Biography
Kak originated in Davis, California, yet spent much of 1968 operating out of San Francisco while cutting their lone album. Gary Lee Yoder, who handled lead vocals, guitar, and most songwriting, along with lead guitarist Dehner Patten, had previously played in the Oxford Circle, a little-known early psychedelic outfit from Northern California that issued the garage-psych single “Foolish Woman”/“Mind Destruction” and appeared on the San Francisco psychedelic circuit. Bassist Joe Dave Damrell, for his part, had appeared on a 1965 Scorpio Records single with Group “B”.
The self-titled Kak LP offered minor-league San Francisco psychedelic rock heavily shaped by prominent Bay Area acts, above all Moby Grape. The vocal harmonies and curling guitar lines on tracks such as “Disbelievin’” and “Everything’s Changing” in particular evoked a less distinguished version of that group. Fainter traces of Quicksilver Messenger Service surfaced in the guitar work, while subtle country-blues-rock inflections recalled the Grateful Dead. The band sounded most distinctive and least imitative on quieter material: the gentle country-tinged rocker “I’ve Got Time,” the good-time wistful psych-folk-rock of “Lemonade Kid,” and the harpsichord-decorated ballad “Flowing By,” whose Donovan-like character matched the Moby Grape debt found elsewhere on the record.
Promotion for the album was minimal, and sales remained poor. The group performed fewer than a dozen shows before disbanding in early 1969, with Damrell having already departed. Yoder subsequently released a single on Epic and joined Blue Cheer. Over time the Kak album became a costly collector’s item; Big Beat reissued it on CD in 1999 under the title Kak-ola, appending numerous bonus tracks that included previously unreleased acoustic demos and late-’60s Yoder solo recordings. Gary Lee Yoder died on August 7, 2021 at the age of 75.
The self-titled Kak LP offered minor-league San Francisco psychedelic rock heavily shaped by prominent Bay Area acts, above all Moby Grape. The vocal harmonies and curling guitar lines on tracks such as “Disbelievin’” and “Everything’s Changing” in particular evoked a less distinguished version of that group. Fainter traces of Quicksilver Messenger Service surfaced in the guitar work, while subtle country-blues-rock inflections recalled the Grateful Dead. The band sounded most distinctive and least imitative on quieter material: the gentle country-tinged rocker “I’ve Got Time,” the good-time wistful psych-folk-rock of “Lemonade Kid,” and the harpsichord-decorated ballad “Flowing By,” whose Donovan-like character matched the Moby Grape debt found elsewhere on the record.
Promotion for the album was minimal, and sales remained poor. The group performed fewer than a dozen shows before disbanding in early 1969, with Damrell having already departed. Yoder subsequently released a single on Epic and joined Blue Cheer. Over time the Kak album became a costly collector’s item; Big Beat reissued it on CD in 1999 under the title Kak-ola, appending numerous bonus tracks that included previously unreleased acoustic demos and late-’60s Yoder solo recordings. Gary Lee Yoder died on August 7, 2021 at the age of 75.
Albums
Singles
