Comments on: What bands have drummers as lead singers?

Question: What bands have drummers as lead singers?

awegz — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:11:15 -0800

What bands have a drummer as a/the lead singer?

After a few drinks at a street festival this weekend, this question came up and we're having a miserable time trying to come up with examples other than Genesis and the Eagles. I think the heat has fried my Google skills.

By: maxreax

maxreax — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:12:36 -0800

Levon Helm, of the Band, had a beautiful voice and used it often. But the Band had three world-class rock singers in it, so it may not count.

By: Venadium

Venadium — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:13:59 -0800

Underoath is one... can't think of any others at the moment.

By: nixxon

nixxon — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:14:32 -0800

Georgia from Yo La Tengo sings on some of their songs.

By: fireflies to stars

fireflies to stars — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:14:36 -0800

Mates of State-- two vocalists who sing pretty much all the time; one plays organ and the other drums.

By: macadamiaranch

macadamiaranch — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:16:49 -0800

What about Ringo? Or do you want full-time lead singers as opposed to one-offs?

By: DandyRandy

DandyRandy — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:17:07 -0800

Dave Clark 5
Gary Lewis & The Playboys

By: yellowbinder

yellowbinder — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:18:03 -0800

Janet Weiss, drummer of Sleater-Kinney, also drums and occasionally provides lead vocals for Quasi.

By: ed\26h

ed\26h — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:20:46 -0800

The Beastie Boys might qualify.

By: awegz

awegz — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:21:10 -0800

I was thinking more full-time lead singers. If he/she shared the duty with another band member that would be A-OK. I think we ultimately decided Ringo didn't count (no offense, Ringo).

By: nadawi

nadawi — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:21:11 -0800

It doesn't really count, but Dave Grohl drummed for Nirvana and is the lead singer for Foo Fighters, so he's technically a drummer who is a lead singer.

By: LinnTate

LinnTate — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:22:50 -0800

Jian Ghomeshi shared lead vocals for Moxy Fruvous while playing snare and cymbal with brushes.

By: oneirodynia

oneirodynia — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:23:55 -0800

Karen Carpenter(the Carpenters) and Mickey Dolenz (the Monkees). Unless you are only trying to come up with current bands...

By: pazazygeek

pazazygeek — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:27:19 -0800

I know that The Romantic's big hit ("What I Like About You") was performed by their drummer, but I don't know if he was their full time lead singer or not. I remember the Bangles having a tune that the drummer sang, I don't know if she ever sang any others. I certainly can say with all certainty that she was not the lead singer, but when I was a kid I remember having serious confusion over who "the leader" of the Bangles was.

There's an awesome local band in Boston called The Konks, their lead singer is also their drummer, 100% of the time.

By: stavx

stavx — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:29:53 -0800

Wasn't the singer of Red Kross also the drummer--- at least I remember he was drumming on an upright kit in a video...I could be soooo wrong though.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:31:15 -0800

Yoshimi P-We sings (lead? Is there a lead?) on a bunch of Boredoms tracks.

By: thesiameseffect

thesiameseffect — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:31:29 -0800

Heavens to Betsy drummer, Tracy Sawyer sang on some of the songs. Corin Tucker did most of the singing though (Pre Sleater-Kinney).

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:31:45 -0800

New Radiant Storm King
The Gunga Din
Yo La Tengo
Papas Fritas

...and I know I'm missing several that I've seen.

By: jesourie

jesourie — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:32:44 -0800

Low's Mimi Parker is the band's drummer and shares equal lead-singer duties with guitarist Alan Sparhawk.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:33:45 -0800

The Lucksmiths!

<3<3<3

By: Schlimmbesserung

Schlimmbesserung — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:34:14 -0800

The dude from 3 Doors Down started out singing behind the kit.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:36:24 -0800

tim alexander, after leaving primus, went on to drum and eventually sing lead for Laundry.

By: The Michael The

The Michael The — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:38:04 -0800

Cowboy Mouth

Night Ranger

I think we can formulate a law here: "Don't let your drummer be a lead singer unless you want to suck."

