Toronto rocker DANKO JONES has posted a new article for his ongoing column at The Huffington Post discussing BACKYARD BABIES frontman Dregen. Check out an excerpt below:

"Why would anyone leave THE HELLACOPTERS now?" I said to myself, staring at a promo poster for The Backyard Babies' sophomore album, Total 13, hanging on the walls of the now defunct Toronto punk rock record store, Full Blast.

The Backyard Babies, from Nässjö, Sweden, were a Rock N' Roll quartet who, along with The Hellacopters from Stockholm, helped ignite the Scandinavian Rock Revival of the 1990s. Backyard Babies guitarist, Andreas Tyrone Svensson a.k.a. Dregen, co-founded both bands and was playing in both bands until mounting schedules from either side forced a decision.

Ultimately, he chose to leave behind the growing fanfare and Stateside interest of The Hellacopters to build it up again with his childhood buddies in The Backyard Babies. Definitely admirable, but as someone who was chasing the opportunity to make this Rock thing more than just a hobby, it was baffling to me.

In the mid to late 90's Garage Rock was a thriving underground with bands like THE NEW BOMB TURKS, TEENGENERATE, THE OBLIVIONS, THE MAKERS, THE DEVIL DOGS, ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT, THE SUPERSUCKERS and The Hellacopters at the top of the heap. Of course, this scene eventually died down but not before bands like THE HIVES and THE WHITE STRIPES achieved overground success.

When it comes to Scandinavia's contribution, what started with The Hellacopters, GLUECIFER and The Backyard Babies continues to thrive and churn out bands today like GRAVEYARD, FREE FALL, BOMBUS, HORISONT, WITCHCRAFT, CRYSTAL CARAVAN and BULLET, while Denmark's VOLBEAT pretty much own the Rock scene in The States.

When we ended up playing with The Hellacopters for their US debut at the CMJ Music Festival in 1998, on the eve of their 3rd release, Grande Rock, the line-up to get into the show snaked around the nightclub. Midway into their set a friend leaned over to me and yelled, "They're missing their key guy". He meant Dregen. Having only seen his picture on the back of the Supershitty To The Max Hellacopters album and the Total 13 promo poster, I didn't really know what he meant but still the question lingered with me -- "Why would anyone leave The Hellacopters now?"

Flash Forward three years later to 2001 where we found ourselves on our first European tour playing the Malmo City Festival with none other than The Backyard Babies. Now was my chance to see what was worth passing up the elusive wave of tastemaker approval and Hellacopters hype. It took me only 3 minutes for me to understand. Here I was thinking Dregen's decision to leave The Hellacopters, however commendable, was ill-advised and presumptuous only to realize it was probably the best move he ever made. I watched with mouth agape as the The Backyard Babies tore through their set, churning out airtight Hard Rock; the kind of Hard Rock that makes you hum while you let it kick your ass. Each member locked in an unified beat with hair whipping to and fro, veins bulging and faces in blissful grimace. And there was Dregen, near-airborne with charisma shooting out like the stars one sees after getting punched in the face. He was JOHNNY THUNDERS, IGGY POP, ANGUS YOUNG, NIKKI SIXX and ACE FREHLEY all mashed together. He was spellbinding."

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Danko is a featured guest on the new ANNIHILATOR album, Feast, handling lead vocals on the song 'Wrapped'. In a recent conversation with BW&BK;'s Carl Begai, he commented on the track:

"Look, when Jeff Waters asks you to sing on an Annhilator song, you get in the studio and start singing your ass off," says Danko. "It was a song that had been hanging around for a few years. I did the vocals a while back. When Jeff told me he was gonna put it on the new record I was pretty stoked. I’m glad people get to hear it now."

Danko Jones (the band) recently announced 17 headline shows for Scandinavia this fall, hitting Sweden, Norway and Finland. The schedule is available below:

October

25 - Helsingborg, Sweden - Tivoli
26 - Uppsala, Sweden - Svandammshallarna
30 - Örebro, Sweden - Club 700
31 - Trollhattan, Sweden - N3

November

1 - Borås, Sweden - X&Y; Borås
2 - Karlstad, Sweden - Nöjesfabriken
7 - Flen, Sweden - Amazon
8 - Drammen, Norway - Union Scene
10 - Bergen, Norway - Garage
11 - Stavanger, Norway - Folken
13 - Norrkoping, Sweden - Dynamo
14 - Borlange, Sweden - Liljan
15 - Stockholm, Sweden - Bandit Boat 16
16 - Turku, Finland - Klubi
17 - Tampere, Finland - Pakkahoune
18 - Oulu, Finland - Teatria Club
20 - Jyvasklyla, Finland - Lutakko Club

Go to this location for ticket links and updates.