Los Angeles – Gearing up for the June 10 release of their highly anticipated third full-length album Egomaniac [Epic Records], KONGOS expand their stacked 2016 schedule with a string of new dates this summer and a full-scale North American fall headline tour—just announced today. Following Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas on September 23-25, the multiplatinum rock band plays major markets coast to coast, concluding October 29 at The Crescent Ballroom Outdoors in their hometown of Phoenix, AZ for “Dia De Los KONGOS.” The Joy Formidable will be a special guest on most dates of the fall tour.
A special artist pre-sale goes live tomorrow (June 7) at 10am local time. At the same time, fans that preordered Egomaniac at KONGOS.com may also buy tickets before the general on-sale date at this LINK. General on-sale begins Friday at 10 am local time. All confirmed dates are included below. Pre-order Egomaniac: http://smarturl.it/Egomaniac. VIP ticket packages—featuring exclusive merchandise, meet & greets, photo-ops and other special offers—will also be available for all headline shows on the fall tour through On the List Presents.
Next week, the boys take the stage on NBC’s The Today Show Wednesday June 15 for a performance of their latest single “Take It From Me.” Meanwhile, the song continues rising at radio, going Top 10 at Alternative this week. Its wild NBAJam-inspired music video just crossed 600,000 views on YouTube/VEVO and is in regular rotation now on FM, MTV, MTV2, MTV Hits, mtvU, MTV Live, and Revolt.
Once again, KONGOS inflate their signature sound and break boundaries with the explosive Egomaniac.
Following two successful years on the road supporting 2014’s breakout Lunatic, KONGOS returned home in late 2015 with a bevy of ideas. The guys wrote initial demos separately and convened at Tokoloshe Studios—their full-scale production studio located in their hometown of Phoenix, Arizona. While sharing ideas, they collectively realized a thematic commonality, which would eventually inform the creation of Egomaniac.
Egomaniac boasts 13 new tracks from the group. These range from the blues guitar-driven accordion shuffle of “I Don’t Mind,” which instantly became a live favorite, to the skittering electronics and sharp commentary on “Autocorrect” and the epic send-off at the heart of “Look At Me.”
In 2014, “Come With Me Now” from Lunatic put KONGOS on the map. The group became unanimously recognized as one of rock music’s most infectious and invigorating new voices as the track went RIAA double-platinum for sales in excess of 2 million. It occupied the #1 spot at Alternative Radio for five weeks, marking the quickest ascent to the top by a new band in history. The song was heard everywhere with placements by The Expendables 3, Universal Studios, Dodge Ram, Samsung Galaxy, American Idol, The Originals, MTV Movie Awards, HBO, FX, CNN, NBC Sports, ESPN, NFL, WWE, PlayStation 4 and more. The video has been viewed over 45 million times. They’ve hit the stage at Late Night With Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel LIVE!, The Today Show and more and received acclaim from Rolling Stone, USA Today, and many others.
In addition, KONGOS will return to South Africa for the first time since finding success outside their homeland. The band will headline this year’s Oppikoppi Festival outside Johannesburg in August and perform two additional shows: the Durban Botanic Gardens August 3 and at The Hillcrest Quarry for One Night in Cape Town August 5.
The band will return to the U.K. for the first time this year for a show at Dingwalls in Camden, London on July 19. Tickets for this show go on sale June 10.
The brothers KONGOS—Johnny, Jesse, Dylan, and Danny—have music in their blood. Their dad John Kongos landed multiple chart hits in the seventies, and the boys picked up instruments at a young age. Now, they’ve got a musical legacy all their own.
