KOOK was founded in September of 2015 in San Jose, California by long-time members of San Jose’s storied rock/metal scene that started in the late 80s. Our members have shared the stage with legendary San Jose bands like Sleep, Dear Deceased, and Operator Generator. Guitarist Karl Larson was in the starting lineup of what became High on Fire with Matt Pike, George Rice, and Des Kensel, before parting ways. Besides HoF, KOOK is made up of former members of Sin City/Motorfly, KLANK, Kill Sister Kill, Imperial Spacepod, Kinabra, and The Stumps.
Our influences are many: classic blues, rock-and-roll, stoner/doom/sludge, to goth and new wave, and everything in between. The music is rich, complicated, hypnotic, dark, spooky, trippy, sleazy, powerful, groovy, campy, heavy, and loud. It’s all in our genes, but the resulting sound and songs have been difficult to describe.
Upon listening to the masters of our new record, Nik Carlson of the Omaha, NE band Super Moon said: “It’s like a weird drug baby of Red Fang, early QOTSA, meets some Candlemass and some other shit that I can’t really place.” We don’t know if he’s right, but we’ll take it.
KooK is:
Karl Larson: Guitar
Troy Aschenbrenner: Vocals
Eric Wilkins: Drums
Jeff Wilson: Bass
