Your Favorite Musical Duos

Mr_Mechanical · February 5, 2026, 1:21am

Thanks to the White Stripes topic I listened to almost all of the White Albums at work today and it got me thinking about other musical acts I like that are just two people.

Turns out there are several and not all of them garage rock acts. My list includes The White Stripes, obviously, but also:

The Black Keys

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EaGNpnvreY0 ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iZZUY32iCzU ‘

I’m linking Tighten Up from their album Brothers and Fever from Turn Blue. I like the early bluesy Black Keys songs the most but they’ve branched out a bit more in recent years.

Local H

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=E2Oe5YKhzCE ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf5YSrfj2Ns ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=esU-tLzYvVI ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cHgOuQaJFRg ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s9sapD8_TIg ‘

Remember Local H? If you grew up in the 90s you probably do as they got regular airplay on alt rock radio stations across the country. Musically they were peak mid-90s depressive/disaffected youth grunge pop. Most of these I link are still in my regular rotation and are from their 1996 album As Good As Dead, which put them on the map. I also included a cover they did of Britney Spears’ Toxic.

Teen Mortgage

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ30ut6BPxA ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PyQeMoRbM4M ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fATg9w8Akyw ‘

Teen Mortgage seem relatively new compared to the others I’ve talked about so far but they rock just as hard. I think they put out their first full length album last year after spending a few years putting out singles and touring. These songs are three of my favorites, Tuning In, I Don’t Wanna Know, and Box.

Bass Drum of Death

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GYbTGL9eHjU ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1-sT-fUnxiI ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GdNxndjPru8 ‘

My head won’t stop banging! I first heard Bass Drum of Death with Crawling After You on GTA V’s soundtrack. Gb City is an earlier album which is where I found Get Found. I Thought I Told You is an example of their newer sound which is more poppy but still burrows itself comfortably in my ears.

Beach House

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wDv_oMJXZow ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=njbmwfndFH4 ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EmRBqX2xbNU ‘

Beach House is 2010s dream pop/shoegaze with incredibly chill vibes. I think they had a third member at one point but I’m pretty sure it started out as just two. I like to listen to songs like Space Song, Silver Soul and Master of None while taking long walks in the rain feeling wistful.

The Knife

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pPD8Ja64mRU ‘

Talk about deep cuts which is the name of the album this song, Heartbeats, is from. Everyone should know The Knife by now but if you don’t now you do, your welcome. Enjoy them because I don’t think they’re playing together anymore.

Death From Above 1979

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ia3baO8qHQ ‘

‘ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aVkaFL2Z8W0 ‘

Heads Up ep and the following debut album Romantic Rights got heavy play from me in 2006 which is also they year they broke up (happened literally a week after I got into them haha) but then later on they got back together and made some more music so that was cool. It’s impressive what two people can do with a synthesizer and a drum machine.

So those are all the musical duos I was able to think of today that I’ve gotten into over the years. Please tell me about any duos that you like!

isfet · February 5, 2026, 2:53am

I was real into these guys when Romantic Rights came out. I saw them a couple times, including when they opened for NIN on that NIN + QoTSA tour

I still like to go back to their stuff sometimes, but that opening track on the first EP about girls ruining their wombs by doing too much cocaine is so emblematic of a very particular type of hipster attitude and sensibility from that era that it’s hard to deal with now.

I also remember in interviews Trent Reznor basically hated being on tour with them and thought they were assholes lol

not trying to diminish what they did well or to suggest anyone shouldn’t like them, but those thoughts stay with me

Crystal Castles was a duo I really enjoyed for a while but that also got pretty soured for me with the whole thing about the guy being apparently incredibly abusive. prior to that coming out, I learned via a friend of a friend who mastered their second album that the guy was a complete asshole and acted “like he thought he was Elvis” the whole time

uh ok enough about all that, here’s a duo I still really like a lot

The Angelic Process

really tragic story with these folks, unfortunately, but this whole album is really incredible, I think

daphaknee · February 5, 2026, 3:06am

ones I’ve seen live:

hella

lightning bolt

pink and brown

vnv nation

wourme · February 5, 2026, 3:13am

My favorite one is

Erasure

I also like

They Might Be Giants

daphaknee · February 5, 2026, 3:23am

bolis pupul and Charlotte adigery

Brian eno and David byrne

Asa Chang and junray

mong tong

Brian and Dennis Wilson

boojiboy7 · February 5, 2026, 4:07am

Wait, I thought they were one guy on bass and one guy on drums? Unless in their second incarnation they switched that up.

SLUGGER · February 5, 2026, 4:32am

die warzau

ambitious lovers

babyland

scorn

chemlab

deathless forever

curve

LaurelSoup · February 5, 2026, 4:34am

LaurelSoup · February 5, 2026, 4:52am

They added some members for the last two records but for the most recent tour they were back to the classic two piece line up.

LaurelSoup · February 5, 2026, 4:57am

Mr_Mechanical · February 5, 2026, 5:04am

I honestly don’t know. I thought I had read somewhere once that that was the setup initially but looking it up now on Wikipedia it looks like Heads Up was recorded with bass, drums, a vocoder and “various percussion”.