Bands with two singers

I have been struck lately by how many of my favourite bands have two singers (and possibly two songwriters, too): Wild Beasts, Grizzly Bear, My Bloody Valentine, Field Music, Animal Collective, Fugazi, The Clash.

I'm not really talking about bands where the guitarist occasionally takes lead vocals, or bands with three or more singers or where multi-part vocal harmonies are a USP - I'm more interested in groups where one singer will sing part of or a whole song pretty much all lead (with backing vocals by the other singer) and then they switch. They might even duet with each other.

I guess I'd be tempted to include The Beatles in this, as I kind of consider George to be a seperate entity to the Lennon + McCartney axis (and Ringo obviously only got let out once in a blue moon); something like We Can Work It Out or A Day In The Life might be the apotheosis of this.

So let's talk about bands with two primary / main / lead singers. I guess I'm interested in the dynamics between them - is one singing in a dramtically higher range than the other; does one sing soft songs and one sing harder songs or a similar dichotomy; how easily can you tell them apart; do they both play instruments, and if so, does one of them play an instrument or instruments proportionally more (i.e. does one of them sing or do nothing, while the other sings/plays)?

Thought about adding this on to this older thread - Bands with two lead singers, neither of whom play instruments live - but it feels to me like a substantially different enough thing to warrant its own thread.

Stereolab (at various points), Lush, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Moonshake, The Sugarcubes

Ride

Pink Floyd

can we have more than two? if so, The Band

Bros

Jefferson Airplane

Husker Du

Sonic Youth

Dead Can Dance

Low

Black Box Recorder, Nelson, most Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo, Unrest, Heart

Please don't just list them; write a sentence or two describing how they work together.

For instance, in Grizzly Bear Ed Droste has a higher, more ethereal voice, and tends to sing the more drawn-out, minimal, balladic (for want of a better word) songs. Dan Rossen has a slightly rougher, deeper tone, and tends to sing the more upbeat numbers (the pop singles!). Saying that, they often sing different parts on the same songs, and Ed sings lead on the poppiest song on Shields, so its far from cut and dry. I'm also not 100% sure exactly who sings which bit of which song, and sometimes have difficulty pulling their voices apart, but I suspect this is a deliberate thing on their part.

In Fugazi, Mackaye is the main singer, and Picciotto is the extraordinary punk foghorn, who was originally deployed as an equivalent of the foil in hip hop - i.e. he's Flavor Flav to Ian's Chuck D. Sort of.

Which reminds me - Public Enemy, Tribe Called Quest, a billion other hip hop groups.

Bros

― groovypanda, Thursday, October 25, 2012 5:19 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

I've always kinda wondered about hip hop groups where one of the rappers is clearly the main rapper and the other one gets much less time on tape; Cypress Hill and Black Moon are good examples of this... Are the sidemen in these groups old friends who turned out to be not so good at rapping, but the group doesn't want to kick them out for sentimental reasons? Does the record company order that the more charismatic rapper should be at the front and the other guy on the background? How do these rappers themselves feel about getting 2 or 3 verses per album, even though they're officially full members of the group?

Maybe they add stuff to the production?

The Cypress Hill and Black Moon guys don't get any production credits, AFAIK. Don't know about other rappers like this.

I almost felt a bit sorry for Ed from Grizzly Bear when I looked at the credits of Shields, because he's just listed as 'vocals', while Dan has 'vocals, guitar, piano [shit tonne of other instruments]', and Chris Bear and Chris Taylor each have way more than just 'bass' or 'drums' listed, and Grizzly Bear's meant to be Droste's band, or started that way, and if you took it just on the strength of instrumental credits you'd think he brought least to the party.

That's a loooooong sentence.

The division in Dead Can Dance is pretty cut-and-dried, Lisa Gerrard sings the medieval/ethnic/glossolalia pieces while Brendan Perry takes the more conventional singer-songwriter stuff.

In Floyd, Waters used to take the crazed/paranoid role while Gilmour's voice was more earthy and bluesy. They had Wright as well for the more balladic numbers. The vocals in '70s Floyd have always fascinated me, in a strange kind of way it's hard to tell them apart even though when you listen the differences are obvious. The production seems to elide the differences and make the voices part of the overall glacial effect.

