About The Pick of Destiny by Tenacious D Album
The Pick of Destiny is the second album by the American hard rock band Tenacious D. It also serves as a soundtrack for the movie Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. The album was released on November 14, 2006 through Epic Records, and debuted at number eight on the Billboard 200. The Pick of Destiny is the band's first studio release in five years, following up their 2001 self-titled debut, Tenacious D. The album was produced by the Dust Brothers' John King and features appearances by Meat Loaf, Ronnie James Dio, Tim Robbins, and Dave Grohl. Another album, More Rocktastic Music from the Film, contains the score music that the soundtrack excludes. In the absence of original comedy skits, there are excerpts of dialogue from the soundtrack's accompanying film between numerous songs. Portions of The Pick of Destiny were recorded at Dave Grohl's studio. A clean version of the album was recorded. The album was released in three separate edits: a "clean" radio edit featuring re-recorded vocals replacing foul language with non-sense words, a "dirty" edit featuring the full film versions, and a limited edition. All three versions feature clips from the movie, but some dialogue was re-recorded for the clean version. The special limited edition was released in a cardboard "old book case", which includes a digipack version of the album, a foldout poster depicting the D and Sasquatch, eight tarot cards from the film (Tenacious D, The Training, Destiny, Masterpiece, The Quest, The Divide, and Two Kings, as well as a card explaining the other cards), and a plastic replica of the Pick of Destiny. If the set was pre-ordered from the Tenacious D website, it also included a t-shirt. The first song on the album, "Kickapoo", is named after the non-fictional hometown of Kickapoo, Missouri of JB, Jack Black's fictional character. It tells the fictional story of a young Black running away from home and a very strict religious father, to become a rock star. Meat Loaf appears in the movie and song as Black's father, and Ronnie James Dio appears as himself, after Black prays to a poster of him on the wall of his bedroom door. Originally, the role of Dio was going to be taken by Ozzy Osbourne. The first single from the album is entitled "POD", which stands for "Pick of Destiny". The single had a music video directed by Liam Lynch, who directed the movie. There has also been a video created for the track "Classico", animated by John Kricfalusi, creator of The Ren and Stimpy Show. His studio Spümcø did the "Fuck Her Gently" video from the band's last album. "History", a song that originated on the band's TV show, Tenacious D, was re-recorded for this album, with additional lyrics. "The Government Totally Sucks" is the only song not to be featured in the final cut of the movie. It is, however, featured in the deleted scenes section of the DVD release. The song "Beelzeboss (The Final Showdown)" is the dialogue and rock showdown between the Devil and the band after returning the Pick to him, and completing him enough to destroy the world. It is a profanity-laced parody of the song Devil Went Down to Georgia, with the prize being Kyle Gass' soul, or the band's rent. A master track of "The Metal" is featured in the rhythm games Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band, the latter of which is available through downloadable content. It is also featured as an unlockable song in Tim Schafer's Brütal Legend. The song was first performed live on an episode of Saturday Night Live, and had their roadie Jason Reed (Lee) in a robot costume defeating the other musical genres, played by members of the cast. During their late 2006 tour, Tenacious D played their new songs from this album as well as from their self-titled original, but due to the heavy amount of sound editing needed for the album version, "Master Exploder" (Master Exploder had to be mimed, something that Tenacious D hates to do. The song also appears in the Wii exclusive video game Battle of the Bands, as well as on the setlist of the rhythmic video game Rock Band 2.
