popwreckoning

While it’s my opinion that the Hotel Cafe is of no real need for explanation, it is also safe to assume that is it possible that it may have slipped under the radar of a reader or two. The venue, which started as nothing more than a downtown coffee shop in Los Angeles, has spun into one of the most respected venues in the nation. It aimed to give artists a place where they could feel comfortable and free of the grinding competition created by the recording industry. It’s reputation of a friends first environment helped create a unique setting for artists to hang out and even join their peers’ sets. This brotherhood style show caused such a stir that, in 2004, the venue launched a national tour.

Not to let their creativity be overshadowed by the mundane business as usual style of a tour, Hotel Cafe instead made the choice of going with a round robin style tour: each singer performs two songs before passing off to the next artist. This style is repeated in two sets, allowing each artist a total of 4 songs. By the end of the evening, the tour becomes more of a sing-a-long, as artist join each other on stage to create a one of a kind “songwriter circle” style show.

The Winter Hotel Cafe Tour of 2008 is no exception to that rule. Sporting an all lady cast for the first time, the girls put together a show that put to shame most of what I’ve seen this year. Check out some of the highlights:

Alice Russell

With a voice bigger than Duffy‘s and more talent than Amy Winehouse, Alice Russell is nothing if not talented. Her style seems borrowed from legends like Aretha Franklin and Eva Cassidy, with jazz influences bordering on blending into funk and even slight moments of soul.

Her stage presence blends an interesting mix of awkward personality with a strong sense of confidence. Her set seemed to come from a shy girl you find in the back of the classroom in high school, who’s booming voice catches you off guard when you see her open her mouth to sing in the school play.

Ending her four song set rather strongly with a cover of The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”, Russell managed to turn a few heads as the night’s opener, while setting the tone for what would be a excellent night of music. Look for her album, Pot of Gold to show up in stores on November 24th. Having heard it already, I personally would advise you to check it out.

Jaymay

As if being adorable isn’t enough, Jaymay also represents everything good that is happening in the American folk singer circle. Combining a charming grasp of comedy with a fundamental grasp of Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell, she manages to flawlessly find a way to reach the listener through her acute ability to tell a story without slipping into the act of becoming preachy. For example, her set included both the heavy subjected “Blue and Grey”, a song about adoring a person who has the inability to love you back and a tribute to the movie What about Bob. Somehow, she manages to make a show full of breakup songs seem uplifting and fun.

Her album, Autumn Fallin’ has been out just short of a year now, and can be found in stores nationally. Also, look for her new EP, 10 Under 2 to drop in the coming months.

Kate Havnevik

Completely different than everything else on The Hotel Cafe tour this year, Havnevik’s sound slides more towards the Imogen Heap side of songwriting. Her sound, which is wrapped up in electronic style sounds under fairly tumultuous lyrics, has more of a haunting effect to it than the rest of her company on stage. However, her use of computers and electronic gadgets shouldn’t be taken as an indication of her inability to play instruments conventionally. Growing up, she desired a career as a classical or jazz musician, even moving to Liverpool at age 19 to study music and composition.

On stage, her rich voice and creative computerized loops compliment her obviously intelligent and outgoing personality. Though not necessarily a perfect fit for all people, those who take the time to gather the best of Kate Havnevik, rather than just writing her off for being different, will not be disappointed.

Meiko

In the eight months since I last saw Meiko, her career has blossomed into an all out frenzy. Being picked up by Myspace Records, her newly rerecorded and remastered versions of the songs found on her self-titled album found their way to the tops of the iTunes charts, while Meiko herself found guest spots on both “The Bonnie Hunt Show” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien“. What has not changed, however, is her uncanny ability to win the hearts of the crowd. Her bartender style of charm and girl next door technique to stage presence makes her overwhelmingly talented and approachable.

Without question, Meiko’s rendition of her newest single “Boys with Girlfriends” was hands down the catchiest number of the evening. Laced with hooks to keep your attention and organ parts designed to stay stuck in your head for weeks, I have little doubt big things are in Meiko’s future.

Check out the video for “Boys With Girlfriends” here:

Thao Nguyen

Welcome to the next generation of girl power.

Honestly, few women in music rock harder than Thao. With limbs flying and her body shifting, she shimmies around the stage, strutting in time with her songs. Her intensity and energy on stage are matched only by the talent in which she plays. Unlike a number of artist who simply sub stage antics for actual songwriting accountability, Thao’s set is powerful, tight rhythmically and musically toned. She has without question honed her craft into a fairly marketable signature sound.

Her in-your-face approach to music was hands down the most entertaining of the evening. It was perfectly clear to everyone that her set would be a “no bullshit, no fluff” set. Furthermore, it is certainly possible to picture Thao filling the shoes of the strong, girl rock role previously employed by the likes of Karen O, Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde.

And you can’t really go wrong with that can you?

