Here's Tenacious D (Jack Black and Kyle Gass) on Conan last night, belting out a song called "Rock is Dead" off their latest album Rize of the Fenix If you're wondering whether they get the old "Johnny Carson invite over to the desk" from Conan after their performance, you'll have to hit the jump to find out.
Look, the Grammys have always been sort of out of touch when it comes to comedy, often choosing safe, unchallenging stand-up albums over cutting edge great ones. Occasionally, outstanding stuff seeps through (like Louis C.K.'s Hilarious, which won the prize last year), but it's pretty rare. The 2013 Grammy nominees were announced today, and in the category of Best Comedy Album, voters played it pretty safe and proved to be woefully ignorant of some amazing work done by comedians this past year. Here are this year's nominees for Best Comedy Album:
Lewis Black – In God We Rust
Margaret Cho – Cho Dependent (Live in Concert)
Jimmy Fallon – [...]
You might be asking: Why does Weird Al dominate the song like that, basically drowning out the other three guys? But, don't worry, they were actually performing a parody of the classic polka standard "Polka Jam #4." In order to be true to the original, "Polka Jam #Fork" needed to have two fellas holding guitars but not playing them. Also, we apparently missed last week's installment of Reggie Makes Music, which featured smooth jazz artist/Jon Daly character/possessor of no barriers Barry R.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
A lazy idiot’s motto? Perhaps. But in the cruel world of mass market comedy, where we celebrate the laziest of the idiots, sometimes old faithful is better than cutting edge. This is especially true for celebrities with established brands and followings, celebrities like, well, Danny McBride, Jack Black, and Kyle Gass. (Maybe Dane Cook? Come on…maybe?). No matter what your comedic sensibilities, it’s hard to deny “The Roadie with Danny McBride” packs a special sort of power in its anticipatory appeal, its “I already know and love these guys” punch.
Assuming you haven’t started watching already (you definitely should have; what I have [...]
Tenacious D! It's been awhile. Though they've been actively touring, and rocking face-ears live and in person, they've been out of the spotlight for about six years, since it was revealed that The Pick of Destiny's destiny was to do very poorly. Well they're back, Jack (Black)! And they need to make sure their new album, Rize of the Fenix, rocks so hard that it harms listeners' long-term health. Good news: It does! It comes out on May 15th, so until then, enjoy the star-studded clips, above and below.
Here's Tenacious D, Jack Black and Kyle Gass, talking to Chelsea Lately guest host Dave Grohl last night about their upcoming giant comedy rock event Festival Supreme, which will be pretty great as long as they get more than one band (themselves) to agree to play.
Yes, Tenacious D's first foray into jazz music is now available for your listening pleasure. Jack Black and Kyle Gass's first jazz album, entitled Jazz, only features one track, an 11-minute long snippet of free-form jazz exploration, but a video on the making of the album is also included, all for the low low price of $2.99. It's a steal for fans of comedy bands exploring different musical genres.
In a new Tenacious D interview with the Hollywood Reporter, the boys are asked about the difficulty of having their goal be for every new song to be the "best song ever." Black's answer is a pretty great, if clearly tongue-in-cheek, summation of the long slog that is the creative process: It’s just one of those things — you know gold when you stumble upon it, when you fall into a field of gold poppies. I think that Kyle and I are patient. What it takes more than anything is patience. You’ve got to go into the rehearsal laboratory and just start jamming. And you’ve got to be [...]
Have you been streaming the new Tenacious D record or do you still have a sour taste from the Pick of Destiny fallout? The first music video from Rize of the Fenix is for the title track and it's funny, like really funny. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was surprised by how funny it was. Sure, they are still doing their tongue-in-cheek-but-not-really thing but the video is undeniably clever and hilariously madcap, especially if you love awful and great and awfully great and greatly awful green screen.
Here's the new music video for Tenacious D's comeback album Rize of the Fenix. Or rather, the comedy video that features Val Kilmer leaping in front of a bullet, Dave Grohl and Josh Groban coaching a training montage, and a hug lasting for seventeen days, plus a teeny-tiny bit of music. No complaints here.
Jack Black and Kyle Gass, members of the comedy rock outfit Tenacious D, spoke to Rolling Stone today on their 20th anniversary as a band, and they laid out plans to hold a festival featuring all of the biggest names in comedy music. Dubbed "Festival Supreme," it's "a fuckin' Super Bowl of comedy-rock" in the vein of Coachella or Bonnaroo taking place on the Santa Monica Pier on October 19th of this year. Nobody's been booked for the event beyond Tenacious D, but Black rattled off his dream list of performers, which includes Flight of the Conchords, Lonely Island, Zach Galifianakis, Spinal Tap, Eric Idle, Tim Minchin, Neil [...]
Tenacious D appeared on Craig Ferguson last night to promote their new jazz album, entitled Jazz, a limited edition vinyl-only release. They perform a truncated version of the album's only track, "Simply Jazz," which Ferguson points out runs 11 minutes and 36 seconds on the record. On the close-up of the album sleeve, you can see that "Simply Jazz" is listed under Side A and "Nothing on Side B" is listed under Side B. Jack Black ends up being a competent smooth jazz singer, showing off his well-known scatting abilities, while Kyle Gass knocks it out of the park with some grade-A jazz flutin'.
One night in 1996, Jack Black and Kyle Gass — the rambunctious, rotund frontmen for the mock rock outfit Tenacious D — stood on stage in a small cafe making demands. They were performing a bit in which they mapped out to a couple of Hollywood agents, played by Mr. Show’s David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, the route that would take them to stardom. “Number one we want a fucking record deal,” began Black, before ticking off further requests for a TV show and a movie. “That would be the pinnacle — if we had a movie.” At this point in their career Tenacious D were little known outside [...]
Want to listen to the new Tenacious D album, Rize of the Fenix, in its entirety? Of course you do! So go do it, right here.
