As they prepare for their first UK tour in seven years, here’s ten reasons to celebrate Danko Jones (the band) and Danko Jones (the man).
Danko hosts his own radio podcast, which has included some big names
Danko’s absolutely obsessed with music, so it’s not surprising that he has his very own podcast dedicated to chatting about the heavy stuff — the easy-to-remember The Official Danko Jones Podcast — which has featured guests such as Bruce Dickinson and Henry Rollins. The 100th edition was posted a few months back, and featured highlights from the previous 99 episodes.
**Danko Jones have fans in high places
**For the band’s music video for 2010’s Full Of Regret, they went all out with a short film featuring a star-studded cast. As it turns out, Elijah Wood is a big Danko Jones fan, and once they got him involved, others started rolling in: Selma Blair wanted to work with Elijah so she starred in the video, too, and they also got Mike Watt and Lemmy involved. His music has also been used in hit TV show True Blood, cult film Kick-Ass 2, and as the theme for the 2015 WWE Royal Rumble.
Speaking of Lemmy…
The band are Lemmy-approved. Not only have Danko Jones opened for Motorhead on the road numerous times, but Danko himself was invited by Lemmy to sing Killed By Death live onstage as a duet with the legend himself – an honour and privilege not experienced by many!
Danko’s not only a musician, but also a particularly pro-active fan
When he’s not rocking out onstage, Danko lends his pen to many a publication to write about heavy metal. He has a column on the Huffington Post where he blogs about everything from collecting vinyl to his longtime love of KISS – and sometimes a random non-musical rant or two about, er, soup – and writes for a number of publications including Close-Up, Rock Zone and Burning Guitars.
Their touring CV is impressive… and varied
Danko Jones have come a long way from their days on the underground Toronto punk scene. They’ve opened for The Rolling Stones, played with Guns N’ Roses and Motorhead and even opened for Nickelback when no one else would! There are no rules when it comes to taking Danko Jones on the road.
Danko is a man of many tastes
From KISS to Coltrane, Jesus Lizard to Mars Red Sky, Danko namechecks a wide variety of music as influences. His top album from 2014 was The Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell’s Check ‘Em Before You Wreck ‘Em, and he reveals that latest album Fire Music was heavily influenced by Glenn Danzig and the Misfits.
Danko has a memorable live persona with a punk rock attitude
You know you’ve got the onstage thing down when your live show is approved by notorious musician and wild performer Peaches. The electronic artist had this to say about Danko Jones live: “I got obsessed with Danko Jones really quickly – I just kept going to see them. That was because it just seemed really raw and real. The way he relentlessly hit himself in the head throughout his shows just told me that he’s in it for life!”
They self-released their own documentary
In 2012, the band realised that they had a whole load of video footage dating right back to their early days on the underground circuit, including live shows and backstage shenanigans. Not wanting the footage to go to waste, and keen to reveal all to their fans, they created the full-length documentary Bring On The Mountain.
They don’t take themselves too seriously
Just like their sometimes tourmates Turbonegro, Danko Jones approach their music with humour. As Hank Von Helvete, former lead vocalist for Turbonegro, points out: “In Turbonegro, we were using more novelty humour, whereas Danko uses more of that cool-rock-guy humour. I think it’s really cool that we both took the rock’n’roll cliches and did them ourselves!”
Kyuss founder John Garcia is a fan – and they even collaborated
“I get a lot of offers to collaborate, but it’s got to make sense,” says John Garcia. “I’ve got to like the band, that’s No.1!” Thankfully, he was not disappointed with Danko Jones. “I was searching for something that made me feel like I wanted to listen to it over and over. And I did with Born A Lion.” As a result, Jones ended up writing a song for Garcia’s self-titled solo album, 5000 Miles, and Garcia guested on the Danko Jones song Invisible. He’s also been covered by Jack White with The Raconteurs.
Tour dates
Sep 18: Dublin, Whelans
Sep 19: Belfast, Limelight
Sep 20: Glasgow, King Tuts
Sep 22: Wolverhampton, Slade Rooms
Sep 23: Nottingham, Bodega Social Club
Sep 24: Manchester, Sound Control
Sep 25: London, Underworld
Sep 26: Leeds, The Key Club
Sep 27: Bristol, Exchange
