Lake Street Dive is a multigenre band comprised of Rachael Price (lead vocals), Mike "McDuck" Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (upright bass), Mike Calabrese (drums), and Akie Bermiss (keyboards). The band came to life in 2004, when the original members were studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
By 2012 the four-piece band decided to make a firm commitment as a group and tour. They went to the studio to record an album and some singles in November 2012. In 2013, they played over 150 gigs in more than 120 different cities, spread between 32 states and eight countries. The band received much attention from their Jackson 5 YouTube cover of I Want You Back gathered around a single microphone on a Brighton, Massachusetts street corner. Their performance at the 2013 FreshGrass Festival was filmed and directed by noted Brooklyn audio/visual collective Mason Jar Music. In December 2013, T Bone Burnett asked them to perform on the Another Day, Another Time show at The Town Hall (New York City) featuring music from and inspired by the Coen brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis.
In late 2013, Lake Street Dive announced their album Bad Self Portraits would be released in February 2014. Additionally, this album's release landed the band gigs on popular U.S. television shows The Colbert Report, The Late Show with David Letterman, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Over the coming years, the band steadily built a following through a series of independent album releases, countless club tours, and a few lucky breaks. In 2016 they made their Nonesuch Records debut with Side Pony, an album deemed "irresistible" by Rolling Stone. Akie Bermiss joined the band on keys in 2017, before the arrival of Free Yourself Up, released in May 2018. The album debuted in the top ten on the Billboard 200 and spent seven-and-a-half months on the non-commercial radio charts. "Free Yourself Up" also drew praise from outlets like PopMatters—who and the lead single "Good Kisser" held fast in the top 5 at Americana radio for over a month.