By: raider

raider — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:38:28 -0800

Eagles (Don Henley)
Genesis (Phil Collins)

By: raider

raider — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:39:31 -0800

Oh. Duh.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:40:11 -0800

I think the problem is that if a drummer tries to sing while he's drumming, the physical movement of drumming will affect his voice negatively.

By: Monstrous Moonshine

Monstrous Moonshine — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:44:11 -0800

Magma!!
More info here.

By: box elder

box elder — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:46:36 -0800

Volcano Suns featured Peter Prescott (Mission of Burma's drummer) bangin' the cans and singin'.

By: gfrobe

gfrobe — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:47:08 -0800

Jellyfish

By: unlicensedarchitect

unlicensedarchitect — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:48:48 -0800

Death From Above 1979

By: Asbestos McPinto

Asbestos McPinto — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:49:21 -0800

Speaking of Magma, Tatsuya Yoshida of The Ruins does the double duty.

By: clh

clh — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:58:26 -0800

Max Weinberg and the Max Weinberg 7?
Although I guess Max doesn't do much actual singing.

By: cholly

cholly — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 14:59:11 -0800

Kram from Australian band Spiderbait sings wherever they have male vocals. Their female bass(?) player does the other vocals.

By: clarahamster

clarahamster — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:03:25 -0800

I remember the Bangles having a tune that the drummer sang, I don't know if she ever sang any others. I certainly can say with all certainty that she was not the lead singer, but when I was a kid I remember having serious confusion over who "the leader" of the Bangles was.

The Bangles' drummer (Debbi Peterson) does indeed sing lead vocals in several songs, including the singles "Going Down to Liverpool" and "Be With You," neither of which was terribly successful.

They actually didn't have a "lead singer," although Susanna Hoffs sang lead vocals on most of the hits. When they perform live, the lead guitarist (Vicki Peterson) does most of the talking.

By: chimmyc

chimmyc — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:04:22 -0800

The guys in Doves switch around instruments and vocal duties, but I've seen videos of one of them on the drums while singing. Spiderbait's vocalist is the drummer.

The band U.S.E. doesn't really have one vocalist they use for everything either, but here's a video of the drummer doing his thing that you might enjoy.

By: The Michael The

The Michael The — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:07:22 -0800

I think the problem is that if a drummer tries to sing while he's drumming, the physical movement of drumming will affect his voice negatively.

On top of the fact that most bands record vocals and instrumentation separately in the studio, I think that most of the bands here have larger problems than "poor singing."

By: davey_darling

davey_darling — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:12:17 -0800

I always cringe when I see bands that feature the drummer as the lead singer (esp. bar bands). It seems to me that it's terribly hard to look cool while singing and drumming at the same time.

Levon Helm of The Band did well (based solely on my viewing of Last Waltz).

I think it mainly has to do with microphone placement (and it's minus a million points if the drummer is wearing a headset mic).

By: fire&wings

fire&wings — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:14:05 -0800

Yeah, Jellyfish springs to mind.

By: turaho

turaho — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:16:52 -0800

The China Drum had a drummer who handled all vocal duties.

By: General Zubon

General Zubon — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:17:21 -0800

There's a fantastic three piece funk/acid jazz band from NYC called Tortured Soul whose drummer is also the full time singer. He's equally impressive as a drummer and a soulful vocalist. Also, the band performs their concerts live as if they were DJ sets ... that is, all of their songs flow/mix from one to the next. Thus, not only is this drummer belting it out vocally but he's also drumming non-stop for at least an hour. I have no idea how he doesn't just collapse at the end. Check them out if you have a chance ...

By: cillit bang

cillit bang — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:25:00 -0800

The Powerpuff Girls (couldn't find an English version)

By: M.C. Lo-Carb!

M.C. Lo-Carb! — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:33:08 -0800

Drummer Grant Hart of Husker Du handled half the songwriting/singing duties, IIRC.

