Uh...not a short story, this, and therefore, let's get started with it (info mainly taken from the band's pages at Wikipedia). As many of you may know, this is the humorous musical expression of actors Kyle Gass and Jack Black (the latter being the most popular), whom have known each other since 1989, when both were playing in Los Angeles based theatre group The Actors' Gang. The story goes that Gass originally felt threatened by Black – at the time the most important musician in the group – but the two eventually struck a bond, Gass teaching Black to play the guitar, and the latter helping the first with his acting career.
What a lot of you may not know, is that prior to 2006, when the band released its second album The Pick Of Destiny and included guitarist John Konecky, bassist John Spiker to their line-up (as well as drummer Brooks Wackerman for touring), Tenacious D (in fact a term used in basketball world to describe a very robust defensive positioning) was actually an acoustic duo, starting off at the beginning of the '90s playing covers by Bobby McFerrin, without actually having a name for their act. That changed in 1994, when at a certain concert they asked their audience to choose a name from a list. Tenacious D gained first popularity when the duo wrote a 6-episode series for TV based on the band, which premiered on American channel HBO in 1997. The series was discontinued due to a difference in opinion between the band and the channel, so the guys went on to do their live shows, and eventually struck a friendship with Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl (whom, as you know, was a drummer in Nirvana). This led to the duo doin' a cameo in Foo Fighters' video clip of “Learn To Fly”, and further public popularity was gained when Tenacious D started to open for high profile acts, such as Beck, Pearl Jam, and Foo Fighters.
The band signed to Epic Records (a subsidiary of Columbia Records, now owned by Sony Entertainment Group) in May 2000, and while Black's popularity as an actor was increasing thanks to his roles in films such as High Fidelity, they worked on recording their self-titled debut album, using songs that were previously recorded for their short-lived TV series. In contrast to the original versions, which were done as a duo, the guys asked several friends [in the first place, Dave Grohl on drums and guitar; The Vandals' Warren Fitzgerald on second electric guitar, Phish's Page McConnell on keyboards, and Redd Kross' Steven Shane McDonald on the bass] to come into the studio to give the songs the benefit of a full-fledged band, including electric guitars in the mix. Already present on that first album, a couple of acted scenes, also known as “skits”. In spite of a mixed critical reception, the album sold Platinum in the States. Part of that success was certainly due to the hilarious video clips the band made for singles “Tribute” (featuring Dave Grohl as the Devil), “Wonderboy”, and “Fuck Her Gently”. Also on that same album, a song named “Dio”, which was a mock tribute to Ronny James Dio, whom like the song to the point of asking the duo to appear in the video of his own “Push”.
In 2002, the band released an EP entitled D Fun Pak, which included acoustic versions of two album tracks, a remix of another track, and a skit. Further profiting from their momentum, the band released its first DVD in Late November 2003. Entitled The Complete Masterworks, it features their TV series, music videos, and a recording of a live performance (at London's Brixton Academy, filmed in 2002).
A month prior to the DVD's release, Black announced that the screenplay script for The Pick Of Destiny, a fictional movie about the band's formation, had been completed. Although the filming was originally planned to start at the end of that same year, it had to be postponed for almost a year, due to Black's involvement in the filming of the remake of the big budget movie King Kong. Along with the filming of the movie (which was to feature Ronnie James Dio, Dave Grohl and Ben Stiller in cameo roles), Tenacious D. started the recordings of their sophomore album, a soundtrack of the movie including John Konecky and John Spiker (both of Trainwreck, the band started by Gass to have something to do while Black was concentrating on his acting career, and which was discontinued in early 2011). Dave Grohl again played the drums, and also sang on the track “Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)” (in the movie, he again played the role of Satan). The movie was an absolute flop commercially (with US$20 million spent on production and an additional 40 million on promotion, the movie grossed under 22 million at the box office), but controversially the album did well enough, rising to #8 on the Billboard 200 in the US, and topping the iTunes charts. It also reached #10 on the UK charts. Weirdly enough, some of the leading media criticized the album negatively, stating it was a let-down from the band's debut. Later, the DVD of the movie would make up considerably for some of the budget losses, picking up a cult audience. By the way, to coincide with the release of the movie and album (in late November 2006), Tenacious D. went on a tour which lasted well into 2007, playing dates in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand. It was the first touring with a full band (including Spikes and Konecky, and using Brooks Wackerman as drummer) and due to the costs involved with traveling with such an entourage, the band lost even more money.
