Over the past year, I’ve made ‘online friends’ with Chris Chinchilla (bachelor number 3 above), formerly guitarist of Art Brut, now centrepiece for Macaca Mulatta.
The band was first formed from the ashes of London punks Rhesus, then re-formed in Australia after Chris toured there and almost immediately decided to settle in Melbourne.
Art Brut put out one of my top 20 albums of 2005 and have remained interesting since — though they seem to have become a little less Fall-ish and not quite so enjoyably angular post Chris’s departure. Some of their new stuff is doing the rounds online at the moment (search for ‘Art Brut’ on The Hype Machine).
Meanwhile, operating in a less well-spotlit area of the public stage, Macaca Mulatta have been working hard, gigging a lot and getting some great buzz in the hipper corners of the offbeat online press.
Chris has put the word out: there’s music to be heard.
He’s put some mp3s up on the website and has asked if friends — even just us online ones — could spread the word.
Delighted to help.
