This was all ready to go yesterday but Photobucket...

This was all ready to go yesterday but Photobucket failed us and kept fucking our pictures up so it had to wait a day! WE’RE SORRY!

But yes it’s the first week of September so we decided to mix it up a little and try our hand at our very first group Look At That Beard! (This was inspired by a conversation I had with my mate Elsa Cairns while we were discussing possibly featuring her hubby’s beard on here [seriously love it when the ladies want their men featured!] so this is thanks to that random convo! We had to give our first group LATB to a band the GWLBC crew have nothing but mad respect for.

With a frontman as fabulous as Luke (WH) Monks and a name as quirky as Gay Paris, it’s hard to miss these guys. Having released their first album The Skeleton’s Problematic Granddaughter early this year, these boys have been touring Australia a fair bit most recently with The Beards for the Bearded Immortals tour; A tour aimed at ensuring that every bearded man (and anyone that will sleep with a bearded man) becomes immortal and will be spending the next month touring Victoria and New South Wales. Their love for the beard is clear and we love their beards as much we love their music and phenomenal stage performances so it is with great honour to have the amazing Gay Paris as this week’s LATB!

Who are you guys? (Name/Location) We’re Gay Paris and strangely enough, we’re from Sydney via some kind of swamp metaphor. To save outrage later on, this is WH speaking for the group and my views often clash with the majority vote. Sorry in advance, Slim, Blacktooth and Six Guns, you sweet bastards.

What are you guys famous for? Well, we pioneered swamp stomp, bastard rock and shack funk, not to mention being known for the most titillating live show this side of anything short of ultra-art-burlesque with Parliament providing the soundtrack through octave pedals and ridiculously large speakers.

Colour of your beards? We’ve got two black beards and two red beards. One of the reds is getting a touch of the snow in it too. I gather that this signals an increase in my mystical powers.

Age you each decided to grow a beard and why you wanted to grow one?I’m fairly certain we’ve all evolved from having terrible goatees in our early and mid teens to being the fully fledged beard lords that we are today. Reasons varied - Slim wanted to look like Dimebag Darrell, for instance, while I’ve always fancied myself as something of an archetypal mage of great power and possible latter day wiseman/drunkard.

What do you guys like and don’t like about your beard?I wouldn’t mind an extra six inches on this bad boy, and some more white hairs. A colony of teacup rat servants would be a nice addition, too (for obvious reasons).

Any beard growing tips for the fellas?Obviously, take away the temptation - throw away your grooming kits. Run wild (and with an esoteric education) as the Greek scholars and Knights Templar did (but no holy wars, okay, guys?). Furthermore, I find that not caring about money really helps too. Quit your job, play video games, read Terry Pratchett novels (mainly to look at his beard in the dust jacket) and start a Gay Paris tribute band. You’ll be dusting your nipples with chin hair in no time.

Have any of you used your beards to your advantage?We use them to gain the trust of decent men, the lust of excellent women and as a place to store contraband. I also use mine as a pen holder.

Whose beards do you admire? In no particular order, the beards of these fellows are excellent: Terry Pratchett, Dimebag Darrell, James Grim (of Brothers Grim & The Blue Murders), Zach Galifianakis, Sage Francis, George Clinton, Allen Ginsberg - I could really go on. Bearded men are superior artists to un-bearded men. I wonder if there is something Nietzsche was on about with the whole super man thing. Just needed more beard, really.

Do you like it when women (or men) touch your beards?Oh my, yes! But there is a time and place. Please, do not grab my beard at the urinal, you’re liable to get pissed on, sucker!

What’s the weirdest thing someone has said/asked about your beards? I always find it strange when someone asks why I don’t shave this amazing growth off! Hell, I trimmed it a few months back (for what I thought were good reasons at the time - they weren’t) and haven’t really been happy since. I’ll never get that time back.