As much as I dig some of Belly's records, I feel like Tanya Donelly is at her best when intercut w/ bolder, more dynamic singers - Throwing Muses, obv, and the early Breeders stuff.

Is this the thread where I say that Prolapse were the best damn band ever?

Scottish Mick rambles, speak-singing, inscrutable snapshots of life; Linda Steelyard brings sweet but ice-cold melody and occasional acerbic scorn for humanity in her own spoken sections. Sometimes they alternate verses, sometimes they intertwine; onstage, both instrument-less, they seemed to be almost arguing: tense and blank through each other's sections, until the music explodes into a thick shared chorus, each struggling to be heard above the other. Beautiful.

If someones mentioing Prolapse, then I'll mention Tse Tse Fly, two vocalists there...

Bob Wratton has always worked best with second singers, in The Field Mice, Northern Picture Library and Trembling Blue Stars. On the final FM album he and Anne-Mari swap vocals, sometimes solo, sometimes harmony, sometimes an octave apart. It does seem he gave his most personal lyrics to someone else to sing (such as "Willow"). Was he embarrassed to sing them? Not sure, he's not exactly talkative about that sort of thing.

Other bands with two distinctive singers - Squeeze (Difford going for the gritty end of things, such as "Cool for cats", then Tilbrook for everything else). OMD (McCluskey is the main voice, but Paul Humphreys has sung singles - "Souvenir", "Forever live and die", "Secret" - and makes a good contrast), Hot Chip (if they sing together it's often an octave unison, do they do harmonies together?). That'll do for now.

Carcass, for the first three albums.

Bee Gees had Barry singing one part of a song and Robin another part on a lot of their songs, Robin often handling the more weepy, emotive/emotionally unhinged sections, sometimes it's hard to tell them apart though

Stars. The guy has a really warm, balmy kind of voice, then the girl's voice is like an even lovelier female equivalent. Similar to BJ Nelson mirroring Green in 'A Little Knowledge' by Scritti Politti.

I think the Bros mention upthread might refer to When Will I Be Famous, when you could hardly tell the two lead vocals apart, although the fem singer wasn't a member of the band (and was righteously annoyed at lack of credit when the song was a hit).

The Go Betweens. Grant sang the sweet lovelorn songs and Rob sang the spikier, more melodically challenging ones. Yet, as it turned out (if you believe Robert Forster's account), Grant was the ur-hipster of the group, who subscribed to The New Yorker and whom Rob would pump for knowledge about the situationists, art movements etc. Their voices (and demeanours) certainly suited this arrangement, though. It was fairly rare for G&R to sing together on a song ('As Long As That' is a good one where they do) and funny that they never harmonised together, which seems a bit of an open goal if you have two lead singers.

X is probably the best male/female version of this

There's older examples too, but it's mainly down to "It's my song, I'm going to sing it", so there's Ronnie Lane in both the Small Faces and the Faces - and Ronnie Wood too (he sang "Ooh la la") which leads us to each Stones album having a Keef song.

Of course there's The xx.

The Cars had two singers. Not exactly sure how it was decided which song Ric Ocasek would get over Ben Orr, as they sounded pretty similar (to my ears, at least.)

Fairport Convention

pop will eat itself.

of course the fact that graham just ranted through a megaphone various slogans does not really equate to singing ..

then again, clint didn't really do much more to be honest.

but still, they were a band in which there were 2 front blokes having a go at the vocals.

X is probably the best male/female version of this

― Binders Full of Mittens (President Keyes), Thursday, October 25, 2012 6:44 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark

i would say the same about Low.

X
The XX

Fire on Fire have two primary singers

Stereo Total does this to a degree. I really like the interplay between Francoise and Brezel on songs like "Automatic Music" and "Mehr Licht".

Mastodon have got the nasal-sounding guy and the other guy that switches between singing and gruff bellowing

of course the fact that graham just ranted through a megaphone various slogans does not really equate to singing ..

by the last couple of albums Graham was singing properly, not just playing the foil, and mostly sending Clint to backing vocals on Graham's songs. (which, by the end, so outweighed Clint's that he insisted on breaking kayfabe on their collective credit)

Eno has always emphasized the give and take of two vocalists. That's why a lot of his songs and the stuff he produces has call and response vocals.

