To celebrate their tour kicking off today, Fleet Foxes have offered up two rare treats on their Bandcamp page in the form of live cover songs. In the new package, they shared a rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira”—featuring Daniel Rossen from Grizzly Bear and Greg Pecknold, Robin Pecknold’s father—which they taped during “The Spring Recital” at The Belasco in Los Angeles in March. Their take on The Strokes’ “Under Control” was made with Uwade and comes from a performance at Forest Hills Stadium in New York last year. Both tracks also feature horns by frequent collaborators The Westerlies
Pecknold spoke of “Under Control,” having said, “Last summer we were honored to have the incredible vocalist and songwriter Uwade Akhere open for us on tour. 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.”
On “Hejira,” Pecknold said, “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.”
Check out both tracks below (both are free to download), and find Fleet Foxes’s tour dates here.