By: futility closet

futility closet — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:37:15 -0800

From a Don Henley interview:

"I could stand out front and sing Eagles songs that I sing in my set, but I think people enjoy watching me sing and play the drums. It seems to fascinate people. I don't know why."

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:39:42 -0800

The Beat Farmers had Country Dick Montana until his untimely demise.

By: blackkar

blackkar — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 15:55:05 -0800

Taproot's drummer Jarrod sometime sings lead.

By: zzztimbo

zzztimbo — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:15:14 -0800

Sheila E

By: box elder

box elder — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:24:02 -0800

Another one is zZz. Organ, drums, and Amsterdam.

By: kimota

kimota — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:26:42 -0800

I think it's worth noting that Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish not only sang while drumming, he drummed standing up!

By: drstein

drstein — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:46:00 -0800

Night Ranger actually had two vocalists.. Kelly Keagy and Jack Blades.

Here's an opposite one: the old vocalist for Racer X left and became the drummer for Badlands.

By: ludwig_van

ludwig_van — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 16:46:54 -0800

I think it's worth noting that Andy Sturmer of Jellyfish not only sang while drumming, he drummed standing up!

So does Tali White from The Lucksmiths, judging from the photo in their wikipedia entry.

By: Tixylix

Tixylix — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:06:39 -0800

the Hard Ons

By: Terminal Verbosity

Terminal Verbosity — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 17:47:03 -0800

The Romantics!

What I like about you, you hold me ti-iiiiight.
Tell me I'm the only one, wanna come over ton-iiiiight
yea-uh

By: beerbajay

beerbajay — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:23:23 -0800

The Need

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:52:49 -0800

John Dittrich drums and sings lead for country group Restless Heart, and Canadian rock group Sloan has two members who play, Chris Murphy and Andrew Scott, but I can't say if either of them have sung lead while drumming.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 18:53:41 -0800

My old band Thred, which many of you all enjoyed over in Music.MeFi, featured the drummer on lead vocals most of the time, including that song.

By: sixacross

sixacross — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 19:25:35 -0800

Lightning Bolt

By: rfs

rfs — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 19:43:40 -0800

The Barbarians' drummer, who had a hook for one hand, sang the autobiographical song "Moulty". This uplifting song from 1966 is on Lenny Kaye's Nuggets anthology.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 19:45:53 -0800

Rare Earth.

God, I'm old.

By: coach_mcguirk

coach_mcguirk — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 23:02:53 -0800

Extremely silly London punk rock band Snuff.

Another London band - not particularly well known, but very good nonetheless - Stuffy/The Fuses. (Drummer and lead singer Stephen Gilchrist aka Stuffy also plays drums for ex Blur guitarist Graham Coxon, fact-fans)

Yorkshire folk-punks and train enthusiasts (I kid you not) Blyth Power.

By: pretzel

pretzel — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 00:26:21 -0800

Triumph

By: macdara

macdara — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 03:33:51 -0800

When Soundgarden started in 1984, Chris Cornell sang from the drumstool.

By: dame

dame — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 06:37:14 -0800

Japanther.

By: annoyance

annoyance — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:40:02 -0800

pop punk bands:
Sinkhole
Thirsty

ug, i know there are more...

By: Brando_T.

Brando_T. — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:03:25 -0800

Dirty on Purpose Check out their video at Youtube

By: Milkman Dan

Milkman Dan — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 14:03:16 -0800

Newsboys do. The head holler-er of the group, Peter Furler, was the band's drummer for a while, and still occasionally handles vox and stix at the same time. Or sometimes he'll sit down at another kit to have drum-solo battles. Or he'll keep the rhythm section going while the main drummer (Duncan Philips) goes up on their crazy rotating/tilting/drum riser that floats above the stage...wearing a seat belt...

By: turbodog

turbodog — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:41:56 -0800

Don't forget Peter Criss.

By: AlliKat75

AlliKat75 — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 13:42:43 -0800

Ummm...I'm horrified that I'm about to start this argument, but Mickey Dolenz wasn't the lead singer of The Monkeys. Davy Jones was the lead singer/tambourine player extraordinaire.