Kai Kln

Kai Kln was formed in 1989 when drummer Neil Franklin introduced guitarist Sherman Loper from his old Punk band Laughing Jesus to bassist Scott Anderson of Skeptic Peace for a jam session. The session went so well that the three quickly went on to write a handful of instrumental songs and started playing parties in the Sacramento, CA suburb, Carmichael, throwing in psychedelic post punk jams where their songs left off.

This hard edged combination of punk, metal, and hard rock caught the attention of singer Gene Smith one day when Gene happened on Scott and Neil at a practice and ended up jamming with them. He was recruited by the rhythm section on the spot and Kai Kln was born with Neil naming the band after a fictional warrior character from a silly story he had written one day in high school detention.
Gene quickly filled out the band's sound with his vocals and shared guitar duties with Sherman. This gave the band new focus and soon they were composing technically challenging songs drawing from all of their backgrounds and also from the underground rock scene in Sacramento and the Bay Area during the early nineties. After attracting the attention of Sacramento music promoters Jerry Perry and Brian McKenna they landed a gig opening for the up and coming band, Primus. This gig along with a string of college parties expanded the band's fan base and with manager Marc Malakie's assistance they were soon selling out clubs in Sacramento, the Bay Area, and beyond opening for bands as diverse as Bad Religion, Dinosaur Jr., Sublime, Mother Hips, Victim's Family, Mary's Danish, Blue Oyster Cult, and Nirvana just to name a few and playing with fellow locals such as the Deftones, Cake, Tinfed, Phallucy, Early Times, and Far. They were also the first unsigned band to sell out the 1200 seat Crest Theatre in their home town of Sacramento. They became well known for their exciting high energy live shows that included wildly varied set lists with extended and improvised segments and, with the help of their roadies James Telles and Aaron Baker, skits in the vein of Frank Zappa's ?Fillmore East? era skits.
In 1991 Eric Broyhill captured their developing sound in a weekend recording session that became the cassette release ?Rythym of Strange? (later re-released on CD as ?Rythym of Stranger?). This was quickly followed in 1991 by the 7? ?Hair of the Bud?/?13? which drew the attention of High Times landing the band a spot in the Pot 100 a couple of times and actually charting on a couple of college radio stations. The band worked with Eric Broyhill again in a series of sessions in 1992 that lead to the release of 1993's critically acclaimed ?Vigoda?. The band increased their touring range up and down the West Coast and east to Colorado and was soon being courted by major label A&R reps and agents. Unfortunately the member's responsibilities at home led to the band's untimely breakup. They watched their local peers sign on to major labels and land international tours and radio airplay while Sherman's brother, Aaron Loper, released their early cassette only album on CD with bonus tracks financed using money from pre-order sales. After a year on hiatus the band reunited then started touring and writing new songs in 1995. During the summer of 1996, Kai Kln entered the West Coast's famed Coast Recorders with engineer Zak Allentuck (production oversight by John Cuniberti ) to begin recording what would be their final album, "The Matter Of Things". Although the album was released early 1996 and included some production by Tesla's Brian Wheat, it failed to generate the label buzz their Vigoda generated. After touring though 1997 the band once again called it quits and it's members pursued various other projects.
On a whim in 2007 the band reunited once again for a string of shows in Northern California much to the pleasure of their old fans who came out and packed every venue they played and even generated some nostalgic press buzz. Gene Smith now fronts his band ?The Ricky and Del Connection? with Neil Franklin still providing the rhythm and Sherman Loper sometimes playing second guitar along with Flamp Sorvari on sax and David Bole on bass. R&DC has a similar though more mature sound with Gene Smith's singing, songwriting, and guitar composition more than making up for the volume, power, and Spinal Tap antics of his last band.

You can keep track of the band and their side projects at http://www.myspace.com/kaikln and can check out some live bootlegs at http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=kai%20kln