In the past 3-4 years, the drummer duo has made a strong comeback to the mainstream, college campus and in the clubs. For once, more new music worth listening to.
In the mainstream are The White Stripes. In the college circuit are The Black Keys. In the clubs are The Benevento Russo Duo.
The bassless drum duo has made itself a nice little niche by returning to the scene as rawking raw and straight to the funky point. But you must understand though that The White Stripes did not start this nor did The Black Keys.
Drum Duos have been around for decades and in all styles of music:
Dizzy and Roach. Charlie and Leon Parker. Bill Bruford and Patric Moraz. John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham. Cecil Taylor and Tony Williams.
Yet, all of the above were maybe just a session or one album. The Keys, Stripes and Duo have decided that - as a band - that is all they need, a drummer, guitar and or organ. They take it on the road and see how long they can survive as this small unit. They're succeeding too. I'm glad to hear these acts are growing and moving us into a new style of minimal but phat driving music - speaking as a drummer of course.
So have a listen.
The Black Keys feature a deep heavy rocking down and dirty blues feel.
The White Stripes are more mainstream but the cuts you never hear in the mainstream are the most interesting - believe me - The White Stripes can rock out with the best of them.
Benevento and Russo are for you people that are special - looking for something that you've never experienced before. The B3 in The Duo is the backbone and the soul of it all. It's like a sermon.
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Article comments
1 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Every band needs a bassist imo, add quite a bit to the bottom end. Oh yeah and it unfair on the drummer if there is not bassist. Who are they going to hang out with?
2 - Tim Hall
Isn't a bass player the missing link between a musician and a drummer?
3 - Eric Berlin
Tim - Are you implying that bassists and drummers aren't musicians? Do you only hold the front man (or woman) in this esteemed light?
Jim - I was amazed when I found out that The White Stripes were bass-less wonders -- I hadn't even realized it from the songs I had heard at that point.
Then I realized there are several strong examples of musical acts that drop a supposedly vital element, yet thrived nonetheless. The Doors, for example, eschewed a bass in favor of Ray Manzarak's glorious organ play. And more recently, Ben Folds Five did the unthinkable and worked the guitar right out of a rock and pop act, and have put out several great albums in the process.
I think the key is that there are no Ten Commandments in music, and if there are, they're made to be broken.
4 - Tim Hall
No, just a gratuitous lame drummer joke I've heard most of these from my brother, who was once in a local band that had a drummer who exactly fitted every drummer stereotype (and was a hopelessly bad drummer as well).
5 - Dave
Don't forget the Bill Bruford/Michiel Borstlap duo.
http://www.billbruford.com/news.html
6 - Andrew Ian Dodge
Or how about the Bissionette Bros? An awesome rythmn section if there every wants one.
As one drummer told me, the reason to have a bassist in the band is so there is someone who him to take the piss out of...course the bassist will say that is reason to have a drummer.
I have to admit to not really liking rock bands with no bass. I love the sound of a bass keeping the beat...it thickens up the bottom end and shows you were the song is going.
The keyboard instead of guitar is not that unusual...
Eric I think Tim was being funny. Best drummer joke.
How can you tell there is a drum at the stage door?
A: The knocking isn't in time and he doesn't know when to come in...
7 - //kikbwoy//@!
Hound Dog Taylor & The Houserockers are
the greatest bassless band ever.It isn't
even missed.
On The Doors tracks w/o bass, Manzarek
did a Jimmy Smith type thing and filled
in the bottom end with foot pedal work.
Of course The Doors sounded better with
a bass IMO. Thinking particularly of the
bass line on L.A Woman. Which was played
by Jerry Scheff the bassist from Elvis'
TCB Band.
8 - Tom
A band can be perfectly successful without a bassist, but I think the issue is not that bands like the White Stripes don't have a bassist, it's that they aren't even filling that role with something else - organ, piano, whatever. The Stripes have a raw quality that can be appealing for a while, but I found the sound grew very tiresome pretty quickly. Personally, I like hearing the interplay and connection between bassists and drummers.
Make all the jokes you want about drummers, but a bad drummer can ruin a band (which is what happened with the White Stripes for me - I just couldn't take Meg's cringe-inducing, wandering sense, or lack thereof, of rhythm.)
9 - Mark Saleski
hey, this post lead me to discover that the very great Bruford/Moraz recording, Music For Piano and Drums, can be had from the Bill Bruford website.
i have an ancient cassette copy of the album and occasionally check back to see if it's available on amazon. it currently is but only as an import. a commenter bitched about the price and related the bruford website info.
dang, sometimes this internet thing is pretty cool.
10 - JaKe
Don't forget to check your local library. That's where I discovered my first Black Keys cd. Since then they've bought every one. If your library doesn't have it - ask them to buy it. Libraries are objective by law.
Jk
11 - Andrew Ian Dodge
One word of warning...if your band's bassist start eyeing the Stick you need to really worry :D
12 - SFC Ski
If you've ever heard what Tony Levin can do with The STick, you'd eat those words.
