monkey see. monkey groove. King Konga

From smoke-filled bars to the fiery ashes of Woodstock '99, King Konga have managed to keep their cool and now find themselves poised to bring their groove-filled stylings to this year's Hoosierfest.\nKing Konga -- whose sound is somewhere in the realm of Dave Matthews Band blended with the vivacious drumming of world music and a little bit of funk -- believe the key to their success lies within their determination to persevere and deep love for what they do.\nThe band consists of vocalist/guitarist Dan Hannon, percussionist Tony Lymon, bassist Steve Cook and drummer Skeeto Valdez, most of whom met while attending the University of Southern Mississippi.\nHannon said he believes the positive energy Konga brings to its live shows and music serve as a welcome change from the usual dish on modern radio.\n"A lot of pop recently is heavier and driven by anger, and I think people are fed up with that," Hannon says. "Were just four honest guys on stage, and we love this more then anything else."\nSome musicians know from the start that music is what they are fated to do, but in Konga's case, the band formed initially just to make ends meet.\n"We kinda became a band by accident," Hannon says. "We just needed some cash one week and one gig slowly became another and another, and here we are now seven years later." \nGig by gig, Konga slowly saw their popularity grow after years of self-financed and self-produced tours and albums. But the band's formation was not instantaneous nor easy. Hannon recalls one point where the band repeatedly tried out numerous drummers before finally deciding on Valdez after an extensive search involving over 700 phone calls, Hannon says.\n"That four month period was definitely the toughest for us, having to teach a new drummer the songs, and just going up on stage not knowing what was going to happen," Hannon says.\nWith the addition of Valdez, who has recorded with Funkmaster George Clinton, the band began to gain momentum, eventually playing a headline show at the House of Blues and a guest spot on an NBC morning show. The band later landed a spot at Woodstock '99, which Hannon says was an enormous highpoint for the band, as well as a source of inspiration for their future.\n"Woodstock '99 definitely set a standard for us," Hannon says. "After that, we saw what we could do by ourselves and we decided we gotta just keep on going."\nDave Kubiak, owner of the Bluebird, served as entertainment organizer for Hoosierfest and says he felt Konga's style would fit right in with the eclectic set of performers scheduled to appear at the event.\n"We tried to get a lot of different types of music," Kubiak says. "They had played in town a few times and were generating a pretty good reputation by word of mouth, and so they seemed like a great band for the college students in our audience. They had talked about wanting to do an all ages show at Bluebird, so everyone could come. Hoosierfest seemed like the perfect opportunity for them to do so."\nThough proud of their live performance, King Konga has also managed some success with their studio recordings, namely 1997's monkey see. monkey groove., which sold 15,000 copies. Its successor, Halo, recently passed the 12,000 copies sold point and Konga currently has plans to release their next album Something Good on Oct. 23.\n"There are really peaks and valleys on the same day a lot of time," Hannon says. "But at the same time we hope people see it's blatantly obvious that we enjoy every minute we're up there playing." \nIt's this calmness and determination that allows the band to keep their sanity through trying times.\n"We never know what's going to come next," publicist Heather Crickenberger says. "It's really just gig to gig."\nIt's this easy-going optimism towards life that is expressed on their junior effort Halo, particularly in the song "Same but different blues":\n"Woke up this morning crazy from the heat / I put my pants on backwards and my shoes on the wrong feet / But I know that everything will be alright."\nAnd with that attitude, it probably will.