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I've written about a lot of musicians on Positive Tuesday, Sue Foley, Steve James, James Harman, etc, but it's time to stop dicking around. Today's Positive Tuesday is about the D!

I'll admit that I've always liked novelty acts, I like "Weird" Al and Jon Valby, as both not only do song parodies, but they write odd novelty type songs. I actually find "Weird" Al a fascinating songwriter, and i'll admit that he's an inspiration. I've also liked some vanity projects by actors. The Blues Brothers, of course, comes to mind right away. John Belushi truely loved the music he was performing, Dan Ackroyd was passable on harmonica and the Blues Brothers Band, arranged by Paul Schaffer, was unbelievably good. I guess my point is that if I'm going to listen to a novelty act or a vanity project, it had better be well done.

Jack Black (JB or Jaybles) and Kyle Gass (KG or Kage) met while doing comedy in an LA troupe. They were later on HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David (and if you've never seen this show, do yourself a favor and seek it out), providing a lot of music for the oddball sketch comedy show. It was about this time that they formed the D, spinning off their own show on HBO, six 15 minute episodes that are some of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Tenacious D comes off as a pair of guys who are convinced that they're the greatest band in the world. The music is a bizzare mix of heavy metal performed with modified folk music sensibilities and instrumentation. They get points for simply trying to pull of a metal sound on two acoustic guitars. And, strangely, they actually do make it work.

I've got a couple of D bootleg CD's and they do a lot of covers (everything from Guns 'n Roses to Neil Diamond - I'm not kidding), but what makes the D special is the songwriting. Songs like "Tribute" and "Double Team" are all time favorites and "Fuck Her Gently" is so obviously oblivious, trying to be nice but doing it in a very offensive way:

What's your favorite posish?
That's cool with me
It's not my favorite
But I'll do it for you
What's your favorit dish?
I'm not going to cook it
But I'll order it from Zanzibar
(bootleg: "order it from Pink Dot)

And then I'm gonna love you completely
And then I'll fuckin' fuck you discreetely
And then I'll fuckin' ball you completely
And then, I'm gonna fuck you hard

In my weaker moments, I actually feel bad about liking that song so much.

Of course, none of the fine songwriting would matter if the D couldn't perform. I saw Tenacious D live in 2002 and I was amazed at the guitar work by both JB and KG. The arrangements are uniques, both vocals and guitars, nothing is ever in unison, which you'd expect from a vanity project. Jack Black has amazing stage pressence that can't be duplicated on a mere recording. Oddly, this is sometimes acheived by being a rockstar diva, fighting with KG, insulting the audience and annoying the roadies by knocking over his mic stand at every possible opportunity. I'm not sure how, but it actually works and you can't help but love JB on stage.

If I have a problem with the D, it's their first album. The songs are wonderful, the comedy bits are hilarious, musically it's spot on. It's over done, though, in that it's produced by the Dust Brothers and Dave Groel. Songs are done with a full band arrangements and electric instruments backing up the D. The Tenacious D I like is the acoustic duo sound of the TV show, the bootlegs and the concert I saw. Check out the album, I guess, but the HBO series will give you a better idea of what they're about muscially.

Soon you will be able to check out Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny in a theater near you:

Enjoy the trailer. Enjoy the D.

BOJ