Rachael Yamagata

Rachael Yamagata’s songs are emotional on a level that most people can never achieve. Her raw style of songwriting, achieved in part by the “lonely girl at her piano” effect of her set, leaves listeners with nothing more to do but sit and listen to her spill her pain. While some artists lose listeners in this manner, it essentially seems to work in Yamagata’s favor: her listeners seem to bond with her, relating completely to what she is going through.

Of the emotional content of her song, she states, “I’m not always thinking of the particular experience that I wrote it about because over time, things do change for me. I don’t weather it so harshly. But I always plug in my sort of present day view of the world into those songs and then when I can’t talk to a friend about it or make sense of it to myself then I kinda channel into a fitting song, that sort of lyrically embodies that same thing just in my present day. Because for me, it’s very kinda therapeutic.”

This sense of therapy could be seen on stage, at the hands of her first single, the lyrically heavy “Elephants”. Watch the video:

All pictures from this event:

For more on the Hotel Cafe Tour, you should check the website of the venue itself. Several dates still remain and tickets are still very much available. In the meantime, please take a second to check out the MySpaces pages and websites of the above musicians to hear the beauty and power in their music yourself.

Hotel Cafe Tour: website

Alice Russell: myspace | website
Jaymay: myspace | website
Kate Havnevik: myspace | website
Meiko: myspace
Thao Nguyen: myspace | website | @ First Unitarian Church | @ Electric Factory | @ Terminal 5 | interview with
Rachael Yamagata: myspace | website | Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Heart review | interview with

Thao Nguyen, the frontwoman of Thao With the Get Down Stay Down, is a new and innovative voice in the indie music scene. We got a chance to chat on

Thao With the Get Down Stay Down @ Terminal 5, NYC, 6/3/08

the phone a few weeks ago as she and the band traveled across Texas to play a show in Lubbock. We encountered quite a bit of technical difficulty as, apparently, cell reception in the desert is questionable, at best. Once things settled, we talked about bee stings (both literal and metaphorical), our moms, writing, and bad pop music. Check it:

Dese’Rae Stage, PopWreck(oning): Don’t you guys really love playing there [Lubbock, TX]?
Thao Nguyen: We do. We have a love affair. We played there last time and I don’t know what happened, but so many people showed up and they were incredibly warm and enthusiastic. It was definitely one of the most fun shows we’ve ever played. So, we said we would come back. They’ve kept in touch a lot. They kept writing MySpace messages. They wanted us to come back.

PW: You were raised in Virginia. How did you get started and how did your upbringing influence your music?
TN: It’s funny because I grew up in the suburbs and you’d think that wouldn’t foster much, but I was so bored and lonely that I just played music all the time. That helped a lot, actually. I was pretty isolated from friends. That’s a nice way of saying I didn’t have any. So, I hung out by myself a lot. When I got to high school, I started playing open mic nights around the area and honed my craft on stage with middle aged drunk men.

PW: Your guitar arrangements seem to have a lot of a country/blues feel to them, so I wanted to know who your influences were there.
TN: That particular style and intricate picking is what I tried to mimic. I never tried really learning songs ‘cause I knew that I couldn’t really get there and it was bad for my self-esteem to keep trying, so the best I could do was borrow from it. If you asked me to play a country/blues song, I probably wouldn’t know what to do with myself.

PW: Anyone who really stands out?
TN: Not to be cliché, but Robert Johnson, for sure. Also, Appalachian country picking. I listened to a lot of The Carter Family and Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe.

PW: Your lyrics definitely have a literary bent to them. Who are your favorite writers?
TN: I’m glad you brought that up because, as a listener, they’re [lyrics] incredibly important to me. I’m a huge fan of Grace Paley. She is, by far, my favorite writer. I think she has this incredible economy with words. Every time I read her, I feel bad because I can’t do that. I like Lorrie Moore a lot. Birds of America–is that what the story collection’s called? Incredible. When I was growing up, I liked a lot of Hemingway. Basically, I don’t like it when people use a lot of words. I’m totally into anyone who doesn’t and I try to be like them.

PW: What sort of space do you need to be in to write?
TN: Well, it’s certainly not tour, I’ll tell you that much. I haven’t written shit. There’s just no time. You become so primal that you just want to eat or sleep and there’s no creative energy at all. I don’t need much, I just need to be alone. In an empty room, maybe. Hot tea. And then maybe some wine. I didn’t know it would become so coveted and rare, but just being alone and having any sort of time.

PW: Happy or sad? What’s the best?
TN: It’s better to be sad. They say it and it’s true. I’ve always been much more productive when something was wrong.

PW: You met Willis in college. How’d you guys all get together? Do you still have a fourth member of the band?
TN: No, for now it’s a trio. Extenuating circumstances. No ill will, just obligations of real life. You know, kids and stuff. Willis and I met in school and we met Adam on our first tour in the southeast for our first record. We played a show with him, ‘cause he has his own thing called The OK Bird. We started hanging out and a few months later, the offers for the Sound the Hare Heard tour came. We invited him along and we’ve been drinking Beefeater ever since. On the first tour, he brought a really big bottle of Beefeater, but we’re all different now. We drink a lot less. We have to or else we’ll die.

