Hirsute Adelaide outfit and Australia’s premier beard tribute band The Beards have been spreading the good word (about beards) for an entire decade now, ensuring everyone who has a beard wears it with pride and everyone who can’t grow one hangs their head in shame.
To mark their 10 year anniversary, the band are releasing a compilation double-album: Ten Long Years, One Long Beard. A comprehensive celebration of all things bearded, it includes a ‘greatest hits’ package with remastered tracks from all four of The Beards’ studio albums alongside several rare and previously unreleased songs, as well as a complete live set recorded at Sydney’s iconic Metro Theatre in April 2015.
They’re also hitting the road for an 11 date national tour and to celebrate, they’ve curated a list of what they believe to be their five best songs of the last 10 years. Pretty difficult feat! Check it out below and for more info on the upcoming tour and release visit www.thebeards.com.au.
‘Growing A Beard’
Has always had a special place in my heart because it’s the first song we wrote. And it’s called ‘Growing A Beard’ because we were literally growing beards at the time that we wrote it.
We had little beards but we were still kind of growing them and the song is kind of a yearning to have a proper beard and a I think it’s a good starting point for anyone that’s growing a beard. The song kind of really sums up the emotions and the journey you’re about to undertake, and if you watch the film clip for that song we actually start without beards and we’re playing a gig and we don’t have beards – I don’t like to admit this to too many people, that there’s evidence out there online that we didn’t have beards – but we’re playing this song and we don’t have beards and as the songs goes on the beards start to grow and by the end of the song we’ve got these full-on beards.
We went to record this film clip and we were going to record it over two months – like at the same venue and each time we’d go back and it would be a bit a longer and we would film it like that so that at the end of the three minute clip we would have two month old beards. And then someone suggested “Why don’t we just film it in reverse?” And we went “Awwwww yeeeeaaahhh!” So, genius! That’s how we did it. Our little industry secret.
‘If Your Dad Doesn’t Have A Beard, You’ve Got Two Mums’
Just because it really was kind of the first song that started to introduce us to a wider audience – especially through the film clip online because we’d basically just been a local band here in Adelaide. When we started to tour interstate that was the one people really latched onto through the clip and that definitely helped the profile of the band, which is important to spread your message about beards. People need to hear your stuff so that was good.
‘You Should Consider Having Sex With A Bearded Man’
I heard that this song almost got a guy laid once. Almost. Someone considered it and that’s all we really ask in that song. It’s heaps better than not considering it.
Maybe one day somone will actually get laid but for now we were just happy to hear the story that a guy had a woman – when you think about it a guy had a woman at his house and he had some left over food in his beard and she freaked out and ran away – but we’re on the right track. We were happy with that. Vindicated, really.
‘I Think Beards Are Great’
I’ve always really liked this one for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it really sums up our attitude towards beards well, I think. And also I’m pretty sure it has the world record number of the word “beard” in that song. The word “beard” is in there 39 times. I’m pretty sure that that’s our record number of the word beard in one song.
We’re only aware of our songs having the word beard that many times but if someone out there wants to have a crack at it we’d be more than happy for other bands to take up the cause. But at the moment it’s just us. There was one song released by a band called Psychostick called ‘Obey The Beard’ and it’s pretty pro beard. But they’ve also got other songs that aren’t about beards so that kind of went downhill. But it’s a good start for them but one song about beards just isn’t enough.
‘Ten Long Years, One Long Beard’
The new single. It’s a good, catchy, pop rock song about beards and I’m not sick of it yet. That’s why it makes my top five, because it’s only just come out.
The Beards Aussie Tour Dates
With very special guest Dallas Frasca
October 2- Caloundra Music Festival
October 3- Brisbane, The Zoo
October 8 -Melbourne, The Corner Hotel
October 9- Frankston, The Pelly Bar
October 10- Mulgrave, The Village Green
October 15- Adelaide, Jive Bar
October 16- Adelaide, Jive Bar
October 17 -Wallaroo, Coopers Ale House
October 23- Sydney, Bondi Beach Rd Hotel
October 24- Newcastle, Cambridge Hotel
October 25- Sydney, Rocks Brewery
Tickets on sale now via www.thebeards.com.au
