We Never Subside

Kickapoo
Tenacious D
The Pick of Destiny
Sony : 2006
[Listen] [Buy]

Master Exploder
Tenacious D
The Pick of Destiny
Sony : 2006
[Listen] [Buy]

Beelzeboss [The Final Showdown]
Tenacious D
The Pick of Destiny
Sony : 2006
[Listen] [Buy]

Cosmic Shame
Tenacious D
The Complete Masterworks [DVD]
Sony : 2003
[Listen] [Buy]

Sasquatch
Tenacious D
The Complete Masterworks [DVD]
Sony : 2003
[Listen] [Buy]

With the Pick of Destiny out in theatres tomorrow night, I figured it was time to blow a few doors down here around the FmGT laboratories and celebrate a couple of tunes from the lighter side. Silent K's picking up the repairs - no worries.

Tenacious D are master rocksmiths for whom mere words are no fitting container. They're a comedy act backed by bracing musicianship - Kyle [KG; Kage] plays the complicated guitar parts, Jack Black [JB; Jables] handles the vocal stuff. They have - and continue to - double-handedly sustain tens of thousands of independent, microcosmic social networks on the strength of inside joke material that hasn't been refreshed for around five fucking years. They are worlds and galaxies away from "Ode to My Car". Whether you routinely fill in the harmonies on "Friendship" when your buddy's had one too many Bud Lights or you know Jack Black as that dude who got his hand blown off in The Jackal, you owe it to yourself to put aside your biases for a couple of minutes and soak up exactly what these guys are trying to do.

Today's first three cuts are off The D's latest album, which serves as the soundtrack to a film that most of us haven't seen yet - what I mean is that they're bound to pick up a little extra rocket sauce after we've all seen them given context and performed. Listen to them now, and much of their rock potency comes from the anticipation of seeing them sent-up on the silver screen; there's a real sense of Watch This Space and Coming Soon.

"Kickapoo" describes a young JB's struggle to escape his stifling Midwestern hometown and chase his ambitions of rock immortality - most notably, it references the epic D-vs.-Dragon struggle depicted in "Wonderboy" (Tenacious D, 2001) and has cameos by both Meatloaf and (fucking) Ronnie James Dio.

"Master Exploder" is a song about JB's vocal prowess and the band's unbelievable awesomeness. (A recurring theme.) The first time I heard that familiar falsetto rise up to claim its throne over the drum track at 1:06, something inside of me popped - keep a doctor's number handy before you get too deep into the track.

There's nothing so cool as Dave Grohl in a Satan costume. "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)" is another chapter in the D's ongoing quest to keep Satan safely at bay, but close enough to draw upon in desperate times of rocklessness. This is where the two put the bad guy away. Grohl provides drums and vocals on the track - it's easily the best on the album, and if you walk away from today with nothing else, you can at least promise to help "gargle mayonnaise" work its way into the popular vernacular. Can't you?

The last two tracks - "Cosmic Shame" and "Sasquatch" - are from the episodes and probably need a little more context to completely appreciate; I won't even begin to try to explain them here. The mp3s you're seeing up here were ripped from the DVD by Y.T. in an effort to get all of their material onto my iPod and yours - go and pick up The Complete Masterworks to experience them like you should. It may very well be the best fifteen bucks you'll ever spend.

Do your homework and catch the film tomorrow. Regular music programming resumes then.

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Another smashing post from etherbOx.