Source (purchased/given/ borrowed/the wife's): borrowed
Date Acquired/Borrowed: May 2006
Original Review: n/a
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: In the year 2000, what was once (and sometimes still is) referred to as "the future", a young lad who looked a lot like me only, you know, younger and less bearded, was experimenting with revolutionary software called "Napster". Using a deathly slow dial-up internet connection, the young man would search and retrieve .wav and .mp3 files from this new file-share technology and burn unusual mixed CDs for his friends of these found sounds. One mixed disc was of a certain wintery/Christmassy theme, and having just been informed of the brilliant Jonathan Richman song "Abominable Snowman in the Market" by his best friend and his best friend's brother, he searched and found that song. Then he tried searching for "Yeti" with no results, followed by "Bigfoot" and "Sasquatch". The latter led this handsome fellow to download a track called "Sasquatch" by a band called Tenacious D. After downloading, this clean shaven kid gave it a listen, and marvelled at its absurdity:
Date Acquired/Borrowed: May 2006
Original Review: n/a
Thoughts/Memories/ Remembrances: In the year 2000, what was once (and sometimes still is) referred to as "the future", a young lad who looked a lot like me only, you know, younger and less bearded, was experimenting with revolutionary software called "Napster". Using a deathly slow dial-up internet connection, the young man would search and retrieve .wav and .mp3 files from this new file-share technology and burn unusual mixed CDs for his friends of these found sounds. One mixed disc was of a certain wintery/Christmassy theme, and having just been informed of the brilliant Jonathan Richman song "Abominable Snowman in the Market" by his best friend and his best friend's brother, he searched and found that song. Then he tried searching for "Yeti" with no results, followed by "Bigfoot" and "Sasquatch". The latter led this handsome fellow to download a track called "Sasquatch" by a band called Tenacious D. After downloading, this clean shaven kid gave it a listen, and marvelled at its absurdity:
"There were some scientists/ trying to figure out the sasquatch riddle/ and they figured out it was the missing link./ "In search of ...Sasquatch"/ that was a kick-ass "In Search Of..."/ with Leonard Nemoy/ kickin' out the jams/ haiiii"He listened and enjoyed on repeat a dozen times, thinking something was missing, however... a visual component perhaps, and thought to hisself (perhaps aloud), "I must have more". And he downloaded more in all his handsomeness, coming across "Tribute" and "With Karate I'll Kick Your Ass" and "Rocketsauce" and "Kyle Took A Bullet For Me" and "Kyle Quit The Band" and "Lee" and "Double Team". It's when this charming twenty-something kid heard that last one that he remembered hearing it before, on a Saturday Night Live performance (Season 23, hosted by Matthew Broderick, 05/02/1998) and didn't like it much then. 2 years older, suddenly gave him wisdom and perspective and he could see that it was not true arrogance on the part of the performers, but faux arrogance masking insecurity. Or something.
Researching the D that same day on-line, this masculine gentleman discovered that it was an acoustic death metal duo comprised of KG (Kyle Gass) and JB (Jack Black), the latter whom stole every scene in the young man's then favourite movie High Fidelity. He also learned, handsomely, that "Tenacious D" had their own HBO program from which the mp3's he had so ruggedly acquired, and he realized that there was most assuredly a visual component he was missing. The D were awesome, he thought, but would later find disappointment in their live show and their album (which betrayed the very core of the D as a power duo playing acoustic death metal. Guests like Dave Grohl were not welcome to his well-honed ear). His first exposure to The Complete Master Works a few years ago had this intelligent man's man happy to finally see the episodes from which his fondly remembered D songs were retrieved, but was disappointed to find there only three episodes and the bonus features and live concert not that entertaining, and in fact a little juvenile. Disappointment set in, and suddenly this handsome D fan was not really a D fan anymore.
Re-Review: That good-looking D fan, a few years later got married and grew a beard, but still is as congenial as ever. One of his blonder best friends, having quit his New York based job and set out for European travel, gave the good looking bearded fellow a collection of DVDs to peruse at his leisure, including the very same "The Complete Master Works" which had been loaned to him before. It took a while but the still handsome guy eventually got around to watching the 2-DVD set again and experienced the same joy as before in seeing those fondly remembered acoustic death metal songs performed in a pseudo-sketch comedy environment, broken out as six 15-minute set pieces. There was still his favourite "Sasquatch" song in "Death Of A Dream", where the bigfoot encounters the band in the woods just as they're about to give up their dream of superstardom and re-ignites their inspiration. There's the ingenious "The Fan" where the D turn the tables on their #1 fan, Lee, and instead they become his #1 fan. "Angel In Disguise" finds JB and KG at odds over a girl, while "The Search For Inspirado" finds the duo in a manic panic to write a second song to play at open mic night.
