Two Bassists in a band

[underwhelmist]

Several posters have mentioned Peter Hook and The Light, where his son Jack takes over in bass while Hooky is singing. However Hooky also had a short lived project called Freebass which (clue is in the name) featured three bassists - hooky, Andy Rourke (The Smiths) and Mani Mountfield (The Stone Roses and Primal Scream).

 

[otp57]

I am just throwing this out there out of curiosity. Some bands have two drummers like the Grateful Dead all the way to Lawrence Welk and other groups in between. Does anyone know of bands that had two bassist? Would it work? Thanks

If one bass is good 2 are over the top or is it the bottom.

 

[Dincrest]

I was going to mention Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Cop Shoot Cop, but was beaten to it.

So I'll contribute a band that's no longer around, but wanted no guitarists/just bassists because they thought guitarists were primadonnas whereas bassists are more generous musicians.

They were called Switchblade Kittens.

Switchblade Kittens

 

[devnulljp]

the omnific is a trio with two bassists. Interesting stuff.

That was kinda interesting, although I don't see the point. They're playing in unison the whole time?
Also, what is that sound called? That super hi-fi, mechanical, compressed, glossy sound? I hate it.

How about Dumpstaphunk? Two bassists.

 

[Lesfunk]

When I saw James Brown he had two drummers and two bass players

Stanley Clarke too

 

[J Wilson]

Gee, that might be a thing, there's me and then they could hire someone REALLY good to pair me with.

 

[deesonic]

The Melvins line up with Jeff Pinkus and Steve MacDonald on bass. I think Ned's Atomic dustbin is the best example of two basses in a band IMO.

I just booked Pinkus to play a show at the brewery I manage. Of course he's playing banjo these days.

In the final days of Sonic Youth they used two basses live on occasion. Kim would go back and forth between guitar and bass and Mark Ibold (Pavement) played bass full time.

 

[SDC1-ClickClack]

Back in the late 1980s, the sadly-also-late Richie Häss, who primarily played vibes, marimba, and drums, briefly led an L.A.-based band consisting of (I think) 6 to 12 bass players and a drummer. The group's name was the best part: The Free Bass Ensemble. I don't recall much about their setlist other than the song I thought worked the best: the old James Brown tune, "Night Train." They had arranged it so the melody and the horn parts were distributed among the various players.

Proof that I did not hallucinate this: The free bass ensemble

At the one gig of theirs that I attended, they were on the same bill with an all-trombone band led by Bruce Fowler, called The Enormous Bones. At soundcheck before the gig, both bands decided to join forces for an encore number and quickly worked up an arrangement of "We Are The World." (It was the 80s. Or maybe 1990?)

Ahh.... good times.

 

[Fynn]

I am just throwing this out there out of curiosity. Some bands have two drummers like the Grateful Dead all the way to Lawrence Welk and other groups in between. Does anyone know of bands that had two bassist? Would it work? Thanks

I have seen something like this before, but I don't remember the name of the band anymore.
Whether it works depends on how you arrange the music. Bass has quite alot of range. If you then give each bassist their own sonic space, then that would surely work just fine. They could be playing harmonies, or maybe one is playing slap and has a very percussive sound, while the other one has a more traditional role as a bassist.
They just have to find a way to get out of eachothers way sonically speaking.

 

[BigJohnAZ]

Definitely not a fulltime thing but a friend posted up pics of the Styx show and they ran 4 and 5 string dual basses on a couple songs.
Link Removed

They typically bring Chuck towards the end for a few tunes, every now and then he'll play his Ricky.

 

[Plake]

Ned's Atomic Dustbin - Grey Cell Green

Great album.

 

[DJ Bebop]

 

[LBS-bass]

Tony Levin on bass and Trey Gunn playing Chapman stick and Warr guitar; neither of those is really a bass, but are quite close related.

They are instruments that represent the bass register so I would certainly consider them basses in that context .

 

[Dincrest]

I don't know if this was mentioned yet, but this is a cool song with Rob Wasserman (upright bass), Les Claybool (electric bass), and Chris Whitley (guitar). I remember in an interview, Wasserman said he approached his basslines like it was a horn part, which allowed Whitley and Claypool to really play around.



Here's another one from that same album, where Rob Wasserman jammed with bassist Willie Dixon and drummer Al Duncan. "You play high and I play you, and we both know where to go."

 

[hieronymous]

My personal favorite two-bass band is Magma - usually just one bassist (Francis Moze, Jannik Top, & Bernard Paganotti being my favorites) but for a while in the late '70s there were two - this is a great example from the album Attahk:



In fact, the two figures on the cover (ÜrGon and GorGo minus the Kobain diacriticals) are the bassists! ÜrGon is credited with "Earth bass" and GorGo with "Air bass" - a distinction I love, it is so descriptive of the roles bass can play.

 

[vdbass]

I am just throwing this out there out of curiosity. Some bands have two drummers like the Grateful Dead all the way to Lawrence Welk and other groups in between. Does anyone know of bands that had two bassist? Would it work? Thanks

Black Sheep who had one or two hits "Live and Learn" and ???

Rick James & The Stone City Band. Rick and Oscar Alston played bass.

Bootsy's Rubber Band. Bootsy sometimes has a backup bassist

 

[TerribleTim68]

...
Every NAMM bass booth
...

5 pages so far and this was literally the best answer.

 

[SDC1-ClickClack]

...
Every NAMM bass booth
...

5 pages so far and this was literally the best answer.

Agreed, although I kept expecting someone to post "Jaco didn't need a 2nd bassist."

 

[MisterUbu]

I think early swans had two bass players, but their music is more or less a brutal texture than really anything that's technically minded

(this one the two bass players are more distinctly heard)

 

[RevOgre]

Ned's Atomic Dustbin