The Gorge Trio is John Dieterich on guitar, Chad Popple on drums and Ed Rodriguez on guitar. Rodriguez was enlightned by an early interest in jazz and classical music. The trio favors the subtle and often difficult art of counterpoint expounded by the Don Caballero, which entails a cornucopia of odd time signatures and intense/elaborate textures. It took them four years to publish the all-instrumental album Dead Chicken Fear No Knife (Free Land, 1998).

Jazzier and spacier, For Loss Of (Free Land, 1999) retains that album's rude logic while loosening up the jams in an almost psychedelic manner, as if Captain Beefheart had discovered minimalism.

Colossamite is the Gorge Trio augmented with the unholy growl of Nick Sakes of the Dazzling Killmen. Their albums All Lingo's Clamor (Skin Graft, 1997) and Economy Of Motion (Skin Graft, 1998) are as uncompromising as the Gorge Trio's, except Sakes adds a powerful sense of drama to the songs. In the tradition of Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica or Royal Trux' Twin Infinitives or Mars' EP, Economy Of Motion contains 26 short eruptions of viscerally inept noise-rock. The Hot House is a terrifying firestorm of dissonant guitars, chaotic drumming and beastly shouting, like the Trumans Waters in their punkier moments. The instrumental Heat Vs Temperature recalls the Mars' devastating bacchanals. The closing Dark Sliding Shapes is a relatively lengthy (five minutes) instrumental jam of free jazz, with saxophones a` la Anthony Braxton and guitars a` la Glenn Branca.
Mr Somebody Does Something is Captain Beefheart's free blues jamming. The art-punk school of Fugazi and Jesus Lizard inspires less demanding fits of rage such as Pee Dio.
A dozen tracks are a few seconds long and simply repeat a few guitar chords ad infinitum. The music, reduced to a minimalistic strumming, is often used as a soundtrack to the singer's recitations (The Eagle And The Seal, Busy Little Hands, most dramatically in An Open-Minded Taxidermist), which ranks arguably as the least attractive feature of the album.
Fiercely experimental and occasionally self-indulgent, the album "rocks" more than, say, God Is My Co-pilot, and its strength lies in the band's ability to cohere out of sheer chaos.

Popple and Rodriguez also moonlight in Iceburn, Dieterich has his own electronic project, Appleseed.

Nick Sakes' next project is Sicbay, with Ed Rodriguez on drums and Dave Erb on guitar. The Firelit S'Coughs (Obtuse Mule, 2001) is their debut album.

Just Arrived (2004) is a collaboration with A Short Apnea.

The Gorge Trio's Open Mouth O Wisp (Skin Graft, 2004) is too fragmented and anarchic to stand on its own merits. The atonal mess is occasionally intriguing (A Comedy In Sun, Paris Trap) but little coalesced at the end.