The sketches, this charming fellow, still enjoys tremendously. The basic framework of each of the six 15-minute blocks finds the D starting on-stage at open mic night at a bar in full bravado, only to be exposed for the lackluster talents they really are by audience reaction. Of course, they still have a false sense of self-aggrandization and so soldier on, determined to conquer the world or rock. The way each episode spirals out from the open-mic set-up works nicely but there wasn't much more mileage they could extract from it, so despite the brevity of their HBO run, it's probably enough. The short films on bonus "JB's BJ", "Rock Star Sperm For Sale" and "Butt Baby" are scatological, amusing in these two chubby grown men's conviction to performing such juvenile material.
There's music videos from their not so good album, although the videos themselves, made by Spumco, Liam Lynch and Spike Jonze, are all visually wonderful to watch. There's TV appearances are tame (Mad TV) or lame (Crank Yankers), and there's the live concert which, well, is like the not-good material, only live. The smarmy, cockiness that the D have on-stage in their sketch comedy works so well because it's juxtaposed with the small, apathetic open-mic audience, but it's hard to retain that juxtaposition when there's thousands of fans screaming and singing along. In fact, it just makes the performers seem, well, kind of assholish. Even though it is just an act, the amusement wears thin. And "Wonderboy", which the live audience loves, that bright, insightful bearded fellow knows, isn't a very good song and betrays everything the D should stand for. Nope, the further removed that bearded, handsome fellow gets from his 25-year-old clean-shave, handsome counterpart, the more he finds the D a thinner, less engaging, less amusing act. As such he avoided The Pick of Destiny, the D movie, altogether, and quite frankly is glad he never bought The Complete Master Works.
Oh, and that handsome man... that was me.
Now you know... the rest of the story.
Rating (return/watch again/buy own): return
Re-Review: That good-looking D fan, a few years later got married and grew a beard, but still is as congenial as ever. One of his blonder best friends, having quit his New York based job and set out for European travel, gave the good looking bearded fellow a collection of DVDs to peruse at his leisure, including the very same "The Complete Master Works" which had been loaned to him before. It took a while but the still handsome guy eventually got around to watching the 2-DVD set again and experienced the same joy as before in seeing those fondly remembered acoustic death metal songs performed in a pseudo-sketch comedy environment, broken out as six 15-minute set pieces. There was still his favourite "Sasquatch" song in "Death Of A Dream", where the bigfoot encounters the band in the woods just as they're about to give up their dream of superstardom and re-ignites their inspiration. There's the ingenious "The Fan" where the D turn the tables on their #1 fan, Lee, and instead they become his #1 fan. "Angel In Disguise" finds JB and KG at odds over a girl, while "The Search For Inspirado" finds the duo in a manic panic to write a second song to play at open mic night.
The sketches, this charming fellow, still enjoys tremendously. The basic framework of each of the six 15-minute blocks finds the D starting on-stage at open mic night at a bar in full bravado, only to be exposed for the lackluster talents they really are by audience reaction. Of course, they still have a false sense of self-aggrandization and so soldier on, determined to conquer the world or rock. The way each episode spirals out from the open-mic set-up works nicely but there wasn't much more mileage they could extract from it, so despite the brevity of their HBO run, it's probably enough. The short films on bonus "JB's BJ", "Rock Star Sperm For Sale" and "Butt Baby" are scatological, amusing in these two chubby grown men's conviction to performing such juvenile material.
There's music videos from their not so good album, although the videos themselves, made by Spumco, Liam Lynch and Spike Jonze, are all visually wonderful to watch. There's TV appearances are tame (Mad TV) or lame (Crank Yankers), and there's the live concert which, well, is like the not-good material, only live. The smarmy, cockiness that the D have on-stage in their sketch comedy works so well because it's juxtaposed with the small, apathetic open-mic audience, but it's hard to retain that juxtaposition when there's thousands of fans screaming and singing along. In fact, it just makes the performers seem, well, kind of assholish. Even though it is just an act, the amusement wears thin. And "Wonderboy", which the live audience loves, that bright, insightful bearded fellow knows, isn't a very good song and betrays everything the D should stand for. Nope, the further removed that bearded, handsome fellow gets from his 25-year-old clean-shave, handsome counterpart, the more he finds the D a thinner, less engaging, less amusing act. As such he avoided The Pick of Destiny, the D movie, altogether, and quite frankly is glad he never bought The Complete Master Works.
Oh, and that handsome man... that was me.
Now you know... the rest of the story.
Rating (return/watch again/buy own): return