famous bands (or significant portions thereof) who backed up a solo artist or were absorbed into an existing band for a single album: the thread

The Weirdos backing Lydia Lunch on 13.13

Honeymoon in Red is her with the birthday party.
Some Velvet morning is her with the future These Immortal Souls
& the collaboration with Rowland S Howard as Shotgun Wedding is pretty great too

I believe all of Pere Ubu appeared on the Red Crayola's Soldier-Talk (...plus Lora Logic, as well!)

good call! also on Kangaroo?

and the amazing 'Born In Flames' single

Those have different personnel -- Epic Soundtracks, Gina Birch, Lora Logic, Ben Annesley... plus Allen Ravenstine from Pere Ubu played on Kangaroo?, not sure about the amazing "Born in Flames" single

(jammin' "Born in Flames" now; I don't hear Ravenstine's synth)

oh yeah you're right, even Ravenstine isn't on the single, my bad

your *good*; got me listening to Red C.... :)

Todd Rundgren & Utopia on Shaun Cassidy's Wasp.

Sunn O))) and Scott Walker

^^ thought of that one, too, but it seems more of a collaboration instead of one band acting as a backing band tbh

The Dap-Kings on Amy Winehouse's Back to Black, at least quite a lot of it

the olivia tremor control back up kahimi karie on her "once upon a time" ep

oh, how about cheap trick backing up john lennon on one song?

also this is stretching the definition of "famous" but giles, giles, & fripp backed up al stewart on a bbc session for "my kind of folk" in late '68

i've heard the session, ggf sound fucking awful

Liza Minnelli's Results: produced by Pet Shop Boys, 7 out of 10 songs written for the album by Tennant / Lowe (plus three covers), played on by both Boys and sung on by Neil, plus regular PSB guitarist J.J. Belle, and frequent collaborators Anne Dudley and Julian Mendelsohn. (with bonus Angelo Badalementi!)

Dunno how/if this would count, but the then-Who (Townshend, Entwistle, Kenney Jones) as backing band for Roger Daltrey on most of the McVicar soundtrack, billed as a Daltrey solo album.

Kinda similar to the Dead backing Bob Weir on his first solo alb?

Morrissey's third solo single features four members of The Smiths on both sides. (Craig Gannon, not Johnny Marr, on guitar.)


Sleater-Kinney backing the Go-Betweens on The Friends of Rachel Worth.

Only on one song ftr.


Bunch of Triffids on Bill Drummond's The Man LP

All the Triffids bar singer David McComb, plus Kid Chaos from Zodiac Mindwarp & The Love Reaction, and "Voices Of The Beehive" on backing vox iirc.


That Ellen Foley record with The Clash on it

Spirit Of St Louis - this is straight-up a fourth disc of Sandinista!, right down to the lineup including Mickey Gallagher on keyboards, Norman Watt-Roy on bass, and Tymon Dogg on violin. Half the songs are written by Strummer / Jones, Tymon Dogg wrote a few, Bill Price engineered and "My Boyfriend" produced (ie Mick).

Bonus points to Ian Hunter's Short Back & Sides, 8/10 of which is produced / sung on / guitared by Mick Jones & Mick Ronson, with Bill Price engineering, plus Topper on drums, Tymon on violin and Ellen singing.

Sub Quasi for S-K on Rachel Worth then.

Spirit Of St Louis - this is straight-up a fourth disc of Sandinista!

OK I gotta hear this, always passed it over

Sub Quasi for S-K on Rachel Worth then.

It’s not good! But it’s a curiosity.

xpost

jeez, way to kill my enthusiasm there :)

I think a couple of PAVEMENT guys were on the first Silver Jews.

Jim O'Rourke and Sonic Youth.

Malk & Nasty were in the Joos before both were in Pavement

jeez, way to kill my enthusiasm there :)

just didn't want to get your hopes unnecessarily raised! I'm totally down with all of Sandinista itself as a coherent listen, no make-a great-single-album fantasy games, but the songwriting well was getting dry by the time they got to Side H.

I had it on 2nd-hand LP in the early '00s, should give it another ear myself in case I'm being mean

ooh there's an "expanded edition" on Spotify, bring it on

The Rolling Stones on John Phillips' Pay, Pack, and Follow/Pussycat.

The Lilys were basically Kurt Heasley backed by The Beachwood Sparks circa 2001-2.

Another Booker T & The MGs one: The Detroit-Memphis Experiment w/Mitch Ryder.

Dungen on Melody's Echo Chamber's Bon Voyage

I've listened to this album tons of times and never knew this. Makes total sense though.

Not a full album, but Earth Wind & Fire were the backing band for half of Ramsey Lewis's Sun Goddess.

Chic became the backing band

Chic became the backing band for several already-established artists for an album or two, such as Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, and Debbie Harry.

Ornette Coleman's group => Don Cherry, Ed Blackwell and Charlie Haden backing John Coltrane on The Avant Garde

The Ruts were the backing band for the first half of Kevin Coyne's "Sanity Stomp" double album (Robert Wyatt et al on the second half).

An early version of Earth Wind and Fire are the band on Melvin Van peebles Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song which includes vocals by him.

Don't think I've seen a listing for who the backing players on the 3 solo lps by him are but they're also pretty great. Don't think there are credits for them on the solo lps and definitely aren't on the Rated X By An All White Jury set I have them as.

Eno backed by The Winkies for a Peel session and tour, if that qualifies?

There’s a song on Kelis’s Wanderland where the three instrumentalists from No Doubt are her backing band.

another Meters example, they all played on Dr. John's In the Right Place and Desitively Bonnaroo
albums.

Beak> produced and played on Anika's (now Exploded View) debut album.

Ah shit, that's a good one that I should've thought of.

Devo backed Toni Basil on her debut album, Word Of Mouth

!!!

The Cars backed Bebe Buell on an EP.

The Sadies became Neko Case's backing band for a little while.

You guys, the Meters and Booker T & the MG s don't count, they were essentially session units that happened to release instrumental records too. They backed up everyone.

The Wondermints were Brian Wilson's band for a while.

The Sadies did an album with John Doe too.

Three-quarters of Talking Heads recorded an entire album in this vein:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Talking,_Just_Head

(...wow, I didn’t know that Byrne sued them over it)

8. "Indie Hair" (Kowalczyk)
Vocals and lyrics by Ed Kowalczyk – 3:49

I liked the album, but the Kowalczyk track really sucks. Shaun Ryder one is p bad too, really recapturing that Yes Please! magic.

(they toured with Johnette as lead singer & were planning a second album with her until Byrne sued)

Wondermints are one for the other thread. Two of ‘em have stayed in Wilson’s band for two decades, the third has been in & out for years at a time, and Darian has been his main arranger on some projects, but they’re sidemeeces playing in a bigger band. Brian’s onstage and ontour right-hand-man redefected to the Beach Boys a few years ago, incidentally.