from The Boston Phoenix, 5/08/09, by Jon Garelick:
"Bands find their own identities in all kinds of ways. Boston bands Lake Street Dive, and Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade are different, but with a lot in common. They often share a rhythm section. Their singers — Rachael Price and Tess Reitz — are long-time pals, former roommates who’ve just started up their own side project together, the Sweet and Low Down. Each outfit has its own way of featuring vocal music that falls between the cracks of the dominant local club-scene genres: a little bit jazzy, a little bit pop, not quite anything you’ve heard before.
Lake Street Dive met at New England Conservatory, where trumpeter/composer Mike Olson discovered that he liked playing with drummer Mike Calabrese and bassist Bridget Kearney, and where he later became “enamored of” the singing of Rachael Price at a student concert. Ever the conceptually ambitious NEC kid, Olson came up with an idea: “a country band, but, like, a free country band. . . . Which sort of sucks as an idea.”
“Well, it’s not a terrible idea except that none of us knew anything about country music,” says Price.
“And we didn’t know much about free music either,” adds Calabrese. We’re all sitting in the living room of the Jamaica Plain group house where Olson and Calabrese live.
The band eventually discovered that the one vocabulary they all shared was contemporary pop — ’60s British invasion, Motown, Hall & Oates, Paul Simon, the Jackson 5. Covers of these artists might crop up in any of Lake Street Dive’s live sets. (They’re at Lizard Lounge April 9.) But what really sets them apart is their original songwriting and their sound. The songs are fresh-faced pop concoctions laced with sharp, funny lyrics — character portraits (like the one about “Betty the x-ray technician,” or “The Very Special Person Song,” about a college career counselor), or story songs that cast a wry eye on twentysomething romantic entanglements (“Sometimes When I’m Drunk and You’re Wearing My Favorite Shirt”) or the music business (“The Panhandling Song”).
The band also enjoy exquisite chemistry. On a typical night you can find Kearney slapping her bass like a rockabilly hellion or plucking more subtle undulating patterns behind Price and running jazz phrases into the mix. Olson, meanwhile, combines piquant trumpet solos and obbligatos in a warm, rounded tone. Calabrese most often uses brushes to drive the band’s cool grooves with Kearney. He, Olson, and Price might take turns with an electric guitar. And Price is a rising star in her own right — with a solo CD under her belt, she’s become a regular singing straight-ahead jazz at Scullers.
With their occasional group vocal harmonies and shapely tunes, you might not notice that for long stretches you’re hearing nothing but solo voice, bass, and drums. Olson: “The very first show on our very first tour was in Des Moines. It was a rock club. The band before us had an electric guitar and electric bass and the band after us was a metal band. And sonically, we were so different from these other bands, I remember feeling ashamed: ‘Man, we sound so weird! What’s wrong with us!’ ”
Eventually they became confident in their sound, and audiences began to get it too: tight song structures draped on loose arrangements. And the absence of a chording instrument gave Kearney, Price, and Olson plenty of room for improvisation.
Their big break came when Kearney won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest for “Sometimes When I’m Drunk and You’re Wearing My Favorite Shirt” — it paid for their first CD, In this Episode . . . (2006), as well as the first tour and some very nice equipment. The tour also cemented the group bond and led to last year’s Promises, Promises.
Kearney: “Jazz people don’t think we sound jazzy at all, and people who aren’t jazz musicians always think that it sounds jazzy.” The band’s unity, she says, isn’t “a genre or a style, but an æsthetic, shared musical ideals: melodies that are really memorable. That’s why we can do so much with the tunes. We all try to write melodies that exist on their own — independent of production style.”
Here is a little preview from The Sidekick (Boston Globe entertainment section) for a show at Toad 12/07:
From CDBABY editor's review:
Here is a quote from DJ Ken Rinehart, who chose LSD's "in this episode..." as the number 1 CD release of 2007
"With all of the rehashing of jazz standards in today's jazz, it is so refreshing to hear a tight ensemble with something fresh and interesting to say. This quartet presents a variety of original tunes with amazing lyrics from bassist and Iowa City native Bridget Kearney, and outstanding vocals by Rachael Price."
-Ken Rinehart, Producer KCCK 12/07 http://www.kcck.org/prod_picks.php#ken
Some Blog Love for our 5/09/09 gig at The Lizard Lounge:
"the sea monsters brought down the house at lizard lounge thursday night, but before their excellent, intimate performance in the famously carpeted basement of one of cambridge's favorite venues, lake street dive had every jaw in the packed house hitting the floor. due to the sardine can-like seating conditions, my friend james and i were left standing next to one of the pillars and thus could only really see the bass player and the drummer, and as a result this review may be a little biased due to our proximity to lake street dive's rhythm section... but honestly, bridget kearney is one of THE MOST talented musicians i've seen. EVER. it's not just the fact that the woman trounced the art of playing the upright bass, which in no easy feat. kearney made that instrument an extension of her body and her energy was INSATIABLE. the bass lines to each and every one of LSD's (lsd, haha) songs pulsed, swung, and drove the gorgeous, velvet voice of rachael price and the uplifting presence of mike olson, who plays trumpet and guitar. mike calabrese's drumming was absolutely exceptional, and like i said, i'm probably biased towards his performance as well as kearney's due to the fact that we were so close to them and completely enthralled with their playing. together, they're unshakeable, and we surely would have been dancing our asses off had we not been shoulder-to-shoulder with a group of our new favorite strangers." - http://ohheyitshil.blogspot.com/2009/04/lake-street-dive-listen-to-them-now.html
"Lake Street Dive is a charming band with a trumpet, stand-up base, drums, and powerful, jazzy, full vocals. Most of the songs were break up songs, but they still made you feel good. It was wonderful to be reminded how people can just make music and tell stories and share it. They were all a part of something and it was twangy, pop-y, sensual, folk-y and exuberant. The singer had beautiful stage presence with hips that very slowly shook. The bassist played so hard she almost took herself out. The trumpet player would also pick up the guitar and sit down at the piano, whatever seemed to be needed. The drummer kept everyone together while pulling off a very appropriate mustache.With lines like (slightly botched but to the best of my memory...) "It feels good to be over you, it felt good to be under you, maybe you just feel good, " and, "most of what I love about Elijah is on the outside..." or, "my neighbors making love upstairs would crush me...I am on the ground floor," you are bound to have a good time." - http://thechaise.blogspot.com/2009/04/diving-in.html
A blog on our CD release at Club Passim 9/07: http://geoffamy810.blogspot.com/2007/08/fastest-fingers-in-west.html
Here are some nice things people have said about Rachael:
"Clearly a talent with extaordinary potential." -Don Heckman, L.A. Times
"Price...has the talent to match her enthusiasm." -Mike Joyce, The Washington Post
"No unheralded artist has hooked me as quickly as did songstress Price." www.jazzpolice.com
Here is an article from the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine about Bridget and the Lennon Award 06/06:
