Jul 122021
Rock & roll is littered with lots of bands featuring brothers.
How many are there? Let’s find out with a Last Man Standing. Let’s not be exclusionary though. Sisters, brother & sister, parent and child are all allowed. That’s as far as we stretch though. No cousins twice removed or anything.
Oh, and they don’t have to have a love-hate relationship.
Bonus points for twins. I can only think of one of those [Ed – Oh, I think you’ll be sorry for your obvious oversight!] so I’ll put that out there to start the show and since they are twins I’ll show two videos (because I couldn’t decide on a favorite).
Thanks to Craig & Charlie Reid, I am the last man standing!
As always, don’t Bogart this thread. Please limit yourself to ONE ENTRY PER POST.
Oasis, as well as the Black Crowes.
Two brother groupings that both had legendary onstage fights. I think that the Black Crowes had one where one of them walked off stage mid concert and spent the rest of the gig heckling the band from the front row.
I also wanted to mention this one to flex that I’m going to see the Black Crowes in September.
Oh crap I accidentally submitted two in my eagerness to post. Sorry about that. I can’t figure out how to delete that but if anyone knows please let me know.
[garlic salt is forgiven for this first-time offense. If it happens again, he’ll get a 2-minute minor in the penalty box. – Mod]
Let’s get the low-hanging fruit out of the way. Jackson 5.
In honor of the Wilson’s Choice, I submit Heart.
Allman Bros.
The Ramones.
The Kinks.
The Cowsills. 7 siblings and the mom. If this was a Battle Royale, I’d be walking away with the belt right now
The Isley Brothers.
Jack and Meg White. jk!
Steve and Muff Winwood from the Spencer Davis Group
SO MANY
I’ll start with the elder Finn Brothers, Tim and Neil of Split Enz and Crowded House.
Wilson Phillips
Dire Straits
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Younger Finn brothers, Elroy and Liam, now members of Crowded House.
Everly Bros.
The Osmonds
I thought i had a winner in the Battle Royale category with The Shaggs – 4 sisters, a brother, and a nephew. Alas that’s only 6 – 5 without the illegal for these purposes nephew – and not all at the same time anyway.
Still, I am LMS!
The Bee Gees, including a set of TWINS!
LMS!
Kings of Leon are three brothers and a cousin.
Five Stairsteps
Carl Perkins’ band featured his brother Jay.
As Marshall Crenshaw’s band had his brother Robert on drums.
The was an excess of Farriss brothers in INXS.
I just read that the oldest INXS brother Tim Farriss lost a finger and badly cut other fingers in a boating accident a few years ago. He can’t play guitar any more due to the damage.
The Magic Numbers are two brother/sister pairs.
That was so sad about Tim Farriss, I hate stories like that.
Mr Mod I can honestly say that I didn’t realize the Bee Gees had twin brothers in there. They were fraternal though…
Beach Boys
I’ll select Fanny. One of the first successful all-female rock outfits, they were led by June Millington and her sister Jean.
Two of the vocalists in The Plastic Ono Band were married to each other.
The Wilson sisters in Heart.
EPG and BigSteve: One at a time. Don’t bogart that thread.
Cher: Trigmogigmo beat you to the punch with Heart early on.
Guided By Voices – Bob and Jim Pollard
Oh dang I missed that. Ok, the Pocaro brothers in Toto.
DeBarge. At one point or another, all 7 DeBarge siblings had been members at different times.
The Kemp brothers of Spandau Ballet, a band everyone loves! What’s your favorite song by Spandau Ballet? Mine is, “True.”
The Neville Brothers.
The Chambers Brothers
T. Rex
The Clean
The Del Rubio Triplets
The Del Fuegos – Dan and Warren Zanes (Full disclosure: I knew they were brothers but I had to look up Warren’s first name.)
The Deal sisters in the Breeders.
The Bellamy Brothers
Ty Caldwell and his bass playing brother from the Marshall Tucker Band.
Howzabout Simon Townshend joining his more accomplished sibling in the more orchestral incarnations of the Who?
