Flak Magazine: Review of Tenacious D, 11-15-01

Is Tenacious D prepared to overcome its own premise? The "heavy metal folk" duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass went from the stand-up circuit to a short-lived, much-praised gig on HBO. The duo's initial appeal was, in effect, the spectacle of two deluded wannabes imbuing themselves with superpowers, unlimited sexual potency and the ability to pen the world's greatest song at a moment's notice, even though the men are overweight, have no personal lives, and tote around acoustic guitars.

Since the HBO shows, Jack Black has become a full-on movie star, headlining an upcoming Farrelly Brothers film with Gwyneth Paltrow. Tenacious D's following, once cult, has moved to the mainstream with Black, and the D is touring again on the strength of its debut, self-titled album, for which it enlisted no less than Dave Grohl, Phish's Page McConnell, the Vandals' Warren Fitzgerald and Redd Kross' Steve McDonald to play. The venerated Dust Brothers produced.

And, unlike Joe Piscopo's pounds of muscle, this hugely ambitious leap by the D does not kill its humor. These two former wannabes are now the very arena-sized guitar-shredding rock gods they dreamed of being when they made cameo appearances on Mr. Show; Black and Gass wear superhero costumes and their simple acoustic arrangements have exploded with multiple guitar tracks, monster drum beats, even strings. And they rock. They rock hard.

In this respect, Tenacious D differs from Spinal Tap, with whom the group is often (and wrongly) compared. Spinal Tap's songs, when presented as verse-chorus sound bites in the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap, are hilarious.

But who among us owns Break Like the Wind, the Tap's parody album? Tap's strength is satirizing the whole circus of rock 'n' roll life, down to the cold sores on the lead guitarist and singer's lips. That group's is a visual humor, and while "Big Bottom" is a funny minute-long joke in the film, it's not a disc to spin at home. Tenacious D, by contrast, crafts songs with great hooks that stand on their own. The group's ideal medium is the album, and its eponymous debut doesn't disappoint.

Tenacious D fans will instantly recognize "Karate," "Kyle Quit the Band," "Tribute," and "Double Team." They've been part of the D repertoire for years (most of them under different titles). On the album, Black and Gass are backed by a full band, and while purists might prefer the acoustic versions, there's no denying the power of the sound, which enhances the comedy. This is particularly true of "Tribute" (formerly "The Best Song in the World"), whose sonic soundscape would send chills down Jimmy Page's spine.

And who can resist "Wonderboy," a mythic retelling of the formation of Tenacious D, infused with some hilarious 70s prog production (the Dust Brothers earned their paycheck on this disc)? There's some great, Skynyrd-era country-rock riffing in "The Road" and a hilariously heavy paean to Ronnie James Dio ("Dio"), in which Black informs the former rocker, "It's time to pass the torch, you're too old to rock — no more rockin' for you."

D's real comparison should be with Ween, another band with the good fortune to realize that the best rock music is also the funniest. Tenacious D, like Ween, respects its source material (in D's case, Sabbath, Styx, George Thorogood and Van Halen are all in the mix), and can emulate the sound of its influences as pointedly as Ween. Most important, Tenacious D and Ween are hilarious because they buy into rock's pomposity and overblown showmanship.

The comedians who created Spinal Tap, while quite funny, always seemed to be aware of their superiority to their characters — not so with Black and Gass, who dive into rock excess with gleeful abandon, as in the Queen-like scat toward the end of "Tribute."

Like Ween, Tenacious D couples fierce and melodic music with completely adolescent lyrics. And Jack Black has a voice on loan from the gods of Metal Heaven. He sings, howls and screams the bejesus out of every song on the disc, and damned if it doesn't sell even the most childishly pompous lyric (listen to "Fuck Her Gently," and ask yourself if it would be as funny if Black didn't sing it with such skill).

One notable flaw: Tenacious D includes a number of distracting comedy sketches on the album. There's no need for them. None of them is particularly funny, and the adolescent coarseness that works so well in the songs makes some of the sketches (particularly "Cock Pushups" and the interminable "Drive Thru") almost unlistenable. The sketch material may be necessary in concert, and it was fantastic on the show, but on album it's a nuisance — it's difficult to think of an album where brief sketches between songs do work. A plea to Tenacious D, any number of rap artists, and Pete Townshend: It's the music that counts.

That said, Tenacious D is an auspicious debut, a bold statement by a comic duo in danger of falling victim to its own punch line. As Jack Black said at a recent concert, Tenacious D ain't no Milli Vanilli goin' on, it's the real thing. The joke is on anyone who thinks otherwise.

— Christopher Hickman (hickatz at mindspring dot com)