Bands with 2 bass players

I was in an experimental jam band and we had two bassists. I covered the bottom with fat sustain and chords. The other played up the neck more lead like..it was killer.

 

Me too - we traded off the bass roles and sometimes 'doubled' one or the other - every bass player should do this as it helps define the role each can have in an ensemble. I even had a one night performance ensemble called "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" where every instrument was a bass instrument (tuba, tympani drum, electric bass, upright bass, baritone guitar, bari-sax) and all improv with the concept of 'the ocean depths'.

 

Dumpstaphunk has two bass players.

 

Bands that have two bass players
Two bassists in a band?
Two bass players in a band

 

Maybe Ned’s atomic dustbin

 

One of my favorite local bands in the mid-80s was Paisley Jungle, a two-bass, no guitar band, though one of the basses was strung piccolo (or maybe higher).

I wish there was more of their stuff on YouTube. At least I still have their LP.

 

The "double trio" incarnation of King Crimson: 2 drummers, 2 guitars and 2 bassists (Tony Levin and Trey Gunn -- playing bass lines using various combinations of bass guitars, Warr guitars and Chapman Sticks...)?

 

Then there was Ornette Coleman's double quartet with both Charlie Haden and Scott LaFaro, most famously heard on the Free Jazz album.

 

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin is the band that immediately springs to mind. But there are also plenty of songs by The Cure that feature Simon Gallup on regular 4-string bass and Robert Smith or one of the other band members playing a Fender Bass VI (and in the case of “Primary,” just two P-basses, no guitar).

—mark

 

the ruins

 

James Brown

 

Makes me think of this video

 

Unfortunately I assure you no one here ever heard of us but years ago I had a punk band that experimented with having 2 bass players for a short time. I tend to write melodic lines anyway, so I just pushed my parts generally farther up the neck while the other guy tended to hold down the bottom. Of course at times we’d switch or both go low and really punch ‘em in the gut - maybe have him w/ distortion so there was still some delineation between parts.

Unfortunately that didn’t last long and we were soon back to a traditional line-up. I really enjoyed the challenge tho.

I hadn’t thought of that project for quite a while - writing about it now makes we kind of curious to try it again. I love the idea of challenging myself with a whole new set of restrictions and challenges. Def have to be very aware of what both parts are doing, or it can decend into bassy, wobbly trash very quickly.

Hmmm.....

 

Deadbolt! "Scariest band in the world" two bassists, same notes, the wall of thunder.