Hear Fleet Foxes cover Joni Mitchell and The Strokes
American indie-folk band Fleet Foxes have released two wonderful covers via Bandcamp. One is a cover of The Strokes’ ‘Under Control’ featuring Uwade, and the other is a cover of the Joni Mitchel classic ‘Hejira’ featuring Daniel Rossen and Robin Pecknold’s father, Greg Pecknold.
In a new press statement, Pecknold discussed the Strokes cover, which the band first performed with Uwade on tour in 2022. “Last summer, we were honoured to have the incredible vocalist and songwriter Uwade Akhere open for us on tour,” Pecknold said.
“One thing we all bonded over backstage was a shared love of the Strokes—hearing Uwade’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.”
Discussing the band’s cover of Mitchell’s ‘Hejira’, 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 honour to be joined by Daniel Rossen for this, one of the greatest musicians of the last 20 years.”
Fleet Foxes are scheduled to begin their North American tour this evening in Cleveland. The dates track the band across the continent through the summer ending on August 24th with a show in Portland, Oregon.
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