Tenacious D is the greatest band in the world.
You know how I know?
Because Tenacious D has told us all that. Repeatedly. With supreme confidence.
The most immediate evidence also backs up this claim — Tenacious D's upcoming show at Northern Quest Resort & Casino on June 20 is the only major summer concert in Spokane to sell out. Tickets are still available for everyone from Brad Paisley to Machine Gun Kelly to Phoebe Bridgers to Greta Van Fleet. The D? Gonzo, baby.
The comedic acoustic-rock duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass started as a cult club act in 1990s Los Angeles, before eventually landing a Mr. Show-adjacent eponymous HBO series of comedic shorts which lasted a mere six episodes. But the band's true legacy was forged by the duo's classic 2001 debut album, Tenacious D.
Not only does the album hold up as one of the funniest records of the 2000s while also rocking the socks off, it might be the best album of self-contained lore about a band ever crafted.
The fundamental core of Tenacious D is simple — no one can touch Jack Black's comedic bravado. His insistence on being confident even when he's the fool made him a Hollywood star and makes every boastful claim he makes as the lead singer of the D ring true. Really, rock and roll is inherently hilarious — all these singers prancing around like they're sex gods — but it takes Tenacious D doing it with acoustic guitars and pudgy bodies to magnify the silliness of the genre.
Gass offers Black the ideal musical and comedic counterpart. Musically, he can deliver everything from metal shredding to classical picking, while his persona comes across as the more subdued dunce who often gets steamrolled by Black's idiotic enthusiasm. Together, they're a merry band of fools who gleefully compose soaring rock about their own greatness.
The self-titled debut album puts this dynamic on full blissful display. From the opening moments on "Kielbasa," the pair are bickering about having to write a new song and Gass not playing a pretty enough opening chord. But that soon gives way to a Tenacious D staple — wildly oversexualized lyrics backed by funky riffs. There's no room or reason for hiding behind metaphor as Black belts lines regarding his kielbasa sausage, warm buttcheeks and, of course, it being "Tenacious D time." Always a pillar of rock masculine cocksureness, the D takes boasts about sexual prowess to the extreme. The most lauded of these efforts must be "F— Her Gently," a tender ballad about sweet loving being sometimes preferable to rough trade, featuring orchestral swells and diversions into Zanzibarian food. But the naughty times don't end there, with additional slow jams about group intercourse ("Double Team") and nonmusical interstitial bits about the logistics of lifting one's body weight with only their privates ("C— Pushups").
These spoken bits are essential to the makeup of the album, allowing for both guys' characters to come to the forefront. Sometimes they offer contextualization for the song that follows — like how Black makes an Edisonian innovation called "Inward Singing" that leads to an argument where Kyle leaves the band — but other times they're just simple comedy sketches that fully work (the extreme ordering of "Drive-Thru" or the minimalist bendy brilliance of "One Note Song").
When they're not talking, it's time for rocking, which leads us to a secret sauce that helps make Tenacious D a classic — there is so much talent on this album beyond just Black and Gass. For starters, the record is produced by the Dust Brothers, the genius team behind the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique, Odelay by Beck, Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory, among others. The record also features lead electric guitar from Warren Fitzgerald of the Vandals and percussion from the Beastie Boys' Alfredo Ortiz. Oh, and some guy named... (checks notes)... Dave Grohl... plays the drums (and some guitar).
For all the big names involved, the album really comes down to Black building up the band's internal legend. The obvious starting point for the conversation is that they once played the greatest and best song in the world — that song is not on Tenacious D because they can't remember it. Instead "Tribute" folk-ily tells the tale of their "Devil Went Down to Georgia"-esque journey of defeating a demon with the power of rock. The duo further extends their mythology on "Wonderboy," which plays around in the realm of Medieval magic that '70s rock like Led Zeppelin reveled in. The Tolkien-like tale about Wonderboy and Young Nasty Man, which features powers like mind bullets, turns out to be a story about — you guessed it — the band Tenacious D!
On a less grandiose scale, so many of the songs ("Explosivo," "Rock Your Socks," "The Road") essentially become sonic distillations of "we rock harder than you!" Black is even so brash as to demand that metal legend Ronnie James Dio must pass his legacy on to the D ("Dio").
But even when you strip away the layers and layers of delightful self-ego stroking, you still have Gass and Black's relationship, which rings true throughout the record. Sure, they might fight with "Karate" at times, but when "Kyle Quit the Band" — only to reunite — the duo's unbreakable bond of rock comes shining through. And the unbridled glee of "Friendship," even in the face of fighting a bear together, is genuinely sweet (even if they couch it in that they'll only be friends as long as the record deal holds).
The album alone makes a case for the D's spot in the rock pantheon, and set such a high bar that projects that followed couldn't measure up. The band's 2006 feature film, Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny is an alright stoner comedy, but the first record and even the TV show offer a more fun origin story of the group. The accompanying sophomore album The Pick of Destiny suffers from many songs describing things happening on screen, so it doesn't translate super well. Black's Hollywood demands meant the the group's third album, Rize of the Fenix, didn't arrive until 2012 (and it isn't anything special), while 2018's Post-Apocalypto serves as the best Tenacious D output since 2001, with its self-contained tale of the D adventuring in post-apocalyptic times.
Still, nothing will ever touch the cocksure majesty of Tenacious D. And that's perfectly fine. When you conquer the realm of music on your first try, there's nothing wrong with reigning supreme as two best pal kings on the throne of rock. ♦
Tenacious D, Puddles Pity Party • Mon, June 20 at 7:30 pm • Sold out • Northern Quest Casino & Resort • 100 N. Hayford Rd., Airway Heights • northernquest.com • 509-481-2800
