Toronto rocker DANKO JONES recently launched a column at Canada's Huffington Post. Following is an excerpt from his latest article:

"I don't have to tell anybody out there, life can sometimes be a bag of shit. I can barely get through the 6 o'clock news these days without having a mini anxiety attack watching the unending parade of stories on war, terrorism, molesters, rapists and diseases. It's enough to make the most optimistic of us lose all hope.

Life is tough for everybody. We need all the help we can get to cope with daily living. Some of us turn to blunts and bongs. Some of us turn to alcohol and cigarettes. Some of us turn to Jesus. Hey, whatever gets you through the night as long as nobody gets hurt.

Me? Music has always been my way of escape; my way of dealing with whatever life shoots at me. When a bad day gets me down, blasting BLACK SABBATH has always done the trick. Usually, after a tumultuous row with someone, I like to walk it off and blow off steam and this is usually done with headphones blasting 'Neon Knights' or 'Supernaut' at ear-bleeding volume.

Additionally, a nice mind-numbing night of television watching every now and then is enough to take the edge off and anesthetize the senses long enough before facing another day. It's only natural to want to laugh proportionately to how bad a day you've just had, so television shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, Finding Bigfoot and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia have become my indispensable weekly fixes. Hopefully, when the inevitable day comes and they go off the air I'll have already found new shows to glom on to like some junkie who's low on smack because right now I'm addicted to their fix.

It's no wonder Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller and Sasha Baron Cohen get paid more than Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Daniel Craig. It seems like there are more people who just want to forget about their dull, hard days and laugh it off, too.

So this begs the question, why do people watch medical dramas?"

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Danko Jones (the band) have confirmed four shows as main support for VOLBEAT, with more due to be announced soon. Their schedule is currently as follows:

March

27 - Dawson Creek, BC – EnCana Events Centre
28 - Edmonton, AB – Shaw Conference Centre
30 - Regina, SA – Brandt Centre

April

9 - New York, NY – Best Buy Theatre

Danko recently spoke with BW&BK;'s Carl Begai about the new biography Too Much Trouble – A Very Oral History Of Danko Jones, penned by Stuart Berman. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

Danko: "I told Stuart that we weren’t going to censor anything they (the band's peers and detractors) said. There were a few points when I read over the drafts where I started yelling 'That motherfucker!' (laughs). It took me back to that moment in time five years back or whatever and I’m going 'That motherfucker is such a bullshitter!' There were a couple times when I mailed Stuart back and said 'Seriously man, I’ve gotta reply to this! I’ve gotta say something! This is bullshit!' I never said strike it from the book, though. We left it all in.”

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A description written by Stuart Berman about the 160-page paperback reads as follows:

Danko Jones may be a straight-forward rock band, but their story is anything but. They’re a band that has roots in many different music communities - the North American indie-rock scene, the Scandinavian garage-rock scene, the European metal scene - but belong to none of them. They’re the only band that’s toured with both Blonde Redhead and Nickelback, and they’re the only band whose biography could attract a cast of characters that includes Lemmy Kilmister of MOTÖRHEAD, Elijah Wood, Ralph Macchio, Peaches, Dizzy Reed of GUNS N' ROSES, Damian Abraham of FUCKED UP, Jello Biafra of THE DEAD KENNEDYS, George Stroumboulopoulous, Alan Cross, Mike Watt and many others.

Too Much Trouble is about more than just Danko Jones’ history - it’s an exploration of the rigid politics that govern both underground and mainstream music, and how a band can succeed without pandering to either.

This is a 15-year saga that goes from college-radio DJ booths to corporate boardrooms, from dingy after-hours boozecans to the biggest festival stages in Europe, marked by encounters with everyone from D.C. riot grrrls to Dublin riot police, from death-metal deities to Hollywood celebrities. And if all this sounds somewhat preposterous, well, as Danko himself would say: this book ain’t boastin’, it’s truthin’.