Playing bass and singing lead?

Ooh cool, hadn’t heard of her! I like the mix of super-gnarly-fast synth bass and the vintage-y Jazz bass pops.

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Tina Weymouth!

If you’ve never seen them (or Talking Heads) live, yes, Chris Frantz really is the chattiest drummer evar :slight_smile:

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There is a new Tal Wilkenfeld record out, where she apparently is also singing now (apart from playing the bass) - might be worth checking out!

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Michael Steele…played bass and was Lead singer for the Runaways early on…also on some non Bangles sounding songs she wrote, led and played. Maybe some Crash Wisdom songs also? Also some covers like “I’m not Talking”.

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Geddy Lee, Sting, Paul McCartney, and Kip Winger are the ones I can think of.

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Hi there! Jean Millington of the awesome 70s all female band “FANNY” plays bass and sings lead.

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Kim Gordon often sings lead.

Kim Deal did occasionally.

I think I got Tina Weymouth above :slight_smile:

And of course, Kiyoshi.

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Tal Wilkenfeld didn’t use to sing much, but now she does more routinely:

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Whoa. She opened for The Who? That’s awesome.

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Yeah, she also played with Jeff Beck when she was, like, 19!

It is a bit of an “infamous” video because of how the contours of the bass and the contours of her body, uhm, line up nicely :rofl::joy:

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Tal Wilkenfield is amazing. At 20 her career was already more than most musicians could ever dream of and now, at 33, she doesn’t show any sign of slowing down.

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@florian Welcome to the BassBuzz forum! When you have time, join us on the Introduce Yourself! thread.

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Oh My she is awesome. If anyone wants me I will be over on spotify!

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every time i think of the tiny hands excuse (that i use all the time) i think of all these tiny girls just killing it.

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Two already mentioned but too good not to share:

Sheryl Crow:

Esperanza Spalding - I hate jazz so I’m not a massive fan but this song is an exception and this version is perfection:

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Just had a couple of others spring to mind.

Shingai Shoniwa of the Noisettes! Don’t know why I forgot her (ironic considering!), love the band. - She is the lead vocalist AND does play bass although for whatever reason does not tend to do both live very often (I think she prefers to focus on the perfomance/theatre). I’ve found one video though (and she does have her bass in the Never Forget You music video too):

HONORABLE MENTION: Fumi - Polysics - She’s not the lead singer, but here singing the supporting vocals whilst playing flat out. Absolutely electric:

Gina Birch from the Raincoats:

Laura Lee from Khruangbin - I’m not personally a massive fan of the band (just one Youtube recommendations keeps pushing on me!) but it’s fairly chill. Does it count as lead vocals if they all sing at the same time?:

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:heart:Polysics.

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Killer list. Thanks for the great update to the post!

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And one more…

Only stumbled on this recently but the chorus felt incredibly familiar. Turns out it was in Donnie Darko which does have an incredible soundtrack.

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Humorous fact: Alain Jourgensen (Ministry, Revolting Cocks, etc) claims she wrote that song about him :slight_smile: