, NY based quintet, Lake Street Dive. In the first twenty seconds, I’m not sure where Hypotheticals is going. But then there’s a pause. Oh I love those pauses,….used to plant them here and there into songs I wrote. I just dig how they leave you guessing. When the next part kicks in, you are almost always unprepared. That is when you know you have a well written song, when the pause comes, and you cannot predict what is coming next.

After the short pause, the beat grabs you and forces movement among all your extremities. This song has been in my head for the past week, NONSTOP. I feel as if outside the Northeast, this band is not as well known, at least amongst the people I roll with. This needs to change, and that is why I chose to review this album.

Lake Street Dive began in Boston in 2004. Drummer Mike Calabrese, bassist Bridget Kearney, Trumpet player and guitarist, Mike “McDuck” Olson and lead singer Rachael Price met in college in Boston at The New England Conservatory of Music. All four members originally attended the college to pursue jazz music, and hopefully, one day, become professional musicians. Not long after meeting in college, “McDuck” Olson gathered the four together and proposed his plan. They were going to form a band, and Olson already had the name picked out, even before their first jam.

“Lake Street” was the name of a street in Minneapolis where Olson grew up. He described Lake Street as a strip of dodgy bars that attracted country bands, soul bands and rock bands. But instead of picturing themselves playing orchestra concert halls, Olson wanted them to be a band who played dive bars. He wanted the band to be an avant-garde country band, with a mix of jazz, Motown and rock n’roll.

The original four members admitted when they started, they were terrible. They didn’t gel as musicians at first. The chemistry was not there. But they really liked each other and after hours of practice, the chemistry formed and so did their sound. They graduated to writing 3-minute songs with hooks instead of the “gibberish” they admitted they were previously playing.

The purpose of their music was to do something that was less about jazz tradition. The word “dive” is in relation to their desire of playing in dive bars.

Their first EP recording was not until 2010 called Fun Machine, (rereleased in 2014) which was made up of mostly cover songs.

After 8 years of recording and playing small local shows, the band made a commitment to each other in 2012 to drop all other side projects and be a serious touring band. Everything got “real” in 2013 when they released The Jackson 5 cover, I Want You Back on YouTube. They recorded themselves playing the song at a drastically different rhythm outside on a side street in Brighton, MA.

The band was up in Maine recording their latest album, Bad Self Portraits in late 2013. The studio was located in a desolate part of Maine with no phone reception. So, for days, none of the band members paid any attention to their phones or what was going on in the outside world.

Days later, when the recording was finished, as they drove out of the mountains of Maine, their mobile phones began to ping and vibrate like they had never seen before. While they were away, their YouTube video of I Want You Back had blown up and was reaching an enormous amount of people through the Social Media channel.

Lake Street Dive called attention to the fact that their YouTube hit, the cover of Jackson 5, I Want You Back was the kicker. In an amazing cherry on top of the story, it was later found out that actor Kevin Bacon of all people found it on YouTube and tweeted it out. Within 1 month it was at 1million views. To date, they have had over 6.6 million views. After this experience, the band started to experience national recognition followed by international recognition.

Fast Forward to 2021, Lake Street Dive released their seventh studio album on March 21st. This time around, the band had new ideas for their next album. They wanted to challenge themselves

Working with a new producer, Mike Elizondo, the band was eager to push themselves in a different direction. Prior to recording, the band came to the studio with just about the largest amount of songs ready to go. Their song writing had become more of a collaboration than in the past. Obviously was mostly written on tour. With the band passing demos back and forth they showed up ready to the studio with 30 songs.

Mike Elizondo helped them to decide what songs to record. Being a pop producer, Elizondo brings a hip hop and what the band calls, a “sonic” influence. Elizondo also produced albums from artists such as Twenty-One Pilots, 50 Cent, Carrie Underwood, Eminem, Fiona Apple and the heavy metal band, Mastodon…. quite a range if you ask me.

You are not going to find any Grateful Dead or Phish jam guitar on many Lake Street Dive albums. These guys are former jazz musicians who developed a sound of their own. Rachael Price’s vocals without a doubt give the band their originality. I love how Bridget Kearney plays the upright bass. As a bass player, I have tremendous respect for the upright bass and anyone who can play it. Bridget owns the upright bass.

I find that Kearney’s bass grooves are the reason that I move to these songs. The other members compliment the music in so many ways, but the bass…. oh my god, that bass. So addictive.

As the group wrote material for Obviously, they shared that they really dug deep trying to express their happiness and sadness, anxiety and vulnerability, while also writing about empowering subjects, such as the acknowledgement of the everyday challenges women face in our society.

The Hip Hop/Funk vibes continue on Hush Money where I think the word, “sonic” can be used again to describe the sound. Definitely a New Orleans influence there, along with a heavy drip of that 70s vibe, especially on the track, Same Old News. You can hear influences of Dr. John, Stevie Wonder and Donnie Hathaway.

