Two Drummers Drumming

 

This week I saw Redd Kross on their current tour with Melvins.  Dale Crover and Steve McDonald are doing double duty as the rhythm section for both bands.  Melvins are touring as a quartet, with two drummers (Dale and Coady Willis).  Thus the inspiration for today's post: bands with two (or more) drummers.  

There's something visceral about seeing and hearing two drummers playing.  Dale and Coady were sometimes locked in sync; at other times, they alternated as "lead" drummer or played off each other with separate but complementary drum parts.  

Two drummers playing together is a feat of athleticism as well as musicianship.  It's been done in jazz and prog rock, but also by the Grateful Dead, Allman Brothers, the Glitter Band, Wizzard, Adam & The Ants, and The Fall.  There are live videos from 1983 of The Fall playing Smile, Garden, and Tempo House with Karl Burns and Paul Hanley that -- even to this day -- can cause the Dutch to weep, in four languages at least.  

Here are 20 songs from groups which included two or more drummers.  Some were temporary lineups, as when Fugazi added a second drummer to several songs on their final album, or when Pere Ubu had both Scott Krauss and Chris Cutler on drums.  Sadly, nothing today from the Four Goddamn Girl Drummers, but we've got everything from God to Gnod.  It's fitting that the compilation ends with House Of All, which now include three goddamn Fall drummers (Karl Burns, Paul Hanley, and Simon Wolstencroft).  

ELSEWHERE ON THE BLOG: more MX-80, Ubu, and The Mighty Fall.