May 6, 1999 Danko Jones: Man, band, 5-year plan "It's okay if you want to take, take, take/ Just make sure you credit The Kid, who taught you how to shake," -- Danko Jones, Mango Kid. As Danko Jones himself might say, the above passage "ain't boastin', it's truthin.' " Jones, who plays Lee's Palace Saturday, has certainly had no shortage of credit for his efforts since he first strutted onto the local scene three years ago with his sharply attired, self-named power trio. Back then, Danko Jones turned insular Toronto indie-rock on its ear. They wore suits and fedoras, sang about sex, and played two-minute, two-chord blues-punk songs that crunched under their singer's swaggering stage moves. In other words, they played real rock 'n' roll. From the outset, there was mystique, too: Though they were virtually unknown outside of a small circle of club-goers, the group brazenly refused interviews -- this column being one of the few exceptions -- and kept the gigs rare. In the process, Danko Jones have become one of the most hotly tipped independent rock bands in Canada and the U.S. Judging by their record-industry shark-infested showcases at Canadian Music Week and Austin's South By Southwest Festival in March, the label feeding frenzy has begun. "The table is set," says Jones recently, flanked by bassist John "JC" Calabrese and drummer Gavin "Golden" Brown. "Buy us dinner." Word on the street? Most of the band's offers have come from south of the border. The band won't confirm that. "The response we've been getting in the U.S. has triggered a lot of what's happening in Canada," JC says, cryptically. "We're ready to take this all over. This isn't a hobby or a pastime, it's our life and we'll treat it accordingly." Still, any deal seems odd for a band so determined to play by their own rules that they were once featured on CITY-TV's The New Music without saying a single word on camera. (Jones -- not his real name, by the way -- sat and read a 1950s issue of Playboy while his fans were interviewed.) "We want to put out a record," drummer Brown says. "Some people are interested in helping us do that, and we're interested in letting them." Adds JC: "Danko Jones has always been a live band. We play songs that are not released, not recorded, and people know the lyrics. Rather than just recording a live album, we want to take this energy into the studio and see what can happen." Danko Jones' swelling fanbase was able to get its mitts on a recording last year. The band released a one-off, five-song CD on Sonic Unyon Records, which is now almost out of print. The trio now says that represented the end of "phase one," the half-way point on their professed "five-year plan" to rock North America. They've since parted ways with their original drummer and recruited longtime friend Brown, a top-notch timekeeper who was recently jettisoned from the clutches of Big Sugar. Jones says the band is putting more of an emphasis on songwriting, broadening their "tight, soul-punk experience." If that sounds like a move toward commercial acceptance, tough rocks. "It's a matter of feeling comfortable," says Jones. "That gives longevity to a band. We've all tried this indie-rock route. It's not all that it's cracked up to be. "You 'sell out' by just going on stage. If you don't want to perform, stay home and play your guitar." |
