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Bands with more than one bass player

#141
Johnny Fingers said:
We know of groups with two drummers, several guitar players, keyboards, horns, and singers. But are there any with two bass players? One could low ball and the other could treble out so as not to make it a Mud Run. Double double bass orchestra players at In N Out doable?
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Back in the 40's and 50's it was very common to have 1 upright bass and and a 2nd electric baritone bass playing what was called "Tic Tac" bass -- the 2nd guy would twin the upright player, usually note-for-note, to provide more of an 'attack' and edgy sound to the deep mellow sounds of the upright. Not seen much these days.
 
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#142
rholler said:
Back in the 40's and 50's it was very common to have 1 upright bass and and a 2nd electric baritone bass playing what was called "Tic Tac" bass -- the 2nd guy would twin the upright player, usually note-for-note, to provide more of an 'attack' and edgy sound to the deep mellow sounds of the upright. Not seen much these days.
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Probably not all that necessary these days, since on the one hand audio systems (both pro audio and home/personal audio) are a whole lot better than they were 70 years ago so the bass is more audible, and on the other hand we can use effects pedals (or an 8-string double-course electric bass for players who want to stay organic) to fill the space when we want to.

But there's still a significant difference between one person with an octaver and two people playing an octave apart, so the old way of doing it will continue to be distinct and interesting in its own right.
 
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#144
Peteyboy said:
Talking Heads lineup included Tina Weymouth and Busta Jones for the Remain in Light tour.
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I believe on some other tours as well. This was the first group that popped into mind.

For bands that used two basses on one song live, add Blue Oyster Cult, at least back in the "On Your Feet or On Your Knees" tour days. Might have been M.E. 262. All 5 members were playing guitar or bass.

I was watching a video of a band just the other day with two bass players, but it was someone I wasn't familiar with, and now I can't recall them. 8^(

I've occasionally jammed with another bass player in a pickup band, and love it.
 
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#147
I used to play bass in a hardcore and noiserock influenced math rock band called Menfolk that had a line up including 2 bass players.

I had the role as sort of the "lead" bass and utilized a brighter tone, where the other bass player had a more traditional supporting bass role.

We all took parts in composing the songs and I came up with most of my own bass parts, as well as I contributed to some of the lyrics as well, though the main lyrics writer was the guitarist/vocalist and the main composer and sort of unofficial band leader was the drummer.

However I left the band after our second release on a small independent record label named Play/Rec that some of our friends owned, a split EP with the band Barra Head, 4 tracks on each side by the 2 bands respectively, the first release being a split single with the band The Unit, where Menfolk featured with 2 tracks on one of the sides.

I still regret leaving though the band broke up long ago by now, but it among other thing made me miss the chance to play at Scandinavian's biggest rock festival, the Roskilde Festival, where Menfolk played shortly after the release of their first full length album, on which I contributed to a couple of the compositions but didn't record anything for.

Here you can listen to all the releases by Menfolk : Menfolk

And here's the 4 tracks from the "Are We Enemies" EP (starting at the title track, the 2nd track of the album (where I by the way wrote the sort of funky hook riff that the guitar starts out playing and that I then join in on later in the song. And I wrote the lyrics for the last, 4th, track too), so if you want to hear from the start you have to click the arrows back to the 1st track) :


And here's probably my 2 personal favorite Menfolk tracks overall, I wrote most of what one of the basses play on the first of these 2 tracks, though the guy who took over after me is the one who actually played it on the recording, and me having had nothing to do with the second track, both from Menfolk's first full length album "Colossus" :

 
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#149
knumbskull said:
I love how this subject comes up every so often, and the answers are usually a mixture of either gentle old school 60s pop music, or bonkers modern noise rock bands with a bunch of feedback and screaming - and very little in between…
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Don't forget the bonkers modern 60s free jazz - Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz was already mentioned, John Coltrane's Ascension (recorded 65, released 66) also has two bassists - Jimmy Garrison & Art Davis



He also experimented with two bassists earlier, like on alternate versions of India at the Village Vanguard in 61.
 
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#150
Erik Turkman said:
I seem to remember that Stanley Clarke did some stuff where he had another bass player in his band.
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Yep. A lot of well known bassists played on quite a few of Stanley's mid-career albums. Abe Laboriel, Louis Johnson, Jimmy Earl, Armand Sabal-Lecco and so on. Most of those works, Stanley's not really doing what you'd want from a bass player anyway.
 
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#151
rholler said:
Back in the 40's and 50's it was very common to have 1 upright bass and and a 2nd electric baritone bass playing what was called "Tic Tac" bass -- the 2nd guy would twin the upright player, usually note-for-note, to provide more of an 'attack' and edgy sound to the deep mellow sounds of the upright. Not seen much these days.
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Definitely not in the 40’s; while it was a notable technique, developed primarily by producer Owen Bradley and his guitar/bass playing brother Harold, and used most famously on Patsy Cline hits, its heyday was from roughly 1960 to ‘64 or so, when Nashville begrudgingly started to accept electric bass as the prefered sound. There were still baritone guitar solos, but that’s not the same thing. Used even less on west coast 60’s sessions, you could hear Danos or Fender VI over Fender 4-strings for flavor, like on this track…

…and of course the end solo on this; played by Glen on both tracks
 
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#152
Xjenrbcjsmsbfjw said:
Someone may have mentioned this, but I'm almost sure lynard skynard toured with two at one point. I don't think there were ever two 'in the band.' that being said, I'm no Skynardologist, and I can't find any video evidence.
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Then what are you saying? Leon Wilkeson left the band before recording the first album; guitarist Ed King was brought in to cover bass duties. Leon then had a change of heart, rejoined, with King going back to guitar, adding to Rossington and Collins for triple attack they were famous for, but no dual basses.
 
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#160
Here's 2 amazing fusion bands playing together (T-Square & Dimension) with a dual bass off (as well as dual guitar and sax solos but here's the bass solo)



For some reason it's hard to find the video of the concert T Square did with 3 bassist, pretty sure it was their 35th anniversary DVD. They have so many live videos though and some must have been taken off youtube.
 
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