B-52s had the girls in unison and Fred the blurting counterpoint. Similar thing going on in Sugarcubes. This, like Fugazi or X or the xx, is the more interesting dynamic to me. Less "the guy who wrote the song sings the song" and more bands with two singers.

Mekons have four or five singers.

Blonde Redhead seem to split vocal duties according to who wrote the song, or who has most invested in it. The ratio was about 50:50 until Penny Sparkle, on which Kazu sings eight and Amedeo just one, plus one duet. This was their first album to be panned, although maybe those two facts aren't connected.

To answer Nick's original RFI, they both play multiple instruments (guitar/baritone guitar/keys). Only Kazu sometimes sings without an instrument to hide behind. Dynamics-wise, a caricature would have Kazu as the 'heart' of the band, in touch with emotions, comfortable expressing them and self-identifying as someone who needs to do this. Amedeo would be the more reserved 'head', the craftsman (known to turn up at the studio earlier than the cleaners) whose singing carries extra emotional weight because it doesn't come easy to him.

They Might Be Giants are the only one where both singers are on equal footing. There are a lot of bands where one singer is the main guy and the other gets about a quarter of the vocals - XTC, Swans, Ween...

lol I just realized that Barenaked Ladies fit this description

My usual answer to anything on ILM: Zappa. He sang lead on some of his stuff from Freak Out! onward, but almost always had a Dynamic Male Vocalist in the band for songs that required more talent: Ray Collins and sometimes Roy Estrada, Lowell George, Flo & Eddie, Napoleon Murphy Brock and George Duke, Ray White, Adrian Belew, Bobby Martin, Ike Willis.

In Fugazi, Mackaye is the main singer, and Picciotto is the extraordinary punk foghorn, who was originally deployed as an equivalent of the foil in hip hop - i.e. he's Flavor Flav to Ian's Chuck D. Sort of.

Q and Not U have two different singers and follow a similar pattern, but maybe reversed (in that Chris Richards' is the more sing-songy voice, while Harris Klahr's is the more shouty one).

lol @ all of you for not mentioning Depeche Mode (baritone swagger vs baritenor fragility)

Scott Kelly and Steve von Till in Neurosis. Great vocals, however I gotta admit I struggle to keep them apart. Love the band, though.

Shearwater did this for a few albums, with Will Sheff playing the world-weary-cowboy(-and-occasional-hysterical-diva) to Jonathan Meiburg's ethereally-pretty-choirboy(-and-occasional-hysterical-diva). They also harmonize real purty & play/writesongson different instruments (Sheff gtr, Meiburg piano), seems like it was a pretty fruitful partnership (...and Okkervil River's only gotten worse with Meiburg gone, so)

Fleetwood Mac is another example of a band where whoever wrote the song sang it, for the most part.

Royal Trux co-wrote all their songs, but in general Jennifer sang the heavier, sleazier stuff and Neil sang the more soulful, melodic stuff.

They Might Be Giants are the only one where both singers are on equal footing

The Libertines

Definitely a weird sub-set is a band like the Cars, where one guy wrote all the songs but didn't sing them all. Richard Thompson did that, too. He wrote the songs, but Linda sang a lot of them.

The Who. Townshend tended to sing the less-aggressive leads until around Tommy, when he walked into a session to find Daltrey nailing the falsetto on "See Me, Feel Me" that Townshend wanted to sing. He still continued to sing the reflective songs/lines, but they were no longer his exclusively.

Entwistle sang what he wrote, with a handful of exceptions (one being the Townshend-penned "We Close Tonight," the only instance of John singing a Pete song). And Moon sang lead when a particular comedic role was called for ("Bell Boy"), to humor him ("Barbara Ann"), or because of his range ("Jaguar").

