Rock Your Socks: Tenacious D's Debut Celebrated with New Vinyl Reissue

Rock Your Socks: Tenacious D’s Debut Celebrated with New Vinyl Reissue

February 7, 2013 By Joe Marchese — No Comments

The Fenix has rizen!

This Sunday evening, Tenacious D – the comedy/rock duo of Jack Black and Kyle Gass – is up for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. The Tenacious team’s Rize of the Fenix is facing stand-up competition from such acts as Jim Gaffigan, Kathy Griffin, Lewis Black, Margaret Cho and Jimmy Fallon, the latter of whom also mixed comedy and rock to great effect on his nominated album. But Tenacious D is looking back as well as forward. On March 5, Epic Records and Legacy Recordings will unveil a limited-edition, numbered, 180-gram vinyl gatefold 2-LP set of Tenacious D’s self-titled 2001 album. Tenacious D: 12th Anniversary Edition will unveil a brand-new song recorded especially for this release, “Pat Reilly,” plus an MP3 album download.

Black and Gass are celebrating the 12th anniversary of the platinum-certified album with a new tour kicking off on February 28 at Atlantic City’s House of Blues. Though Tenacious D’s first album didn’t arrive until 2001, the duo had been performing since the early 1990s and had already appeared in television specials on HBO by the time of the album’s release. The rise, er, rize of Tenacious D also coincided with the takeoff of Black’s film career; the actor has considered his role in 2000’s music-centric High Fidelity to be his breakthrough.

Tenacious D, the album, was helmed by The Dust Brothers (Beastie Boys, Hanson, Beck) recorded. Sessions began, of all places, in Neil Diamond’s own studios. Black had befriended the music legend while playing a member of a Diamond cover band in the 2001 comedy Saving Silverman. At Diamond’s ArchAngel Studios and The Boat studios, Black and Gass recorded such fare as “Kielbasa” (an ode to anal sex) and “F**k Her Gently” (an ode to, ah, well, you get the idea). There were also shout-outs to metal hero Ronnie James Dio (“Dio”) and even Bach (“Rock Your Socks”), as well as a rock opera dedicated to cannabis (“City Hall”) and a climactic question of the listeners that would likely make John Waters and Divine smile. Dave Grohl joined the D on drums, as did Page McConnell (Phish) on keyboards, Warren Fitzgerald (The Vandals) on guitar, and Steven Shane McDonald (Redd Kross) on bass.

After the jump: more on Tenacious D, including the track listing and pre-order link!

Tenacious D peaked at No. 33 on the Billboard 200. Black and Gass followed it up with 2006’s The Pick of Destiny (a tie-in to the film of the same name) and 2012’s Rize of the Fenix. The upcoming tour in support of Fenix will return the band to its acoustic roots. The 12th Anniversary Edition of Tenacious D, a vinyl-only release, arrives in stores on March 5, and you can pre-order below!

Tenacious D, Tenacious D: 12th Anniversary Edition (Epic EK 86234, 2001 – reissued Epic/Legacy, 2013)

Kielbasa
One Note Song
Tribute
Wonderboy
Hard Fucking
Fuck Her Gently
Explosivo
Dio
Inward Singing
Kyle Quit the Band
The Road
Cock Pushups
Lee
Friendship Test
Friendship
Karate Schnitzel
Karate
Rock Your Socks
Drive-Thru
Double Team
City Hall/I Believe/Malibu Nights
Pat Reilly (2013 bonus track)

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song and beyond, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with labels including Real Gone Music and Cherry Red Records, has released newly-curated collections produced and annotated by Joe from iconic artists such as Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross and The Supremes, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles, The Spinners, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Meat Loaf, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Liza Minnelli, Darlene Love, Al Stewart, Michael Nesmith, and many others.

Joe has written liner notes, produced, or contributed to over 200 reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them America, JD Souther, Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, BJ Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, Petula Clark, Robert Goulet, and Andy Williams.

Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray.

Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.