It Just Takes Two

I was at a Bob Dylan show the other day, watching the mean old sonofabitch ruin his back catalogue in the usual blurt and mumble style that any review of the last 10 years would have let you know about in advance. It was expected, and as I didn’t exactly fork out the 45 bones for entry, I guess I couldn’t complain too much (though I did).

Apart from his heinous vocal delivery, the other thing that stuck in my craw was the musicians that he had surrounded himself with. In the same way that Jools Holland joins his guests and ruins their vibe with his soulless, glossy, unbearably ‘on the ball’ piano plonkin’, Zimmerman’s boys were just too slick to stick! With no character to their playing, the beautiful eccentricities of old Bobby’s raw classics were sanded, varnished, polished and placed in history’s cabinet next to Stevie Wonder’s talent and Iggy Pop’s soul.

As the house lights went up and Dylan’s hardcore fans jostled with the truth, I found myself comparing his band of hired guns to some of the scuzziest club bands that have fired me full of electricity each time I’ve dropped a needle on their wax or wrestled at the front of one of their shows. If a band of 6 over proficient musicians, with an envious catalogue of songs to choose from, can fail so miserably, how can a ramshackle 2 piece band like Death From Above 1979 blow your mind with 2 instruments and 10 songs to choose from?

Because less is more, punk’s not dead and all your heroes are pricks!! So, in tribute to those great bands in vans, trawling the toilet circuit and putting the legends to shame, I give you my Top 5 Favourite 2 Piece Bands!

Lightning Bolt

The first time I saw Lightning Bolt, my skeleton almost collapsed. Dig this! Two guys, Bass and Drums, The Bass has two banjo strings, is set to a standard cello tuning and played through a bevy of overdrive and pitch shifters. The drummer/singer, wears a bastardized Mexican wrestler’s mask with the microphone from an old telephone stitched in to the mask and stuffed into his mouth. They sneaked to the back of the hall as the support band was finishing their last song, set up their kit and PA on the floor behind the audience and within 5 seconds of the support act finishing, were blasting their semi improvised noise fury at 11, as wild eyed kids crashed over the kit, getting their fingers smashed on the floor tom and their minds blown out of their assholes!

Black Diamond Heavies

Rolling steady and bug eyed out of Nashville, Tennessee, with bourbon on the breath, fire in the blood and gospel in their hearts, Black Diamond Heavies play the devils music like angels high on junk and sorrow. Standing shoulder to shoulder, Vocalist and Organist John Wesley Myers and drummer Van Campbell walk the land playing the kind of southern fried fury blues that shakes the room and turns your girl into a slut.

Zombi

Coming over like Jan Hammer on a bad acid trip, Zombi hail from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and trade in some seriously intense space prog. I caught them supporting metal behemoths Isis a few years back and was blown away by the stirring intensity of their eerie space rock compositions. Their album ‘Surface to Air’ is one of the finest (only) instrumental prog-rock mini albums I’ve ever stolen.

Blood Red Shoes

Post punk rockers with some superior stoner riffs and the kind of Boy/Girl chemistry that make The White Stripes look like Ike and Tina after a long night of domestic ruttin! Sharing vocals between them, these Brightoners are a serious road machine! You could probably turn around now and they’d be playing a show behind you.

Two Gallants

Rough and tender alt-blues from San Francisco, Two Gallants write rasping murder ballads for those bored of the Bad Seeds. Hoarse vocals, thundering drums and a drifter mentality, these guys have written a stone cold anthem in their one chart scraper ‘Steady Rolling’. If you do a search on youtube, you’ll see an interesting clip of Texan cop breaking up one of their shows and tasering the drummer and some fans. You can’t pay for that kind of fun!!