It’s been a while since we’ve gotten proper new music from Fleet Foxes, but Robin Pecknold has offered something to tide fans over with live covers of The Strokes’ “Under Control” and Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira.”
“Under Control” was recorded during Fleet Foxes’ show at Forest Hills Stadium in New York last year, while they did “Hejira” during “The Spring Recital” at The Belasco in Los Angeles in March. Frequent collaborators The Westerlies perform horns on both, with Uwade, Daniel Rossen, and Greg Pecknold also contributing.
Understandably, Pecknold has quite a few words to share about his renditions of the two classic songs: “Last summer we were honored to have the incredible vocalist and songwriter Uwade Akhere open for us on tour,” he said in a press release of “Under Control.” “One thing we all bonded over backstage was a shared love of The Strokes — hearing Uwa’s voice echoing down the halls as she sang ‘The End Has No End’ or ‘Reptilia’ was always a highlight of the day. Considering this, I thought she might get a kick out of singing ‘Under Control’ with us and The Westerlies at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, so we pulled it together at soundcheck and asked her — it was amazing! She ruled it. Thank you Uwade!”
Of the title track to Mitchell’s 1976 jazz-folk crossover, Pecknold added: “My father built bass guitars and played in bands in his twenties and thirties in the Northwest; his dream was to be Joni Mitchell’s bassist, like the great Jaco Pastorius. Right before our surprise show with Joanna Newsom in March, I bought back for him one of the fretless basses he had made in the ’80s, and I thought it would be sweet for us to play ‘Hejira’ together, on the same bill as Joanna, the Joni of our time. It was also an honor to be joined by Daniel Rossen for this, one of the greatest musicians of the last 20 years. Thank you, Dan and Dad!”
Stream Fleet Foxes’ very nice covers of “Under Control” and “Hejira” below.
Fleet Foxes also have a whole bunch of North American tour dates coming up, beginning tonight in Cleveland; grab last-minute tickets here.