Oh yeah, I was gonna say the delRubio triplets but i never heard of them…
Two bands with brothers named Butler. First is the Psychedelic Furs’ Richard and Tim.
The Doors
I was thinking the rules only prohibited more than one entry in a single post. Oh well … the Bangles.
2nd band of Butlers is Arcade Fire, brothers Win and William.
BigSteve, those are the rules. We need Al to get in here and police this, as well as shake his head disappointedly at EPG.
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Steve and Cassie Gaines
Alright you newcomers and veterans – one entry per post. And also no sequential posts. If you are the Last Man Standing you. can’t post another entry until someone else has posted.
As far as Gergs goes, when he is funny, he is funny and the T. Rex and Doors entries were funny!
Problem is, he is most often irritating. 😉
Can’t believe no one mentioned Nelson!! However my vote for all-time greatest sibling band would have to go to either The Kinks or the Everlys. Or maybe the Brothers Gibb. Too many great ones, especially those crazy close harmonies.
Two pair of brothers in:
D E V O
And two Bobs, #1 and #2.
ACDC!
Greta van Fleet
The Incredible Kidda Band – the singer and keyboard guy are brothers. I once put a whole power pop show together just so I could play this song live: https://youtu.be/3liY2LH58dU
Hanson, of course.
Sparks.
Haim are three sisters.
The Louvin Brothers
The Dukes of Stratosphear was really XTC, including Dave Gregory, but adding his brother Ian on drums.
The Bacon Brothers. Is it true they give out free bacon and egg sandwiches just to get people in the door to their shows?
I need a ruling from Al. Does Spirit count? The drummer was Randy California’s step father.
Dynagroove
Dismissing EPG for three reasons (there is a band named DynaGroove apparently but with no relatives in it; spelled it wrong; he’s Gergeley), I rule that cdm is LMS because I will accept Spirit. Actually had them in mind when crafting the thread as an odder entry.
Bricklin
Eric and Gwen Stefani from No Doubt.
Hey hey!
Happy Mondays- the “singer” and at least one other guy.
T
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I can’t believe no one has mentioned the Undertones.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned The Staples Singers. Until now.
LMS!
cher — That was quite a card to play so late in the game!
cdm — Sparks! Looking forward to checking out The Sparks Brothers movie.
How can we forget?!
Van Halen
LMS!
The Stooges had the Asheton brothers.
I’ve heard good things about the Sparks movie and I’m tempted to go see them on their upcoming tour but not sure because I like their full band stuff more than their electro stuff. If they’re using a drum machine, I’d pass. But maybe….
Anyway…. William and Jim Reid of the Jesus and Mary Chain.
I’ve never heard anything by Sparks that I like but I would totally watch that documentary. They are fascinating in a Scott Walker kind of way.
Anywho, the Cowboy Junkies featuring Margo and Michael Timmis (sic).
I was pretty sure that I did not like Sparks, being mostly exposed to them during their 80’s phase. I remember somewhat enjoying, “I Predict” but feeling it was a little jokey. “Cool Places With You” was the other, and I didn’t care for that at all. So when a music friend I respect went off one day about how great they are, he said I had to listen to the earlier stuff – and he was right – I really like that early string of albums: Indiscreet, Kimono My House and Propaganda. Those are the three for me. I like some of the other records ok, but they don’t really compel me. Maybe “Balls” is my favorite of the next era of Sparks.
I’ll go with one-time Philly (really Lancaster) favorites, Suddenly Tammy! which included the Sorrentino siblings Beth and Jay. I remember that group fondly, used to run into Beth a bit when she lived in NYC.
That Petrol Emotion had the same O’Neill brothers as the Undertones.
I’ll look up some of their early albums on Spotify. Truth be told, my main connection with them was their appearance in the cheesy 1976 disaster movie Rollercoaster when they played Big Boy at an amusement park. Much like when I first saw DEVO on SNL, I couldn’t tell if it was a real band or a goof.
Doug and Billy Yule from the Velvet Underground Live at Max’s Kansas City.
