Stereogum » Robin Pecknold

Watch Joanna Newsom On Portlandia

tom — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:04:44 +0000

On this Friday’s episode of Portlandia, Joanna Newsom shows up in a sketch. And you don’t actually have to wait until then to watch it; it’s below. In said sketch, Newsom plays part of a group of flower-children (including Robin Pecknold) having an ethereal meadow jam session that goes sour when someone tries to jam Newsom’s gigantic harp into a tiny car. This is presumably drawn on about fifty bajillion true situations from Newsom’s actual life.

Robin Pecknold’s Top 10, Um, Things Of 2011

tom — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 13:56:59 +0000

Sub Pop has just published a massive compendiums of year-end lists from its bands on the label’s website. Some of those top-10 lists cover the year’s music, but just as many of them just list out absolutely random things. Shabazz Palaces’ Ishmael Butler, for example, gives special consideration to “he alien i saw working in a kebab shop in berlin,” and then goes on to describe that alien in great detail. And in that spirit, we present to you the list that Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold gave, which includes some music and some random stuff, though none of the random stuff is quite as random as the kebab-shop alien.

Robin Pecknold & Alela Diane Cover “These Days”

amrit — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:32:20 +0000

Two nights ago in Milan, Italy’s Teatro Smeraldo, Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold joined the evening’s opener, Portland-based Rough Trade singer-songwriter Alela Diane, for a pretty pass at Jackson Browne’s oft-covered stone-cold classic “These Days.” It’s a folk take, of course, fingerpicked and harmonized and doing justice the song’s enduring introspective pangs of overcast mopery. It’s somewhere between Nico and Jackon’s recorded versions of it, with a touch Pac-Northwest plaid. Watch it, grab it:

Watch Joanna Newsom & Robin Pecknold Armwrestle

tom — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:36:37 +0000

Joanna Newsom and Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold don’t exactly seem like the physical type, but you need some sort of arm-strength to keep playing harp for hours on end, just like you need some forearm power to chop wood, which is what I assume Pecknold is doing whenever he’s not harmonizing with somebody. At least on paper, a Newsom/Pecknold armwrestling match should be competitive. But when the two face off for an Under The Radar photo shoot in the video below, it turns out to be pretty one-sided. Dag.

Robin Pecknold – “I Let You”

tom — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:55:03 +0000

Last night in Seattle, Fleet Foxes played a big hometown show at the Paramount, and frontman Robin Pecknold took the opportunity to try out a new solo-acoustic song that seems to be called ~~“August Night”~~ “I Let You.” Someone in the crowd got a decent-quality iPhone recording of it. Get an MP3 of the audio below.

Indie Rockers Before They Were Famous

Scott — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:01:07 +0000

After watching the recently unearthed footage of Arcade Fire playing a house party in 2002 and a 17-year-old Robin Pecknold covering Radiohead and Simon & Garfunkel, I thought it would be fun to collect more early videos of our favorite bands from before we ever heard them. Well, fun for us, maybe not so much for them…

Stereogum Monthly Mix: March 2011

amrit — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 20:09:57 +0000

The March edition of our Monthly Mix series runs the gamut from South London mixtape hip-hop, to lady-baiting R&B, pop, to lady-fronted arpeggiated-vocal ukulele/sax funk. Or at least it runs that gamut within its first three tracks. There are plenty of collaborations (the lead harmonizers from Fleet Foxes and Grizzly Bear, harmonizing; PS I Love You and Diamond Rings, also) and some interesting and honorifically named reappropriations (Rihanna’s “Hard” on Giggs’ “Hard Style,” Waka Flocka Flame’s raps on Elite Gymnastics’ ’90s club workout “WΛKΛ”); some blistering new wave (Cold Cave) and blistering punk/metal/whatever (Liturgy). There are new tracks from old heralded heroes (J Mascis) and an old track from an old Harald hero (i.e. Grosskopf). As always the purpose of these mixes is to roundup the best free and legal MP3s to surface on the web since our last installment; as always, I couldn’t help but sequence it to tease the dialogue from track to track. There are 16 of them all told, which you can download in one zip file and see listed individually below:

Download A Free Robin Pecknold EP (Feat. Ed Droste)

amrit — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:14:34 +0000

When Robin Pecknold has released solo material in the past it’s been under his White Antelope moniker. Today’s sneak-released three-song EP is credited simply to Robin Pecknold, tweeted from his @FleetFoxes account, with one track featuring stylistic forefather (forelderbrother?) Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear. Robin says that these “mellow jams” are distinctly not Fleet Foxes songs, just three tunes he set to tape with his friend Noah in Los Angeles needing an avenue of dissemination. (Twitter to the rescue.) You can download his track with Droste, titled “I’m Losing Myself,” here, and be not surprised at how lovely their voices sound in harmony:

Robin Pecknold Performs New Songs In Seattle

brandon — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:45:08 +0000

Robin Pecknold continues opening shows for Joanna Newsom. The Fleet Foxes head performed some new songs during his 8/4 set at Seattle’s Moore Theater. He’s very likely done the tracks elsewhere on tour, but someone made pristine recordings this time. We have three:

Joanna Newsom, Robin Pecknold @ Orpheum Theater, Los Angeles 7/31/10

amrit — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:39:01 +0000

Photos of a sold-out show on Saturday in L.A. by Joanna Newsom (complete with standing ovation and a female would-be-stage-crasher blocked by security), with an opening set by an apologetic Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes, paranoid that his voice wouldn’t work properly after having quit smoking. (Of course it did, and also CONGRATS ROBIN everybody in NYC is quitting, too, because American Spirits are like $12.50 a pack.) Last night in Oakland, Robin joined Joanna on a cover of “Picture,” that Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow song, because huh? But also, great! So we have video of that below (via Fluxtumblr), and also these shots for you by Andrew Youssef.

Additionally, just announced: Joanna’s bringing her harp-shaped baroque musings to Carnegie Hall, for a show 11/23 (tix on sale 8/9), and she’ll be on Kimmel 8/11. The rest of her dates after this Joanna/Robin “Picture” vid: