Robin Pecknold and Casey Wescott from Fleet Foxes were the guests on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 Music show today. They performed “If You Need To, Keep Time on Me” from the band’s latest album Crack-Up. They also covered the song, “Do What You Gotta Do,” which was written by Jimmy Webb and performed by Nina Simone on her 1968 record ’Nuff Said! “I just love what she did to the melody,” Pecknold said. “I love her melodic phrasing.” Listen to the session here.
Nina Simone
The Avalanches curate Essential Mix for BBC Radio 1
The Avalanches returned with Wildflower, earlier this year, marking it their first album in 15 years. It also has been as long since the outfit curated an “Essential Mix” for BBC Radio 1. However, that changed today as The Avalanches took over the radio with a 45-minute playlist that included music from Frank Zappa, Sun Ra, Ratatat, Nina Simone, Betty Everett, The Parliaments, Madlib, The Stooges, Bad Brains, and more. Listen to their mix on the BBC’s website. Their other one came out December 11th, 2001 and can be listened to below.
Bob Dylan honored at MusiCares tribute
Bob Dylan was honored last night at a tribute concert to benefit MusiCares. The lineup featured Jack White, Beck, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Willie Nelson, and others. It also had a lengthy speech from Dylan who thanked his early supporters and jibed at critics of his vocals and other famous detractors according to Rolling Stone.
Young covered “Blowin’ in the Wind,” Beck covered “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat,” White did “One More Cup of Coffee,” Springsteen did “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and Crosby Stills and Nash performed “Girl From the North Country.”
Dylan thanked icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Joan Baez, the Staple Singers, the Byrds, the Turtles, Peter Paul & Mary, Sonny & Cher, and others for supporting his music in his speech. When talking about Hendrix, Dlyan said, “He took some small songs of mine that nobody paid any attention to and brought them up into the outer limits of the stratosphere, turned them all into classics.”
He also talked about some famous artists who wrote him off early on, including the iconic songwriting duo Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and country legend Merle Haggard. “I didn’t really care what Leiber & Stoller thought of my songs,” he said, “’cause I didn’t like their songs, either.”
Dylan also said, “critics say I can’t sing, I sound like a frog. Why don’t critics say that about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice is shot. Why don’t they say that about Leonard Cohen? What have I done to get this special attention?”
Setlist:
Beck: “Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”
Aaron Neville: “Shooting Star”
Alanis Morissette: “Subterranean Homesick Blues”
Los Lobos: “On A Night Like This”
Willie Nelson: “Señor (Tales Of Yankee Power)”
Jackson Browne: “Blind Willie McTell”
John Mellencamp: “Highway 61 Revisited”
Jack White: “One More Cup Of Coffee”
Tom Jones: “What Good Am I?”
Norah Jones: “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight”
Derek Trucks And Susan Tedeschi: “Million Miles”
John Doe: “Pressing On”
Crosby, Stills & Nash: “Girl From The North County”
Bonnie Raitt: “Standing In The Doorway”
Sheryl Crow: “Boots Of Spanish Leather”
Bruce Springsteen: “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”
Neil Young: “Blowin’ In The Wind”
The Melodic Tree 