Lake Street Dive Brings Back the ‘Fun Machine’ for a New Set of Cover Songs
Stacy Chandler
Posted On July 15, 2022
Lake Street Dive (photo by Shervin Lainez)
Ten years after their first Fun Machine covers collection, Lake Street Dive is cranking up that contraption once again for a second EP of cover songs showing off the band’s wide range of sounds and influences.
Fun Machine: The Sequel is part time machine, as it hops decades to bring us songs made famous by Dionne Warwick, Carole King, The Pointer Sisters, Bonnie Raitt, The Cranberries, and Shania Twain.
“Imagine you walk into your favorite local dive bar and Lake Street Dive is on stage, doing our regular weekly gig for $5 a head,” the band says by way of introduction in an announcement for the project. “These are the songs we’d be covering there and how we’d be playing them. Some deep cuts, some sentimental favorites and some (hopefully) epic crowd pleasers.”
A cover of Raitt’s “Nick of Time,” the title track from her 1989 breakthrough album, is Fun Machine: The Sequel’s first single:
Here is the full tracklist for Fun Machine: The Sequel, which comes out Sept. 9 on Fantasy Records:
- “Automatic” (Brock Patrick Walsh / Mark Goldenberg) – The Pointer Sisters
- “Anyone Who Had a Heart” (Burt Bacharach / Hal David) – Dionne Warwick
- “You’re Still the One” – (Robert John Lange / Shania Twain) – Shania Twain
- “So Far Away” (Carole King) – Carole King
- “Nick of Time” (Bonnie Raitt) – Bonnie Raitt
- “Linger” (Dolores Mary O’Riordan / Noel Anthony Hogan) – The Cranberries
The original Fun Machine EP was released in 2012 and featured covers of George Michael’s “Faith,” “Rich Girl” by Daryl Hall and John Oates, and, most famously, a sultry version of the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.”
Lake Street Dive released an album trailer/mission statement for Fun Machine: The Sequel that’s rated F for “Too Much Fun”: You’ve been warned.
Lake Street Dive’s last album of original songs was 2021’s Obviously (ND review). No Depression’s Spring 2021 journal featured a story about Lake Street Dive lead singer Rachael Price’s love for songs from the Great American Songbook (from a bit farther back than the songs of Fun Machine: The Sequel). You can buy a digital version of that issue (print is sold out) here.