New(er) band member, Akie Bermiss who contributes keyboards, organ, and vocals joined the band in 2017. Lake Street Dive’s music and their newest release have a more mature sound now. Not better, nor worse. Bermiss brings a strong songwriting, vocal and 70s/80s keyboard addition to the band. You can clearly tell. Bermiss was a touring musician before he joined Lake Street Dive. He met the band members at the Rockwood Music Hall in New York City in 2011. His band was invited to open for Lake Street Dive. Bermiss and the group became friends and 5-6 years later, after playing a few gigs together, building a strong friendship and music rapport, he was asked to join the band. Bermiss jokingly admits he was quick to accept.

It is difficult not to notice lead singer Rachael Price and her voice. Price knew she was going to be a singer since the age of 5. Growing up outside Nashville, Tennessee, Price was involved in singing and music from a very early age. She referred to her old diaries from when she was 13 and 14 for songwriting inspiration and tried to write from that perspective. With Being a Woman, the band puts a lot of attention with their songwriting into activism, such as femininity and womanhood. They also chose climate control as a subject, especially in songs like, Making Do, veering off their previous path writing about lost love and side ponytails.

Drummer Mike Calabrese also grew up in a musical family. Both his parents met while playing in a band. Bass player Bridget Kearney started singing in her church choir when she was 5 years old, then picked up the bass later in life. Band founder, “McDuck” played sax and trumpet to start, then migrated to the guitar. He plays all three instruments on Lake Street Dive albums.

In addition to the disco and Motown influences, Obviously shows off the band’s talent with vocal harmonies. You will have to listen to the album’s eleventh track, Sarah. THIS is a beautiful, moving song. Performed as an a cappella, you feel the emotion of the writing and the harmonization put together. With words like, “This is the last time, I will talk about you. I will say your name. I will play your game”, this song moved me like no other in the past 3 months. It grew my status from liking to loving this band.

The band explores similar topics and keeps the pace mellow and heartfelt with Nobody’s Stopping You Now. I can see this song being played at a wedding, as you ask your partner to dance. It has a perfect 80s, 90s and today sound which you can certainly picture being played on the radio.

Queue the funk beat and crank up the next track, Know That I Know. For me, this one leaves me singing the lyrics over and over as I’m driving around and performing miscellaneous tasks around the house. It’s that good. The same can be said for Lackluster Lover. It contains a jazzy beat. That upright bass sound just hitting you in the temple and Rachael’s voice just…..well you know.

The album takes an interesting turn with, Anymore. Lyrically solid, I feel like I am at an eighth-grade dance when listening. This song sounds like it came off a Thompson Twins album. Despite the 80s influence, it still shows how much the band has matured in their songwriting and production, thanks partly to producer Mike Elizondo.

Once again, I think it is important to bring some additional attention to the song, Sarah. With Elizondo at the controls, the band “workshopped” the arrangement. The song uses a cappella along with a vocoder. The dictionary definition of a vocoder is “a category of voice codec that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was invented in 1938 by Homer Dudley at Bell Labs as a means of synthesizing human speech”. I happened to stumble across this song within about two minutes after learning of the passing of a dear friend recently. It touched my heart in so many ways and caused me to lose my composure as I was sitting in my car. Minutes later I went back and listened to it again, and then again and then a fourth time. Since it is only two and a half minutes long, this did not take much time. But in those two and a half minutes, I feel that Lake Street Dive created a masterpiece.

This review would not be complete without my story about a small connection I have to this band. I was lucky enough to meet drummer, Mike Calabrese in 2019 at a wedding. I share a random family-friend connection to Mike, which is why we were at the same wedding. Mike could not have been any nicer. He was gracious enough to invite my son and I to see the band live that following November and hang backstage. This was not your small theatre that seats 1000 people. This was the Worcester Centrum. 58,000 square feet and just under 15,000 seats. My son got to experience something I could have only dreamed of at 9 years old, being backstage at a huge rock show. Dad could not have been cooler that evening. Well maybe not as cool as the band but…..

As I walked through the backstage areas of the Worcester Centrum, now called the DCU Center in Worcester, MA, I couldn’t help but think of all the bands that I loved who had come through this arena in the 80s and 90s. There were so many.. I thought, Nikki Six could have partied right there and Lars Ulrich could have warmed up in this very room. Although we did not get an opportunity to meet the rest of the band, Mike was very hospitable and kind, and I had to put forth my best effort and try not to come off as a fan, even though I am.

Another great part to Lake Street Dive is their take on cover songs. While I Want You Back is by far my favorite of their covers, Lake Street Dive has several captivating cover songs on YouTube. You should DEFINITELY check these out. Other strong covers include Hall and Oates’, Rich Girl, George Michael’s Faith, Annie Lennox’s Walking Through Broken Glass, and even Queen’s, Bohemian Rhapsody have all gone through their unique Nashville/jazz/1970s strainer and impress. Their version of “Rhapsody” is just ridiculous. Technically, that is an incredibly difficult song to pull off.