Lake Street Dive

<p>College internships can run the gamut. They can lead you into a career or dissuade you from pursuing one altogether. In 2004, while still attending the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, singer Rachael Price, bassist Bridget Kearney, guitarist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.premierguitar.com/videos/hooked-mike-mcduck-olson-on-bill-withers-kissing-my-love" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mike “McDuck” Olson</a>, and drummer Mike Calabrese joined forces to perform as what they dubbed a “free country band,” where they intended to play country music in an improvised, avant-garde style. As it goes with many college-years experiments, it didn’t stick, but the fervid foursome pushed forward in continuing to develop their own sound. They quickly graduated to a bona fide band cultivating a buzz with infectious concerts, creative covers, and complex, groovy originals. Through their mutual influences and complimentary counterpoints, their sound matured into a harmonious fusion, as if Berry Gordy produced the Beatles in Nashville’s RCA Studio.</p><p>If starting a band and shaping their sound was an internship and bachelor’s degree, self-releasing records and organizing U.S. tours would be their master’s and doctorate. They self-released 2007’s&nbsp;<em>In This Episode...</em>&nbsp;and 2008’s&nbsp;<em>Promises, Promises</em>before joining Signature Sounds, who put out 2010’s&nbsp;<em>Lake Street Dive</em>&nbsp;and 2014’s&nbsp;<em>Bad Self Portraits</em>. (The latter slotted them on the&nbsp;<em>Billboard&nbsp;</em>charts—No. 18 in the 200 and No. 5 in Top Rock Albums.) They then signed to Nonesuch, where they’ve dropped three more albums—most notably 2016’s&nbsp;<em>Side Pony</em>, which put them atop the Top Rock Albums chart, while 2021’s&nbsp;<em>Obviously&nbsp;</em>netted them their highest single, with “Hypotheticals” hitting No. 2 on the Adult Alternative Airplay chart.</p><p>And while the band has continued to evolve, experiment, and expand their signature sound, they have kept to their core identity—