Watch Haim Mash Up Lil Nas X’s “Panini” And Nirvana’s “In Bloom” In The BBC Live Lounge

Jasper Rischen

Watch Haim Mash Up Lil Nas X’s “Panini” And Nirvana’s “In Bloom” In The BBC Live Lounge

Jasper Rischen

Here’s a fun fact that, depending on your perspective, might not actually be all that fun: Lil Nas X’s current single “Panini,” which credits Kurt Cobain as one of its songwriters, is currently at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 — one spot higher than any actual Nirvana songs. (“Smells Like Teen Spirit” peaked at #6.) “Panini” sounds enough like Nirvana’s “In Bloom” that Lil Nas X thanked Frances Bean Cobain on Twitter when he released it. (Right now, the highest-charting song with a Kurt Cobain credit is Jay-Z’s 2013 Justin Timberlake collab “Holy Grail,” which samples “Teen Spirit” and which peaked at #4. I know. I know.) And now Haim, in a visit to the BBC Live Lounge, have made it a point to show just how much “In Bloom” and “Panini” have to do with each other.

In their visit to the Live Lounge, Haim played a live-in-studio version of “Summer Girl,” their great recent single. And going along with the Live Lounge tradition of covering other artists’ recent songs, Haim also covered “Panini.” Most of the Haim cover of “Panini” is almost startlingly faithful to the Lil Nas X version, right down to the whistling. But near the end, the band suddenly lurches into “In Bloom,” and it sounds pretty seamless.

It’s worth noting, I think, that Haim are a versatile enough band to do justice to both “Panini” and “In Bloom.” How many people can do that? When the performance over, they echoed presenter Clara Amfo: “Why not?” As The FADER points out, you can hear their version of both songs by heading over here and jumping to the 2:14:55 mark. (Presumably, the video version will be up later.)

UPDATE: Here are the videos.

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