Wishbone Ash
Blue Oyster Cult (2+)
Deep Purple MK III and IV

oh yeah. meant to add "They are the only ones I can think of"

Everything But The Girl. I've always liked mixed-gender leads of this sort, sometimes combined and sometimes alternating. (The wikipedia infobox on this duo lists their genre as "alternative rock, new wave, sophisti-pop, lounge, trip hop, alternative dance, house, chill-out, dance, pop rock, ambient, electronic, smooth jazz, electro", which accurately if not concisely sums up their style)

Human League. Not all fans of this band liked when they added the two girls, but I think their deadpan vocals perfectly offset Phil Oakey's enthusiasm

Obv. more than two singers, but lots of early Beach Boys tracks used Brian/Mike lead-vocal tradeoffs to great effect, like "I Get Around" or "When I Grow Up".

Bongwater: Ann Magnuson took the lead on many songs, but I think they're at their best when Kramer sings with her.

Madness: Suggs & Chas Smash

Lots of 2 Tone stuff. Specials, Beat ...

ian matthews/sandy denny my favorite example of this, trading off within songs like meet on the ledge, bird on a wire

The Walkabouts

Sleater-Kinney

And then there's Sloan, where all four members are singers and songwriters, and Teenage Fanclub where there's three singers and songwriters,,,

Those are different animals, a la Fleetwood Mac, Drive-By Truckers, etc.

Xp To be honest I did think as I wrote my post "But these don't seem the same as other examples".

Playn Jayn been mentioned yet? They sang as a tag team, hadn't really seen anything like that before then saw Clint Eastwood and General Saint on something like Whatever You didn't Get the Keith Allen fronted music show in the early days of Channel 4 & the comparison was pretty close. I think they may have been a big influence.
Not sure how well known they are. First band I really followed.

Crass, Chumbawamba, Dirt, a bunch of the peace punk bands. Most of those tend to trade off songs as opposed to working together, though.

I think the Bangles had every combination of this.

I'm most intrigued when it's a band where most people assume there's only one lead singer, but there are actually two. Cars is the big one, but I think Urge Overkill are another tricky one. Have to think a bit about whether there are others...

I'm most intrigued when it's a band where most people assume there's only one lead singer, but there are actually two. Cars is the big one, but I think Urge Overkill are another tricky one. Have to think a bit about whether there are others...

I still can't quite tell which ZZ Top songs Dusty Hill sings.

This is a British tradition going back to the Beatles, right? Like the Libertines are the latest in a long and noble British tradition of groups with two songwriters who share vocal duties and have an ambiguous working relationship. Generally they both play guitars, too, so it's duelling-guitars and dueling-vocals. I can't remember the full list, but me and a friend drew it up once: Beatles-Clash-Kinks-Faces-Rockpile-Blur-Libertines. Generally with the interplay between the two songwriters being a major draw of the music.

Then there's brother bands in the US, who did a lot of close harmonizing where there's no "melody" and "harmony" vocals because it's both the melody: Louvin Brothers, Everly Brothers, Flying Burrito Brothers (who are however not actually brothers).

Then there's US groups inspired by, I guess, a combination of the US brother bands and the British two-songwriter bands: Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, Fastball, off the top of my head.

There's also the female-female version of this, which is generally more, I guess, straightforwardly about an attraction between the singers? Like Indigo Girls, The Veronicas (twin sisters), Veruca Salt, The Ditty Bops.

Then there's the '00s indie boy-girl vocals thing, which I don't know that much about. The XX, Stephin and Claudia of Magnetic Fields, that Gotye guy (because Australia is always five years behind the rest of the world)?

Then you could do a list of rap duos built around the interplay of two voices, Cyprus Hill being the main one?

Since I'm into Kpop now, I'll mention some Korea groups that fall into this mold (usually with one RnB singer, one rapper): Fly to the Sky, One Two, JJ Project, Tasty, GD & TOP. Either they are brothers or they are "close like brothers".

