GENRE: Rock
LABEL: Silver Current
REVIEWED: 24th September, 2025
RATING: 7.6/10
When three heavyweights of experimental and underground rock—Bill Orcutt, Steve Shelley, and Ethan Miller—join forces, expectations are high. Their self-titled debut, recorded live at Zebulon in Los Angeles, doesn’t disappoint: it’s raw, unpredictable, sometimes chaotic, but always compelling.
Rather than feel like a mere assembly of star players, the trio sounds cohesive—like an improvisational rock band that’s found its voice. Critics have praised how the album walks the line between structured rock and freeform experimentation.
Sonic & Structural Highlights
Riffs, Rhythms & Interplay
Orcutt’s guitar work is characteristically jagged—he’s not interested in prettiness but in tension, fracture, and sonic momentum. In the opening track “A Star Is Born,” the trio wastes no time asserting their presence.
But rather than simply pummel the listener, the band often begins with motifs that feel rooted in classic rock (“An L.A. Funeral,” for example, conjures echoes of Neil Young & Crazy Horse) before peeling off into less predictable terrain.
Steve Shelley’s drumming is a key anchor: dynamic, responsive, and never overbearing. He adapts to Orcutt’s fits and turns, providing a framework that holds the chaos in check. Ethan Miller, on bass, often bridges rhythm and melody—at times laying down a groove, at others venturing into loose runs that push the texture.
Standout Track: “Four-door Charger”
One of the focal points of the album, “Four-door Charger,” clocks in at close to nine minutes and demonstrates the trio’s ability to drift between hypnotic groove and full-throttle assault.
The track begins with a sort of krautrock-inspired motorik pulse before unspooling into extended segments of distortion, feedback and drive. Shelley’s drum textures oscillate between steadiness and urgency, while Miller’s bass undergirds and occasionally fractures. Orcutt rides these currents, sometimes anchored to a riff but often tearing off in shards of tone and speed.