For a while, it was touch-and-go as far as the continuation of the band was concerned, with Gass stating that he wanted the band to end at its high, following the disappointing box office reception of the movie. However, at the same time Black announced wanting to give his acting career a year's break to concentrate on the band. He also stated that a new song was already written, and that he was looking forward to recording a third album, which he hoped to see released in 2010. On other occasions, he mentioned 2012, and obviously things really took that long, but eventually what matters is that Tenacious D. is still in existence. During 2008, the band not only worked on some new tracks, but also delivered a new DVD entitled The Complete Masterworks Part 2 (which included a documentary of their 2006-2007 world tour, entitled D Tour: A Tenacious Documentary), and played at some major European festivals during Summer [among which Ireland's Marley Park (supporting Metallica), the Reading And Leeds Festivals in the UK]. But work on the album would continue well into 2010, when Black stated having just proposed his idea for the new album's title track on the Late Show With David Letterman.
As on the previous albums, Dave Grohl again contributed his drumming skills to most of the songs (Scott Seiver, whom also brings added percussion to 4 other songs, takes over his role on the track “They F****d Our A***s”, and on “To Be The Best”, Spiker did drum programming), and additional musicians on the album incude John Kimbrough horn and stings arrangements, as well as “snaps and claps”, added acoustic guitar, grunts, synth, mellotron & programming on a total of 6 tracks), Andrew Gross (string arrangements (on “Roadie”), Page McConnell (synth on “Deth Starr”), and Christopher Wray (Pedal Steel guitar on “39”). I feel it also needs to be said that Spiker added piano, organ, programming, horn and string arrangements, percussion to several of the album's songs.
Obviously, some of the texts deal with the slack the band got after the disappointments of the band's movie and 2nd album (the album opening title track, obviously, “The Ballad Of Hollywood Jack And The Rage Kage”, and “The F****d Our A***s”), but as per usual some of the songs deal with the members' supposed sexual prowess (“Low Hangin' Fruit”, “Senorita”, “Roadie”, and album closer “39”), and there's even some mock science fiction in the track “Deth Starr” (it also has some sexual innuendo, though), besides the band taking on biblical stuff (“Throw Down”) and bringing a stunningly serious tribute to Rock 'n' Roll in the track “Rock Is Dead”. In between, there's two “skits”, and an amazingly “heavy” yet keyboard-driven “To Be The Best”. Personally, I loved the album to the point of adding it to my year-lists. Of course, the copy my editor-in-chief handed me over for review is a special edition, including two bonus tracks (“Quantum Leap” which deals with the band's claimed intelligence, and “Rivers Of Brown” in which the guys tell about their fecal love), and a bonus DVD including two promotional clips, and music videos for the tracks “Low Hangin' Fruit”, “Roadie”, and “Rock Is Dead” (and of course, in contrast to the seriousness of the music, the video IS very humoristic).
Yeah...what's not to like about this band, eh? The album having been released as far back as May of last year, I can tell you that this time it was received positively by the media as well as the public (reaching #4 & #2 respectively in the US and UK charts, as well as top 10 positions in Austria, Canada, Germany, Ireland and Switzerland, and top 20 position in Denmark, Holland, New Zealand, and Sweden – it even charted in Belgium, but topped at #68 only...weird, this country of mine!).
Meanwhile, the band has already released a new (vinyl only, as far as I know) EP entitled Jazz, in November of last year, and Black is reportedly looking forward to releasing a new full-length in 2017. Well, I for one join him in that bit of wishful thinking!