Danko Jones

Danko Jones is a three-piece hard rock band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The band consists of Danko Jones (vocals/guitar), JC (also known as John Calabrese) (bass guitar), and Dan Cornelius (drums).

History

Formed in 1996, they played consistently for two years in and around the north-eastern United States and Canada, opening for The New Bomb Turks, Nashville Pussy, Blonde Redhead, The Make-Up, The Dirtbombs, The Chrome Cranks and The Demolition Doll Rods. Originally they didn't even want to release an album opting to have the band's live reputation spread via word of mouth. Eventually, the trio relented and put out a self-titled six song e.p. on Sonic Unyon records in 1998.

In 1999 they released the self-produced My Love Is Bold E.P. and achieved national exposure with the single "Bounce". They were nominated for a Juno in 2000 for Best Alternative Album.

In 2001 Bad Taste Records (Lund, Sweden) released a compilation of the band's early recordings, demos, and b-sides entitled, I'm Alive and On Fire. A 5 week European tour followed to promote the release including shows at the Roskilde festival in Denmark and Hultsfred festival in Sweden. By the end of the year they had returned 2 more times, most notably as main support for the Backyard Babies.

In 2002 they released their first full-length album, Born a Lion, produced by Bill Bell, on Bad Taste Records in Europe and on Universal in Canada. The band did several European tours and two Canadian tours to promote the record including an unprecedented repeat performance at Roskilde and the now legendary return to Hultsfred as well as notable stops to Pukkelpop in Belgium and The Lowlands festival in the Netherlands. They also managed to grab the opening slot with The Rolling Stones on their "40 Licks" World tour kick-off show at the Palais Royale in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on August 16, 2002.

2003 saw the release of We Sweat Blood, produced by Matt DeMatteo, and the group taking a heavier approach to their hard-rock sound. More touring followed that included Europe and Japan. They were also nominated for two Junos: Best Rock Album and Best video.

While success was happening abroad, home relations with Universal Canada had soured and the band was dropped mid-album run. Explanations from the label were vague, but speculations point to Jones' February 2004 appearance on CBC Sunday re: file sharing where Jones appeared as a pro-downloader opposite then CRIA president, Brian Robertson (Canadian Recording Industry Association). Putting their money where their mouths were the band uploaded 5 never-before-released "web exclusive" songs for free download which remained on their site () until a site overhaul was announced.

Getting dropped from Universal Canada did little to stop the group as they continued to tour heavily for the rest of the year well into 2004 with bands like Turbonegro, Sepultura and The Bronx. While touring they managed to pick up another Juno nomination for Best Rock Album and tour Australia as well as more European dates including Rock Am Ring and Rock Im Park in Germany and Download, Leeds and Redding in England.

Early 2005 was taken up by recording the follow-up to We Sweat Blood, but not without a series of tours amidst recording that brought the band to the Netherlands, Germany and South Africa. In April, American label, Razor And Tie released We Sweat Blood and the band set out to America in support as well. Working two releases simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic proved quite hard and the worldwide release for the upcoming album, Sleep Is the Enemy, produced by Matt DeMatteo, was pushed back to 2006.

During the summer and fall of 2005 the band toured America heavily with two of We Sweat Blood's singles being second most added to active rock radio in America ("Lovercall" and "Forget My Name"). Stateside tours with Flogging Molly, Our Lady Peace, The Supersuckers, and The (International) Noise Conspiracy followed.

In January and February 2006, under new Canadian label, Aquarius Records, the band set out to do their first Canadian tour in almost 4 years opening up for Nickelback. Many were confused by the decision to tour with the multi-platinum radio friendly band, to which Jones shot back, "We get to play in every NHL hockey arena, sold-out in our home country. You do the math.". With the release of Sleep Is the Enemy came more touring including America and a headlining European club tour with support from Brant Bjork & The Bros. The summer saw them perform at Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park, With Full Force and Wacken Open Air in Germany; Hellfest and Furiafest in France, Metaltown in Sweden, Pinkpop and Lowlands in Holland, Tuska Festival, Ruisrock and Ankkarock in Finland, Gampel in Switzerland and Wireless in the UK among at least a dozen more. Jones has been quoted as saying, "The highlight of the summer was getting to sing my favorite Motorhead song, not once but twice, with Motorhead, "Killed By Death" at Metaltown in Sweden and Hellfest in France".

In May 2006, the song "Baby Hates Me", was the official theme song for WWE Backlash pay-per-view.

In October 2006, a 2 week tour of Norway saw the band play with ex-Kyuss front-man, John Garcia who appeared on the song "Invisible" off Sleep Is the Enemy. They performed a set of songs that included Thorn (Unida), Allen's Wrench (Kyuss), and Senor Moreno's Plan (Hermano). Garcia flew out to perform again with the band at the last show of their tour in Toronto this past December 2006.

Their fourth album, Never Too Loud was released in February 2008 and produced by Nick Raskulinecz. The album yielded three singles, "Code Of The Road" followed by "Take Me Home" and "King Of Magazines". A major city tour of Europe in April 2008 was followed by a Canadian tour in May and a three month stint in Europe playing almost 30 dates on the festival circuit that included Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park and With Full Force in Germany; Bospop and Lowlands in Holland; Sziget Festival in Hungary; Rabarock in Estonia; Provinsi Rock in Finland; and Eurockeennes and Hellfest in France, where Jones got to sing on stage with one of his favorite bands, Death Angel for the song, "Bored". and a dozen and a half more. In the fall/winter of 2008 Danko Jones toured England, Germany, France and Benelux opening for Mot?rhead.

On February 3, 2009 B-Sides was released in Europe only - a collection of previously released b-sides from European singles and unreleased tracks that spanned 1996 to 2008. Overall reception was more than positive and the album was quickly nicknamed "A-Sides". On February 24 they commenced a 7 week tour in support of the release that spanned Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, France and the UK with support coming from The Backyard Babies, Winnebego Deal and The Black Spiders, sadly the Birmingham (UK) date was cancelled for unexplained reasons. The Cd yielded the single "Sugar High".

Radio, Spoken Word and Columns

Jones hosts a syndicated radio show called "The Magical World Of Rock" broadcast out of 95.3 Rocket FM in Stockholm (Sweden) and syndicated to Power 97 in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), Pure Rock Radio in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada), CT Das Radio in Bochum (Germany) and Radio Tango in Oslo (Norway). The show's website is at:

He also released his first spoken word album in 2004 entitled The Magical World Of Rock and completed two spoken word tours that same year, including a show at the Crossing Borders festival in The Hague in the Netherlands where he spoke alongside Nick Hornby, Ian Mackaye, Jim White, Michael Franti and Irvine Welsh.

Danko Jones currently writes four separate bi-monthly columns for Rock Hard (Germany), Guitar For The Practicing Musician (Germany), Rockstar Magazine (Switzerland), and Close-Up Magazine (Sweden).

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Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danko Jones