Macha (band)

Macha was an experimental post-rock band from Athens, Georgia comprised of brothers Josh McKay (multi-instrumentalist & ex-Aleka's Attic bassist), Mischo McKay (drums and name borrowed from a Japanese video game hero), Kai Reidl (multi-instrumentalist), & Wes Martin (multi-instrumentalist). Macha's music combines the precision tension-and-release post-punk of Mogwai with the lush, hypnotic grind of My Bloody Valentine, along with bits of new wave and Indonesian Gamelan. They are notably known for incorporating following instruments into their sets: Javanese zither, Balinese bamboo flute, hammered dulcimer, Hawaiian slide guitar, talempong nipple gongs and Nepalese shawms, vibraphone, standard voice, guitar, and drums, and a '70s-era thrift-store organ called the Fun Machine.

The band released their self-titled debut album in 1998 for Jetset Records. In 1999 they released "See It Another Way" (Jetset). They also teamed up with Bedhead a year later for the mini-album "Macha Loved Bedhead" (Jetset 2000). Four years since their last full-length, the group returned with "Forget Tomorrow" (Jetset 2004) expanding their sound and venturing into more pop territories.

Josh McKay currently plays in a band called "Abandon the Earth Mission". [http://flagpole.com/Music/Features/AbandonTheEarthMission/2008-04-09]