Steve Jansen and David Sylvian of Japan used stage names, but they are brothers.
Soupy Sales kids in Tin Machine, etc.
I went to see a free concert in Haddon Township last night and, lo and behold, two brothers, Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars, along with Lamaar and Jessie Williams, who Luther introduced as brothers. I think he may have been kidding since they appeared to be different races.
the Pointer Sisters
The Blasters with Dave & Phil Alvin!
Tina and Laura Weymouth in the Tom Tom Club.
Maybe we should do a LMS of band members who are not related but share a last name. That would be much more difficult!
In reviewing their Wiki page to verify that the Brothers Johnson did indeed include brothers, (It did. LMS!) I also discovered that that’s where Alex Weir, more commonly known on RTH as “the OJ looking guy in the Talking Heads Stop Making Sense line-up,” was also a member and a cousin of the namesake brothers.
Radiohead – The bassist and the guitar player who doesn’t kind of look like Charlie Sexton if you squint.
A little under the radar, but the duo called Smoosh are sisters. They changed their name to Chaos Chaos. (Radiohead is a much better entry.)
Ha, I know Smoosh from when they played Pajama Party Time on Yo Gabba Gabba. Great call.
A Triple-Sis Threat: The Roches.
Aston and Carlton Barrett from Bob Marley and the Wailers.
Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers
The [Dixie} Chicks
Waitaminit!
How in the world did we get to almost 100 posts without Sly and the Family Stone?
The Carpenters
The Avett Brothers.
Loved Yo Gabba Gabba! Trippy stuff. Boo Bah was even weirder.
I can’t decide whether to post the Cocteau Twins or the Righteous Brothers, so I’ll just point out that the original Attractions had Pete Thomas and Bruce Thomas.
On a similar note, why were there three Thompson Twins?
Nancy Sinatra and her father.
Twins:
Tegan and Sara
If you can get past the “walk ten thousand miles,” song, that Proclaimers album is pretty fun. They sort of come off as wholesome because they’re brothers and there’s a certain innocence to their sound, but it’s kind of “drinking in the pub” kind of album. I saw them only once, at Penn’s Landing. They were on a bill but only played three or four songs, when everyone else played full sets. It seemed very odd and stingy.
Anyway, Kevin Haskins and David J of Bauhaus are brothers. J is actually David’s middle initial.
I can’t tell you how much I want to edit the sloppy writing in that post. ^^^
Went to see Summer Of Soul last night. Highly recommended both from a music and sociological point of view.
And from the point of view of LMS.
One of the acts was Gladys Knight & the Pips. Those original Pips included Gladys’ brother Bubba sister Brenda and cousins Eleanor Guest and WIlliam Guest. Brenda and Eleanor left after a few years, replaced by Edward Patten (another cousin) and the unrelated Langston George.
All of which makes me the Last Man Standing
Bloody UB bloody 40
Ricky and Cindy Wilson of the B52s. Hey hey!
The Weiss sisters in the Shangri Las
Pernice Brothers
Bros
Nigerian group The Lijadu Sisters were twins. I can’t wait to spend my bonus points on fabulous prizes.
Paddy and Martin Mcaloon of Prefab Sprout. Here’s the band in more of a “rock mode” with their b-side called “Tin can pot.”
https://youtu.be/BwxU0Mv7uCU
Geo’s note about Alex “The OJ-Looking Guy From Stop Making Sense”) Weir is worth the price of admission in this thread!
I need to catch up, but I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned Philly punk legends Electric Love Muffin, with Brian and Frank Campbell.
LMS.
Nor have Matt and Craig Mungan of Scram been mentioned, if we’re talking Philly bands. I saw ELM and Scram (and Serial Killers) on many bills together.
If we’re going THAT local, then the honky-tonk The Wallace Brothers Band from Philly sport identical twin brothers. I don’t even try to tell them apart until they are behind their instruments. They are ringers.
https://www.wallacebrothersband.com/
Somebody has to say Jonas Brothers. Done.
Pat and Lolly Vegas of Redbone.
Paul and Barry Ryan