All Facial Hair, All The Time

I have been blessed/cursed with ability to grow a beard in just a few hours. It’s a power I have guarded carefully with semi-regular grooming. I have never unleashed the full fury of my facial hair.  Maybe one day, wife permitting, the world will be ready for Bearded Nate.
Until then, let us celebrate artists that embrace the joy of facial hair with wild abandon. This installment of KNATE is a tribute to beards, moustaches, fu man chus and the artists that wear them or sing about them.


1. ZZ Top - “I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide”
(This is the anthem for bearded rockers everywhere.)
2. Iron & Wine - “An Angry Blade”
(You’d be angry too if you had to shave Sam Beam’s face.)
3. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy - “Lion Hair”
(Will Oldham’s beard is surprisingly lionesque, especially when he mugs for a Kanye West video.)
4. The Long Winters - “Everybody Is Talking”
(What are they talking about? How awesome John Roderick’s beard was.)
5. Jimmy Buffett - “Pencil Thin Mustache”
(This one is a no-brainer.)
6. The Black Lips - “Take Me Home (Back to Boone)”
(Sample lyric: “My old man’s got a gay moustache.")
7. Man Man - “I, Manface”
(Honus Honus, ‘stache ‘stache, awesome awesome.)
8. Danger Doom - ‘Perfect Hair”
(Yes, MF Doom has a real beard under the mask.)
9. Rob Crow - “Up”
(Rob Crow is on fire in 2007: a solo record, a new Pinback record, and 39 EPs...and it’s only August!)
10. Pinback - “Messenger”
(That’s right, back-to-back Crow. Respect his bearded prolificacy.)
11. The Saturday Knights - “Ass Kicker’s Haircut”
(This band may or may not have facial hair, but you can’t fault a song title like that.)
12. Devendra Banhart - “This Beard is For Siobhan”
(Even more self-explanatory than the Buffett track.)
13. Wilco - “Bob Dylan’s 49th Beard”
(Remember when Jeff Tweedy had a beard? Yeah, that was cool.)
14. Elton John - “Razor Face”
(He has a razor face, and that’s why it’s so clean)
15. Aesop Rock - “Facemelter”
(Shabbiest. Beard. Ever.)
16. Ani DiFranco - “Untouchable Face”
(For the laaaadies....)
17. Grinderman - “Get It On”
(Nick Cave has the scariest/possibly only half-man-chu ever.)
18. Archie Bronson Outfit - “Cherry Lips”
(These guys are as hirsute as their guitar riffs are catchy.)


This playlist was put together with the help of Paste Web Editor, Austin L. Ray, who, ironically, just shaved his fantastic beard last week.
Who are your favorite hairy-faced artists and what are your favorite songs about facial hair?