Nik and Chris were in Manatee before starting Doubleplus Alright. Manatee shares much of the Doubleplus playbook and musical sensibilities. Worth digging into all of the releases on Bandcamp + SLR.
Before Manatee - even before Little John, Chris was in Blert. Blert went through a few lineup changes over the years but always focused on creating anthemic alt rock masterpieces. Go listen.