Bands with two singers

oh yeah. meant to add "They are the only ones I can think of"

Everything But The Girl. I've always liked mixed-gender leads of this sort, sometimes combined and sometimes alternating. (The wikipedia infobox on this duo lists their genre as "alternative rock, new wave, sophisti-pop, lounge, trip hop, alternative dance, house, chill-out, dance, pop rock, ambient, electronic, smooth jazz, electro", which accurately if not concisely sums up their style)

Human League. Not all fans of this band liked when they added the two girls, but I think their deadpan vocals perfectly offset Phil Oakey's enthusiasm

Obv. more than two singers, but lots of early Beach Boys tracks used Brian/Mike lead-vocal tradeoffs to great effect, like "I Get Around" or "When I Grow Up".

Bongwater: Ann Magnuson took the lead on many songs, but I think they're at their best when Kramer sings with her.

Madness: Suggs & Chas Smash

Lots of 2 Tone stuff. Specials, Beat ...

ian matthews/sandy denny my favorite example of this, trading off within songs like meet on the ledge, bird on a wire

The Walkabouts

Sleater-Kinney

And then there's Sloan, where all four members are singers and songwriters, and Teenage Fanclub where there's three singers and songwriters,,,

Those are different animals, a la Fleetwood Mac, Drive-By Truckers, etc.

Xp To be honest I did think as I wrote my post "But these don't seem the same as other examples".

Playn Jayn been mentioned yet? They sang as a tag team, hadn't really seen anything like that before then saw Clint Eastwood and General Saint on something like Whatever You didn't Get the Keith Allen fronted music show in the early days of Channel 4 & the comparison was pretty close. I think they may have been a big influence.
Not sure how well known they are. First band I really followed.

Crass, Chumbawamba, Dirt, a bunch of the peace punk bands. Most of those tend to trade off songs as opposed to working together, though.

I think the Bangles had every combination of this.

I'm most intrigued when it's a band where most people assume there's only one lead singer, but there are actually two. Cars is the big one, but I think Urge Overkill are another tricky one. Have to think a bit about whether there are others...

I'm most intrigued when it's a band where most people assume there's only one lead singer, but there are actually two. Cars is the big one, but I think Urge Overkill are another tricky one. Have to think a bit about whether there are others...

I still can't quite tell which ZZ Top songs Dusty Hill sings.

This is a British tradition going back to the Beatles, right? Like the Libertines are the latest in a long and noble British tradition of groups with two songwriters who share vocal duties and have an ambiguous working relationship. Generally they both play guitars, too, so it's duelling-guitars and dueling-vocals. I can't remember the full list, but me and a friend drew it up once: Beatles-Clash-Kinks-Faces-Rockpile-Blur-Libertines. Generally with the interplay between the two songwriters being a major draw of the music.

Then there's brother bands in the US, who did a lot of close harmonizing where there's no "melody" and "harmony" vocals because it's both the melody: Louvin Brothers, Everly Brothers, Flying Burrito Brothers (who are however not actually brothers).

Then there's US groups inspired by, I guess, a combination of the US brother bands and the British two-songwriter bands: Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, Fastball, off the top of my head.

There's also the female-female version of this, which is generally more, I guess, straightforwardly about an attraction between the singers? Like Indigo Girls, The Veronicas (twin sisters), Veruca Salt, The Ditty Bops.

Then there's the '00s indie boy-girl vocals thing, which I don't know that much about. The XX, Stephin and Claudia of Magnetic Fields, that Gotye guy (because Australia is always five years behind the rest of the world)?

Then you could do a list of rap duos built around the interplay of two voices, Cyprus Hill being the main one?

Since I'm into Kpop now, I'll mention some Korea groups that fall into this mold (usually with one RnB singer, one rapper): Fly to the Sky, One Two, JJ Project, Tasty, GD & TOP. Either they are brothers or they are "close like brothers".

