It is unreasonable to use two drummers when one would do. But the sound of two drummers – not three, not ten – is exciting. The listener can hear stability and slippage at the same time. Tandem beats are motley and land more heavily.
The apotheosis of the double-drummer idea in popular culture may have been from the mid-60s to early ‘70s: the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, Miles Davis, Motown, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, James Brown and Frank Zappa. It keeps coming back anyway. Here are some less acknowledged examples, just as good.
1) Joe Clay: "Cracker Jack" (B-side of Get On the Right Track single, 1956.) Bobby Donaldson and Joe Marshall, drums. Here is a white teenager from Gretna, Louisiana, making murderous rock and roll in New York with black jazz and R&B session musicians nearly twice his age. Mickey Baker's guitar solo, yes, but know that you are hearing two drummers.
2) Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: "Dancing’s Alright" (from Make It Happen, 1968.) Pistol Allen and Uriel Jones, drums (to the best of my knowledge). There were two drummers on many Motown records in the late '60s, though it's often hard to tell; here, it's a little easier to tell.
3) Midori Takada: "Crossing" (from Through the Looking Glass, 1983.) I'm cheating a little here. Not because Midori Takada is playing marimba rather than drums. (A marimba isn't strictly a drum – it has no membrane – though it is a tuned percussion instrument.) But because she's multi tracked against herself.
4) Bennie Maupin: “The Jewel In The Lotus” (from The Jewel In The Lotus, 1974.) Billy Hart and Freddie Waits, drums. The elastic, essayistic two-drummer idea derives from Miles Davis's bandleading; it was an idea too good to leave alone. (Eddie Henderson's records from around the same time did much the same.)
5) I.U.D. with Kim Gordon (performance at Issue Project Room, 2013.) Lizzie Bougatsos and Sadie Laska, drums. Focused and raucous and free, involving trap sets and electronic pads and animal-skin drums, this music wanders with purpose. Everything works.
6) Merle Haggard: "I Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink" (from Back to the Barrooms, 1980.) Jerry Kroon and Larrie Londin, drums. Haggard lived for slippage.
7) Black Eyes: "Speaking in Tongues" (from Black Eyes, 2002.) Dan Kaldas and Mike Kanin, drums. Produced by Ian MacKaye. In this band, the two drummers faced each other during shows. Why hasn't that happened in more bands?
8) Man Forever (featuring Laurie Anderson): "Twin Torches" (from Play What They Want, 2017.) John Colpitts and Carson Moody, drums. Colpitts, a.k.a. Kid Millions, is a great collaborator – it would be more unusual for him not to want to sit next to another drummer.
9) Earth Wind & Fire: "Sun Goddess" (from Gratitude, 1975.) Ralph Johnson and Fred White, drums. EWF's bandleader, Maurice White, was a drummer himself, though here he's singing out front.
10) The Fall: "Prole Art Threat" (Live) (from Fall in a Hole, 1982.) Karl Burns and Paul Hanley, drums. From a concert with uncanny energy in Auckland, New Zealand. The shift from the march rhythm to the two-beat never gets old.