Lake Street Dive: Racket 2024

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

Lake Street Dive take their joy very seriously. In fact, the ethos behind the band's eighth album, Good Together, is to bring about a joyful rebellion.

The new songs run a a gamut of moods and sounds; jazz, Brazilian pop, funk, folk and everything in between. Lake Street Dive call attention to moments and ideas that elevate moods and lift spirits. They suggest that you "Dance with a Stranger" — until they're not a stranger anymore — or "Party on the Roof." What's key in this exuberant album is making a connection with other people, the idea of being good together.

Of course, Lake Street Dive — singer Rachael Price, singer and bassist Bridget Kearney, drummer Mike Calabrese, keyboardist Akie Bermiss and guitarist James Cornelison  — were very good together onstage, performing these new tunes for the first time in front of a crowd (all very grateful FUV Marquee Members) at Racket NYC. The band's earliest lineup, which included Price, Kearney, and Calabrese, first played FUV's Holiday Cheer back in 2012 and since then have charted a long history with the radio station, playing an additional six sessions or concerts over the past decade for FUV. They will play their debut concert at Madison Square Garden on September 14.

At Racket, I spoke with the band about their dicey (pun alert) decision to use what was a "Dungeons and Dragons" method of creating music. Inspiration for the new songs also came from a square dance that Bridget Kearney attended and Rachael Price's time working at the McKittrick Hotel for the play, "Sleep No More." 

Listen to the interview on demand and watch videos below of "Good Together," "Walking Uphill," and "Help Is On the Way."

[Recorded: 6/17/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with David Schnirman and Erin Merriman and produced by Meghan Offtermatt. Videographers: Therese Burgo, Bella Lipayon, Anna Fahy, and Louisa Schramm.]