The Blood Brothers. One high-pitched squealer, one raunchier, lower-pitched screamer. Both occasionally attempt actual "singing," with varying degrees of success. Pretty complex interplay at times, with duelling sets of complex lyrics occurring simultaneously, if not often what could be considered "harmonizing."

happy to see spacecadet mentioned prolapse so i didn't have to

the prids, and similarly mates of state, where both singers are often in unison

Nu-metal-meets-Depeche-Mode example: Linkin Park!

that Gotye guy (because Australia is always five years behind the rest of the world)?

if you weren't five years behind Australia you might know that all of his songs apart from one written as a duet have one or fewer singers

Tears For Fears

early Lemonheads

Wild Beasts are maybe my favourite two-singers band at the moment, because they’ve got two such extravagant singers, and they’re not afraid to unleash either of them, whilst, at the same time, also knowing when to use them subtly. There’s a lot less of the whooping abandon of Two Dancers on Smother, but their voices are still both tremendously sensual. Sometimes one will sing a whole song alone, and other times they sign different parts, trading lines or verses, or one taking over for a chorus. Hayden’s is a fragile, glass-made thing like a decadent, delicate sculpture of Anthony Hegarty’s intonation, and Tom’s is a chestier, sourdough concoction, somewhere between David Sylvain, Paul Heaton, and Guy Garvey. Both are capable of whooping yelps of pleasure or pain, of dazzling skips across and beyond your expectations. I suspect the vocal tools at Wild Beasts’ disposal have seriously influenced their sound; they could never in a million years make music like Oasis. When the two of them sing together, properly dueting with each other, I swoon. Live, they don’t just trade vocal lines, but also instruments, each playing bass and guitar and keys (and possibly other stuff too).

Dolly & Porter
Tammy & George
Loretta & Conway

Mullican & Nesbit
Peters & Lee
Foster & Allen

Mulligan and O'Hare

... obv. an amalgam of

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4115/4793304556_1e5620358b.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/6126Z4sXGWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

Let me not be the one who mentions Abba.

What I'm getting from the OP is those bands where two singers switch off for a 50/50 or 60/40 split. "Oh, this is a Bob song, I like the Grant songs." or "I'm more of a Joe guy though the Mick songs are okay."

Even though the Beatles are discounted because George popped in on each side, it's still a John/Paul band. I guess the criteria could be "Can you make two mixtapes with one vocalist on one side and the other on the other?"

Oh, here's one that hasn't been mentioned: Uncle Tupelo. I remember trying to cobble together a mix tape back in the mid90s of tracks from A.M. and Trace, trying to make another UT album. Kinda worked, kinda didn't.

Here's my quickie. Where you at, dmr?

http://open.spotify.com/user/pplains/playlist/1cAqnCc620p9BTwdT4IERJ

The Ramones (1 Joey, 2 Whoever's on Bass)

This could go on forever.

I still can't quite tell which ZZ Top songs Dusty Hill sings.

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, October 25, 2012 9:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Going Down to Mexico, parts of Heard it on X, Tush,Apologies to Pearly, Balinese etc. he's got a higher voice than Gibbons

Grateful Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIs5StN8J-0

I can't think of many bands with a male and female singer who I really like. Royal Trux maybe? Quasi I used to like too. B&S as well... actually no this is bullshit...

It should be pretty obvious by now that the point of this thread isn't "just list a load of bands with two singers" because that's something any idiot could do and not interesting in the slightest.

Thanks for finally bringing that 11th Commandment down, Moses.

Please don't just list them; write a sentence or two describing how they work together

^^^ Original poster. I mean fascinating as just going 'Low' is...

Guy song more than Ian in Fugazi, when you count em up

I still can't quite tell which ZZ Top songs Dusty Hill sings.

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, October 25, 2012 9:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Going Down to Mexico, parts of Heard it on X, Tush,Apologies to Pearly, Balinese etc. he's got a higher voice than Gibbons

― One Way Ticket on the 1277 Express (Bill Magill), Friday, October 26, 2012 8:50 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I never feel guilty about reposting this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq7z3j-8L04

Looking at Husker Du footage, it annoys me how much the other seems to have to butt in with unnecessary backing vocals.

Has anyone mentioned Slowdive yet?

In metalcore/post-hardcore/screamo, two vocalists is very much A Thing. I could probably name upwards of two dozen bands where one dude does the screaming and guttural death metal growling on the verses, while a second dude does the choirboy crooning of the choruses. In fact, it's so much A Thing that there's critical shorthand for it in the genre - it's called "good cop/bad cop" vocals.

I was about to mention Sum 41, but I was really thinking about 311.

There's a lot of this in pop too, I'm thinking of Take That and working downwards from there, but nobody seems to have mentioned that kind of Girls Aloud / Boyzone thing. It's not exactly hip and trendy but it does count. :)

More than two singers in most cases though. And often only one 'good' one...