They formed in 1998 in a pub, when bartender and drummer Dave Weeks overheard a conversation between two customers, Chris Martin (guitar) and Lucy Atkinson (bassist) about
analog recording. Weeks joined the discussion, and they found they also shared mutual musical interests, and hence agreed to form a band. They started playing live the same year. Near the end of 1999, guitarist/keyboardist/flautist Matthew Reid Schwartz was added to the line-up. Kinski issued its first record
Space Launch for Frenchie earlier that same year consisting of six tracks running for 45 minutes. The band went on their first US tour with
Mainliner from Japan, where they befriended
Kawabata Makoto, also of
Acid Mothers Temple. Tours throughout the US would follow the next two years with such bands as
Hovercraft,
Silkworm, and
Primordial Undermind. Their second album,
Be Gentle With the Warm Turtle, came out on Pacifico in 2001. The band also toured Japan with
Acid Mothers Temple in late 2001. In early 2002, after the band finished recording their third album, Weeks left and later went on to join Seattle band Black Panties. That summer, Barrett Wilke took over on drums. The band at this time signed with
Sub Pop. The album
Airs Above Your Station was released in 2003. Later in 2003,
Sub Pop issued a split album with Kinski and
Acid Mothers Temple. Each band contributed their own material for this release, along with two collaborative pieces that were recorded during their earlier tour of Japan. Finally, the three-way "triptych" split,
Crickets and Fireflies, was released by the Music Fellowship label with the bands
Paik &
Surface of Eceon. Around the time that Weeks left the band, the remaining members began performing as an improvisational threesome under the name Herzog. An album, ''Don't Climb on and Take the Holy Water
, was issued in 2004 by the Strange Attractors Audio House label consisting of live recordings from Herzog performances. The band also contributed a track to the Franco Battiato tribute album, What's Your Function''. A brief west coast tour with
Mission of Burma rounded out the year. In 2005, the band came back with
Alpine Static, their sixth album overall and third on
Sub Pop produced by
Randall Dunn. The album,
Cosy Moments was released April 3, 2013. In February 2015 the band released a split EP with fellow Seattle band
Sandrider on Seattle label
Good to Die Records. The second album on
Kill Rock Stars entitled
7 (or 8), was recorded and mixed in San Francisco at El Studio with Phil Manley (of
Trans Am) and was released in June 2015. In 2017 Kinski adapted a passage of
James Joyce's
Finnegans Wake for the
Waywords and Meansigns project. In August 2018, it was announced that for Kinski's 20th anniversary as a band, they would be releasing a vinyl reissue of
Be Gentle With the Warm Turtle as well as releasing a new album titled
Accustomed To Your Face, with both albums being released on
Kill Rock Stars on October 12, 2018. On January 28, 2025 Kinski revealed their latest album
Stumbledown Terrace, their first for the label
Comedy Minus One. It was announced that Schwartz had departed the band, which continued as a three-piece. The record was released digitally on March 7, 2025 and physically in stores on the 28th of that month.
Stumbledown Terrace was the first record in the band's discography to not feature a second guitarist, and their first tour as a trio. ==Band members==