Bireli was born in France in a traditional manouche-Gypsy family. He took the guitar when he was four, already played Reinhards hits at the age of eight and won a Gypsy music festival in Strasbourg at the age of twelve. He was a prodigy right from the beginning so after the festival he started his career as a musician. Later he moved to the United States, where he met famous musicians like Stéphane Grappelli, Benny Goodman and Benny Carter. After he stepped into the world of jazz, he performed with famous Jaco Pastorius and Al Dimeola, becoming a legend of the Gypsy Swing music. While it is literally impossible to become bigger than Django in this music, Bireli Lagrene managed to do one great thing: he gave this style a modern twist and new energy.

Well if you are interested in his music check out his Move (2005) album.

So if you are interested and want to get into this band, check out their 2004 Tonight Alright album. It has both the Black Betty cover and the song from Death Race, which alone already make the album worth listening. The formula of Spiderbaits music on this album is pretty simple – fuzzy raw guitars, rock vocals and dance oriented drums. As a result a dirty music that immediately reminds you of the red Australian wastelands, kangaroos and massive jeeps running through the red sands. This is a desert party and everyone is invited, so don’t hesitate and maybe you will discover a new rock band that will be the right thing for you.

While their earlier works have a dirty a bluesy guitar work, Danko really kicks of with the 2006 release Sleep Is the Enemy. Stepping to more mainstream sound the record is literally filled with hits and if you give it a few spins, you will be singing the songs right from the second spin. The lyrics are pure rock and roll, with lot of babe words and devoted mostly to women and some personal stuff. The second release worth mention is the Never Too Loud album, released in 2008. It kicks of with the best hit of Danko Jones – Code of the Road, a simple yet spectacular road song with a great video. Never Too Loud continues the hit-filled rock assault started on the previous record, so don’t worry, you won’t be bored even for a minute while you are listening to this record.

So if you don’t know where to start with this band, start with their best of compilation – This Is Danko Jones, that was released in April 2009.

The best album to start with is their latest – Symetria album released in 2007. It is a cosmic masterpiece filled with deep space vibe, great synths and progressive music. Starting from the first song Symetria grabs you and lets you go only after these spectacular forty seven minutes, when silence finally takes place in the room, leaving you with the dreams of space voyages. Second song Futur Ixiom is like watching a space station being constructed. The folk influenced Flora/Fauna is a march on an alien planet. And the best song on the album is definitely Raiden, it is a catchy eight minute masterpiece that gently opens the doors of space right from the first notes.

Sonic Boom Six are sometimes labeled as punk, sometimes as ska, and sometimes as reggae/hip-hop with punk, dub and ska (that is the closest definition of their unusual sound). They also have some jpop influence, which can be clearly heard in the female vocal style. Not to make you feel confused, I’ll try to explain. This is a five piece band with one girl singing and four guys singing, playing bass, guitars, drums, saxophone, trombone and sampling. Oh and they have great British accent.

The biggest success of this band is that everything sounds very natural and has one major influence in every song – ska. Everything else varies from song to song. It can be hip-hop or punk or some dub piece, but there are always elements of ska. Sonic Boom Six manage to get everything together so well, that it is easy to believe that you are listening to the same band that manages to change style in every four minutes. Rapping takes most probably the second place in the influences, of course it is nothing like professional rappers, still it is okay and reminiscent of acts like Rage Against The Machine and Flobots.

Their self-titled album released in 2009 literally explodes with spectacular, unusually yet very radio friendly music. After the short intro the first track Between Transparent And Sparkling kicks in with a great chorus and the next half hour rush in a vortex of disco parts, melodic singing, great choruses, emotional verses and a minor interlude. Every song is a hit, and the closing one – The Nuclear Me, is a dance floor crasher, that can spice up any party when it hits the winamp.

Today many bands (Enter Shikari, Attack! Attack!, etc.) mix modern rock with some dance elements still these Italian guys have the mix that is catchy and interesting, and most important they really fit both for a dance floor and a rock club.

The masterpiece of the soundtrack is the cover of Howling Wolfs – Smokestack Lightnin’ by mostly unknown actor Eamonn Walker. Walker literally stole the show during the movie, playing one of the most mysterious bluesman of the 50^th and the same thing happened in the soundtrack. Also it is hard not to mention spectacular vocal talents of Beyoncé who sung such Etta James classics as At Last, I’d Rather Go Blind and All I Could Do Was Cry. She really gave them some modern energy, while preserving the original spirit of the good old soul music. Famous rapper Mos Def who played Chuck Berry also gave a good twist to oldies like Maybellene and No Particular Place To Go. And of course one of the main stars – famous Muddy Waters, played by Jeffrey Wright, has half a dozen songs on the soundtrack, with hits like I’m A Man, Hoochie Coochie Man and I Can’t Be Satisfied.

And oh… if you are already running of to the CD shop don’t forget to lay your hands on the Deluxe Version, it’s the one worth buying.

How Do You Like The Sound Of That is a spectacular work filled with early rock-n-roll vibe (even boogie) and early metal similar to Rush and Black Sabbath. Not forgetting a good twist of modern garage bands and vocal style similar to Creedence Clearwater Revival and at some points to Jim Morrison.

If you will some day lay your hands on How Do You Like The Sound Of That expect ten songs and one small interlude, 36 minutes of good old whiskey soaked blues rock.

The record is very groovy, of course the trademark Motorhead style songs are still there (Rock Out, Runaround Man), but English Rose is a real raw bluesy rock song, very experimental for the band that is active with the same sound for like 33 years. Songs like Heroes, When The Eagle Screams and Teach You How To Sing The Blues are the core of this record, memorable choruses, nice lyrics, awesome voice of immortal rock legend Lemmy Kilminister. Even some stoner rock parts are there. So if you want you can catch the spirit and the attitude of real raw English rock with this great record.

The whole style is reminiscent of the Japanese post-rock bands like Te’ and Mirror with a mix of US styled math-rock in the vein of Tera Melos and Don Cabalero. And still somehow this band catches the old styled melodies similar to theme songs of mid 90^th movies and soap operas like Melrose Place or Friends. A relaxing but very smart vibe even with a bit pop punk edge. The tendency to make pop music more complicated and to make complicated music more ear friendly is definitely growing. Hundreds of genius jazz parts that were mostly for fans are now breaking their way into independent music and in near future I think they will break into more mainstream, they deserve it.