The band's music is heavily influenced by the late 1960s when heavy metal was emerging. Allmusic praised the band's ability to recreate a particular aspect of this era, describing the band as "celebrating the Summer of Love's soul-chilling autumn: a blasted landscape, post-flower power, resembling Altamont's killing fields, reeking of the Manson Family murders, and, naturally, sounding like a mish-mash of all of the apocalyptic musical forces that converged upon that era."
The band has been metaphorically described as "the original Alice Cooper band jamming in a cell with early Black Sabbathand the Stooges". In order to replicate the sound of that era, the band uses vintage instruments and recording equipment.
The band’s name was taken from Rusty Day, the singer of Cactus, who later had a band called Uncle Acid And The Permanent Damage Band. Uncle Acid was originally the otherwise-anonymous frontman, although he has since changed his stage name to K.R. Starrs and now views the band members collectively as being "Uncle Acid".
With the release of the band's third album, Mind Control, more 70's pop influences were incorporated into the music. A concept album, K.R. Starrs explained that Mind Control is a "fictional story...about a cult leader who comes down from the mountain and brainwashes his desert disciples through drugs, love, violence, and intimidation". According to Metacritic, the album has received "universal acclaim" with a score of 81 based on 7 critics. Justin Norton, writing for Decibel Magazine, awarded the album a score of 8 out of 10 and described the album as "a perfect union of Sabbath riffs, fuzz and Herschell Gordon Lewis".