Some of the best bassists are those that play least, while other bands would be nowhere without the bass, imagine MOtown ithout Jamerson, imagine just about every new wave record between '80 to '89, you gotta have it.
Some bands don't NEED a bass player, I am a bassist who loves the White Stripes, and bass would add nothing more than a bottom end to Jack's 3 chord thrashing (not that his thrashing is a bad thing in any way).
THanks for the tip on the Black KEys, I will have to look them up.
13 - Andrew Ian Dodge
I have heard Tony Levin with the Stick. The gag I hear from bassists is that he is the only one who can actually play the bloody thing. Probably over-stating a wee bit, but I do find it amusing.
14 - uhm
the band does have a bass player..
for example.. in the song (hardest button 2 button) you can easily hear the bass riff which plays during the drum solos. which also is played at the same time the main guitar riff is played. so its either added into the trak for the effect or they have a secret bass player. I'm guessing its that red haired girl that is in a couple of their music videos.
15 - Tom Johnson
No, the White Stripes do not have a bassist. It's a two-person band. Two minutes of searching on the internet would inform you.
This is three years late, but as for Tony Levin, he's like the figurehead for Stick players, but there are many other, better players. Sean Malone, of Cynic, Gordian Knot, and his own solo material, is simply incredible. Trey Gunn is probably the most adventurous player (he used to play Stick but plays Warr Guitar now, but the principle is the same.)
16 - Mark
the stripes actually record some of their songs with basslines, and for their live shows jack actually uses a pedal which adds another lower-octave layer to his guitar which sounds just like bass
so dont tell me u dont need bass players... they are the link between the guitar and the drums..
listen to muse and tell me if u still think that bassists aren't musicians
17 - NOODLE
GET A GRIP [personal attack deleted] UR OPINION ISNAE WORTH 2 FUCKS
18 - Simon Beck
Actually, Ray Manzarek DIDN'T use organ pedals; he had a special Fender Rhodes bass keyboard on top of his Vox (later Gibson) organ and he played the bass lines on it with his left hand.
19 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
I have played in a project without bass but it was an experiment of sorts. Without Bass, I feel, you can easily run out of ideas. The funny thing is that,nowadays, A Bass guitarist may not need a band.
Two years late, but I would have to agree with Tom Johnson though I would say that Michael Manring would bass circles around anybody & is the most inventive,creative & talented bassist on the planet...Hands Down - No,seriously, hands down! There is no need to type anything in response. What?! You don't believe me?? Check out this or this
20 - Matt
A band doesn't need a bass-like to make music. They need something bass-like to make GOOD music. And whats the deal with saying that bassists and drummers arent real musicians. Ive been playing drums for 11 years, and drums, are most likely the most important part of a band. A band is only as good as its drummer
21 - jkdrummer
It's not a band until the drummer shows up.
22 - Me
OVER-SUPER-DUPER-RATED band. I really WANT to like them but I just want to slap them both in the end. He may be fearless and kinda fun to watch but so is every musician when they're in the "garage band" stage. She is just plain boring and couldn't drum her way out of a middle school choir practice. Her voice? Meh. Zero passion and ZERO presence. They're raw; I get it. But who cares? My little musical high school was full of kids (years ago) just like these guys. It's not that hard to do. They do stand for something but they sure as hell don't deserve a friggin' documentary. Yes, I'm a musician... for nearly 25 years. No; I'm not famous nor do I care. Too much BS for me to deal with even IF my music ever developed more of a following. Do they need a bass player? Maybe. It wouldn't help the quality of their work but it would make it sound less hollow. Again, I want to like them. I want to be able to say they represent something. In the end, there's just so much bad mainstream crap out there that the White Stripes, sigh, represent something more than they really deserve to represent.
23 - Granny
I really can't stand it when people say bass is 'pointless, you can't hear it' etc...
It just indicates an utter lack of knowledge about the intrument.
24 - Neonknight
Some of the White Stripe songs have bass guitar on their records.
25 - Alan Kurtz
I don't know Who Needs A Bass Player, but author Jim Knapp needed an education in music history when he wrote this article.
¶¶4-5 states, "Drum Duos have been around for decades and in all styles of music: Dizzy and Roach. Charlie and Leon Parker."
Dizzy and Roach? At AllMusic.com, Scott Yanow reviews Max & Dizzy: Paris 1989: "This double-CD set is a big mistake. Teaming drummer Max Roach and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie together as a duo might have worked had it taken place 20 years earlier when Dizzy was still in his musical prime. However the immortal players did not even discuss what they were going to play beforehand and the result is a series of rambling sketches, essentially a long drum solo with occasional trumpet interludes that are full of clams."
Charlie and Leon Parker? Saxophonist Charlie Parker died on March 12, 1955. Percussionist Leon Parker was born August 21, 1965. How could Leon have formed a drum duo with a dead man?