The Blood Brothers. One high-pitched squealer, one raunchier, lower-pitched screamer. Both occasionally attempt actual "singing," with varying degrees of success. Pretty complex interplay at times, with duelling sets of complex lyrics occurring simultaneously, if not often what could be considered "harmonizing."

happy to see spacecadet mentioned prolapse so i didn't have to

the prids, and similarly mates of state, where both singers are often in unison

Nu-metal-meets-Depeche-Mode example: Linkin Park!

that Gotye guy (because Australia is always five years behind the rest of the world)?

if you weren't five years behind Australia you might know that all of his songs apart from one written as a duet have one or fewer singers

Tears For Fears

early Lemonheads

Wild Beasts are maybe my favourite two-singers band at the moment, because they’ve got two such extravagant singers, and they’re not afraid to unleash either of them, whilst, at the same time, also knowing when to use them subtly. There’s a lot less of the whooping abandon of Two Dancers on Smother, but their voices are still both tremendously sensual. Sometimes one will sing a whole song alone, and other times they sign different parts, trading lines or verses, or one taking over for a chorus. Hayden’s is a fragile, glass-made thing like a decadent, delicate sculpture of Anthony Hegarty’s intonation, and Tom’s is a chestier, sourdough concoction, somewhere between David Sylvain, Paul Heaton, and Guy Garvey. Both are capable of whooping yelps of pleasure or pain, of dazzling skips across and beyond your expectations. I suspect the vocal tools at Wild Beasts’ disposal have seriously influenced their sound; they could never in a million years make music like Oasis. When the two of them sing together, properly dueting with each other, I swoon. Live, they don’t just trade vocal lines, but also instruments, each playing bass and guitar and keys (and possibly other stuff too).

Dolly & Porter
Tammy & George
Loretta & Conway

Mullican & Nesbit
Peters & Lee
Foster & Allen

Mulligan and O'Hare

... obv. an amalgam of

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4115/4793304556_1e5620358b.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6126Z4sXGWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Let me not be the one who mentions Abba.

What I'm getting from the OP is those bands where two singers switch off for a 50/50 or 60/40 split. "Oh, this is a Bob song, I like the Grant songs." or "I'm more of a Joe guy though the Mick songs are okay."

Even though the Beatles are discounted because George popped in on each side, it's still a John/Paul band. I guess the criteria could be "Can you make two mixtapes with one vocalist on one side and the other on the other?"

Oh, here's one that hasn't been mentioned: Uncle Tupelo. I remember trying to cobble together a mix tape back in the mid90s of tracks from A.M. and Trace, trying to make another UT album. Kinda worked, kinda didn't.

Here's my quickie. Where you at, dmr?

http://open.spotify.com/user/pplains/playlist/1cAqnCc620p9BTwdT4IERJ

The Ramones (1 Joey, 2 Whoever's on Bass)

This could go on forever.

I still can't quite tell which ZZ Top songs Dusty Hill sings.

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, October 25, 2012 9:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Going Down to Mexico, parts of Heard it on X, Tush,Apologies to Pearly, Balinese etc. he's got a higher voice than Gibbons

Grateful Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIs5StN8J-0

I can't think of many bands with a male and female singer who I really like. Royal Trux maybe? Quasi I used to like too. B&S as well... actually no this is bullshit...

It should be pretty obvious by now that the point of this thread isn't "just list a load of bands with two singers" because that's something any idiot could do and not interesting in the slightest.

Thanks for finally bringing that 11th Commandment down, Moses.

Please don't just list them; write a sentence or two describing how they work together

^^^ Original poster. I mean fascinating as just going 'Low' is...

Guy song more than Ian in Fugazi, when you count em up

I still can't quite tell which ZZ Top songs Dusty Hill sings.

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, October 25, 2012 9:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Going Down to Mexico, parts of Heard it on X, Tush,Apologies to Pearly, Balinese etc. he's got a higher voice than Gibbons

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Friday, October 26, 2012 8:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I never feel guilty about reposting this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq7z3j-8L04

Looking at Husker Du footage, it annoys me how much the other seems to have to butt in with unnecessary backing vocals.

Has anyone mentioned Slowdive yet?

In metalcore/post-hardcore/screamo, two vocalists is very much A Thing. I could probably name upwards of two dozen bands where one dude does the screaming and guttural death metal growling on the verses, while a second dude does the choirboy crooning of the choruses. In fact, it's so much A Thing that there's critical shorthand for it in the genre - it's called "good cop/bad cop" vocals.

I was about to mention Sum 41, but I was really thinking about 311.

There's a lot of this in pop too, I'm thinking of Take That and working downwards from there, but nobody seems to have mentioned that kind of Girls Aloud / Boyzone thing. It's not exactly hip and trendy but it does count. :)

More than two singers in most cases though. And often only one 'good' one...