Evidently, sometimes it does take two to make things go right, as the song and its famous simulations once said. There aren’t too many memorable two-person bands in musical history, but I culled the best in a curious gallery. Here’s two for the road. Tune in, double up, rock out to rest of them at Metromix.
No Age
(Photo: Ed Templeton)
A comparatively new two-bodied beast straight outta downtown Los Angeles, drummer Dean Spunt and guitarist Randy Randall are skateboard punks of a whole new breed. As the beautifully noisy No Age, they compose shotgun blasts of spine-shaking experimental rock.
From their wide-ranging 2007 debut, “Weirdo Rippers,” to their ambitiously loud 2008 full-length, “Nouns” and to their forthcoming effort Everything in Between, due out from Sub Pop in September, No Age have shattered the sonic ceiling when it comes to what’s expected from a two-person group. Randall and Spunt can create dense patterns of often hypnotic punk noise using only their four skinny arms.
The White Stripes
When it comes to the most popular two-person bands of all time, it’s probably only the venerable Everly Brothers, who barraged the charts with hits between 1957 and 1964, that can offer a challenge to Jack and Meg’s White Stripes.
The Detroit-bred duo built a buzzing head of steam with early efforts like their self-titled 1999 debut and 2000’s “De Stijl.” After the masterfully loud “Elephant” dropped in 2003, Jack soothed his bigger-band itch by forming the Raconteurs and the Dead Weather, and showing up in films like “Cold Mountain” and “Coffee and Cigarettes.”
But his lovechild with Meg still churned out two albums, “Get Behind Me Satan” and “Icky Thump,” and they’re working on another as you read this.
The Black Keys
(Credit:James Carney)
Their last effort, “Attack and Release,” was a cerebral mash of Akron-based Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney’s postmodern blues, and remix specialist Danger Mouse’s atmospheric production. But the skillful Keys are settling back into their their two-person grooves on “Brothers,” released in May by Nonesuch Records.
From their 2002 debut “The Big Come Up” to rousing subsequent releases like “Thickfreakness” and “Rubber Factory,” Auerbach and Carney have stocked Hollywood, Madison Avenue and fandom’s eardrums with body-moving anthems. Times two. MORE @ METROMIX
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