Lake Street Dive - "I Can Change"

Like a bell that cannot be unrung, once you hear Lake Street Dive they cannot be forgotten. Buzzing in the back your mind you keep asking yourself “what was that line?” and “How did that melody go?” until you take it upon yourself to simply listen again.

Lake Street Dive is a multigenre band that was founded in 2004 in Boston, Massachusetts. The band's original members are Rachael Price (lead vocals), Mike "McDuck" Olson (trumpet, guitar), Bridget Kearney (upright bass), and Mike Calabrese (drums). Akie Bermiss (keyboards) joined the band on tour in 2017 and is on their 2018 album. Lake Street Dive started at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. The band was named after a street with many dive bars in Olson's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band tours in North America, Australia, and Europe from their base in Brooklyn.

All the band members were singing and/or playing musical instruments by the time they were in third grade. Most had some classical music training growing up and their parents were musicians. In their own way, had migrated to jazz by the time they met. However, the band says they were influenced by the music their parents were playing at home. This ranged from classic jazz to '60s soul to rock and roll.

The band members profess to love the entire Beatles discography. Kearney wrote "Hello? Goodbye!" and the band plays "Don't Make Me Hold Your Hand", both referencing Beatles tunes. Olson says he was inspired by Paul McCartney's love/vice lyrical concept in "Got to Get You Into My Life" when he wrote "You Go Down Smooth."

The band's traditional Halloween specials and covers on the EP release Fun Machine give an idea of the genres that influence them. These range from songs by the Mamas and the Papas, ABBA, the Drifters, Fleetwood Mac, Hall & Oates, Jackson 5 and Paul McCartney.

The band has been influenced by classic pop and swing era jazz. "We want it to sound like the Beatles and Motown had a party together," says drummer Mike Calabrese. Critics describe their music as "Sounds Like: Llewyn Davis's favorite pop group; Motown meets the Brill Building in jazzy, soulful, woulda-been Sixties chart toppers."

Price has said that the band's performances are influenced by the audience in front of them. "We are translating [crowd energy] on stage, trying to figure out what kind of energy to put out to the crowds. For the first time we feel we can mold the energy of a room."

Their influences are strong, and you can tell. Their music comes vibrantly to life and sticks with you for days. In little ways in can change your mood, or your day, simply by speaking truthfully.

So today, with the hope of change and the knowledge that no change is really necessary to be whom you want to be, I choose Lake Street Dive’s "I Can Change" as my break open and bleed out the bad, let yourself fill up with the light, the moment when the source and the stream are the same, song for a, find the divinity that you already are, look up to the stars, shine on, Tuesday.