Kongos (band)

Kongos (often styled as KONGOS) is a South African-born Greek-American alternative rock band consisting of four brothers: Johnny Kongos (accordion, keyboards, vocals), Jesse Kongos (drums, percussion, vocals), Daniel Kongos (guitar, vocals), and Dylan Kongos (bass guitar, lap slide guitar, vocals).

Beginnings
They spent their childhoods in the city of London and in South Africa. They compose, record and perform in Phoenix, Arizona. They graduated from Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, Arizona and attended Arizona State University. The four men are the sons of recording artist John Kongos. They are of Greek, American and Mexican origin and have attended the Greek Saheti school in Gauteng, South Africa.

Lunatic (2011–2015)
The band's sophomore album Lunatic was released in 2012. Kongos's single "I'm Only Joking", from their album Lunatic, topped various South African charts, including all three of Tuks FM's charts, and received copious airtime on 5FM and on many other stations in South Africa. The music video for the song debuted on TV 5 on SABC 3 and was in rotation on MKTV. Their second single "Come with Me Now" was in rotation on both 5FM and Tuks FM. The song appeared on the 5FM Top 40 and the Tuks FM Top 30 charts.

In late October 2013, the band self-released Lunatic in the United States. In 2014, both "I'm Only Joking" and "Come with Me Now" began receiving noticeable exposure in the United States, gaining momentum in airplay on radio and being featured in television commercials there. Their song "Come with Me Now" was used as the official theme song for WWE's pay-per-view event Extreme Rules and in the motion picture The Expendables 3. As a result, the band was signed by Epic Records in late January 2014 and the band re-released Lunatic. "Come with Me Now" had sold more than 70,000 copies as of March 2014, but has since been certified Platinum by the RIAA, signifying sales of more than a million copies.

Egomaniac (2016)
On March 27, 2016 Kongos announced via their newsletter that their second album, Egomaniac, would be released on June 10, 2016 and that the first single, "Take It from Me", would premiere on April 15. On April 28, 2016, the second instant grat track "I Don't Mind" was released to album pre-order customers. The official Egomaniac tour was announced in June 2016 commencing in September.

Members

 * Daniel Kongos – guitar, vocals
 * Dylan Kongos – bass guitar, lap slide guitar, vocals
 * Jesse Kongos – drums, percussion, vocals
 * Johnny Kongos – accordion, keyboards, vocals

In popular culture
The film Holy Motors, and the video games Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel and Payday 2 used their song "Come with Me Now" in their official trailers. WWE also used this song as the theme for their 2014 pay-per-view event Extreme Rules. It is also the theme song for the Australian version of reality television series I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! since 2015. It was used in the soundtrack to the movie The Expendables 3 and for the trailer to the automotive show The Grand Tour. The song was also used in an advertisement for Universal Studios.

Discography

 * Kongos (2007)
 * Lunatic (2012)
 * Egomaniac (2016)