by Erick Pressman

A few years ago, the folks at Noise Pop booked a Saturday night show at Mezzanine that included two faceless electronic/dj asshole type acts, and an opener simply known as Wallpaper. While Noise Pop does a great job of sticking to its guns and booking a solid week of music related fun every year, that particular night seemed lacking, and there wasn't a high entertainment expectation set that particular evening.

Oh how wrong we were to judge. Out came a short, white dude wearing some of the most haggard, sequined old-lady sweaters to ever have been made, a gold lamp chain around his neck, and immediately jumped into a cover of Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up". Yes, it was absolutely as mind-blowing as it sounds.

The rest of Wallpaper's set was a blend of electronic indie meets 80s freestyle featuring perfectly auto-tuned vocals and a live drummer. The amount of irony was humorous and not overkill, and it was obvious that both members of the band were having ten times more fun than any member of the crowd was. No one else from the entire week of shows hit as hard as Wallpaper, and 2009 saw their rise to fame.