Thursday, August 8, 2002 Hear Danko Jones Roar Six years in the making. That, in essence, is the lead in to Born A Lion, the debut full length from Toronto rock act Danko Jones. And for anyone else who has followed the band's career, seeing them live, picking up one of their EPs, revelling in their raw, sonic intensity, the album may seem and sound like a big, bold, slick step for the trio. Maybe even too big, too slick? If that's the case, frontman and band namesake Danko Jones is unapologetic. "We wanted to make a slick record, and we wanted to make a slick record that sounded raw. I think that's what we did," says Jones, who brings the band to Calgary for a Saturday appearance at Molson Canadian Snow Jam at Millennium Park. The dark, dangerously, almost illegally virile Jones says Born A Lion is the direction they've been headed since forming in the mid '90s. And when it came time to hit the studio earlier in the year, they had the time, they had the money, and as unfashionable as it might be right now in the age of bands such as White Stripes and The Hives, they had inclination to go big. "I grew up listening to records that were slickly produced," Jones says. "I grew up listening to and loving bands that were on major labels and produced by big producers and I'm not going to sacrifice our sound to have a lo-fi cool esthetic that people are forcing themselves to gravitate towards because they think it's cool." Confidence is not something you'd expect Jones to be lacking, especially when you see him onstage -- he's a psychotic, testosterone-fuelled fireball of rock 'n' roll who spouts come-ons and let's get-it-ons like holy scripture. But Jones admits, the lack of attention from major labels in Canada, even when Canadian radio support was there, did plant one or two seeds of doubt in his head, if only briefly. Why they've kept at it is because they know people get it when they see it. That's something that was reaffirmed by the band's reception overseas, where, after a five-week tour, they were added to major rock festivals sharing a dressing room with P.J. Harvey and the like. "What took us a year to do in Europe, took us six years to do in Canada," Jones says. "I don't blame it on the fans. The people who've been into the bands and who've bought our records and supported us have really kept Danko Jones alive. "We play a show and everybody goes crazy and we're like, 'We know this is the hot (stuff). We know what we're doing is good.' " |