PW: How did you guys come up with the name The Get Down Stay Down for the band?
TN: That has conflicted roots for its origin. I thought I made it up, but it was a collaborative effort between Willis, myself, and another friend of ours on that first southeastern tour. It’s really not that amusing of a story. We liked the repetition and the phonetics of it were good and the meaning was cool…er than other ones. It was, basically, the one that sucked the least, you know?

PW: You probably hate this question: who would you compare yourself to?
TN: I’ve always struggled with that question. I don’t know. It seems audacious. Oh, I don’t know. Can we avoid that?

PW: I was thinking about one of my favorite artists and the way she created her own technique for her instrument. I feel like you’re doing that with the hand claps and the beat boxing and the toothbrush. Tell me about that. Where did that come from?
TN: I think all of that, anything that we end up doing or anything I end up incorporating, is a mechanism to save us from boredom—on my part and for the audience, as well. All of that comes from trying to keep it fun and engaging enough that we all wouldn’t rather go to sleep, but still remaining true to the song and not forcing anything. That’s the main objective.

PW: You said at a show once that you wish people would throw toothbrushes at you during shows.
TN: Yeah, totally. I would love for that to happen. We’ve acquired two in the past three days, actually, which is more than we ever have before.

PW: “We brave bee stings and all” is a lyric from “Swimming Pools.” What about that phrase was significant enough to make into an album title? Is there a story?
TN: Yeah, I think so. I think that lyric has manifested itself on several levels. The first was pretty literal: I was stung. Several times. There’s a whole story to it. I don’t know if you want to hear it.
PW: Bring it.
TN: We were loading into Willis’s mom’s house after that first tour, our very first tour. I aggravated a patch of bees and they started to sting me, so I dropped everything and ran into the house. I thought that one had reached my nether regions and so I went into the bathroom to release it, but then a bunch of them followed me in there. I dropped my pants and they all stung me on the ass. And I thought, ‘That’s like life.’ Then, on a more metaphorical level, it was originally…”Swimming Pools” is about the strength of women and the women that I’ve grown up with and been fortunate enough to encounter. My mom, especially. I’ve seen her have to fight everything and put up with so much bullshit and those are the bee stings. But then it applies to the album in general, too. It’s about all of us, with no distinction of sex or what have you, what we endure and what is self inflicted. Those are bee stings, too. And it’s not really “braving.” That’s kind of sarcastic.
PW: It’s alliteration. It works.
TN: Yeah, that’s pretty much why I did it.

Photos: Dese'Rae Stage

PW: I’m glad you brought up your mom. It seems that a lot of your work is influenced by your mom, so I wanted you to tell me about her.
TN: Oh, sure. Well, she raised my brother and me in trying circumstances. She always battled everything on our behalf–any sort of challenges that she encountered and whatever kind of pain or hardship. The ultimate source of any kind of compassion and humanity I have, I think, comes from that. She’s never complained. It’s remarkable. And she works so hard. She still works seven days a week from, like, eight [in the morning] to eleven at night. She owns a laundromat. When I go home, I still work there. I show up and I fold some clothes. I grew up folding clothes for other people.
PW: I like moms. Moms are good.
TN: Oh, yeah. Totally. They’re the best. And they always know everything. Even when you swear they don’t. How is that?
PW: I have no idea. My mom gets such a kick out of things. You know, because I’m crazy or whatever, so she tells me. She’s like, “You’re wrong and I’m right and this is what I think.” She just gets such a kick out of it because I have no problem coming back and being like, “I know, Mom. I’m an asshole. You were right.”
TN: Totally. I do the same.

PW: I feel like we should at least give them that. Alright, changing gears. You’ve played shows with Laura Veirs, She and Him, and Rilo Kiley. That’s a pretty big start.
TN: We did a couple of shows with The Indigo Girls, too. That was last year.

PW: Any good tour stories?
TN: If you expose yourself to this much random shit, things are gonna happen all the time. At this point, I can’t remember.
PW: Can’t trump getting stung in the ass, right?
TN: No. Who could?
PW: I don’t know, that shit doesn’t even happen in fiction.
TN: They’ve all been very gracious to have us along. It’s been a pleasure.

PW: You’re just finishing up your headlining tour.
TN: Yeah, we have about a week and a half left.
PW: What happens then?
TN: We have a few days off and then we go on tour again. We’re starting to wind down. We have a one-off at Florida State, a couple of festivals in the northwest, and then we have a midwest college tour. Then the band is off in October; the dudes are done. I’ll have a solo thing for a few weeks and then we have to do the new record for the winter time. We’ll be in the studio starting in February, but I have to write the songs first.
PW: Which you haven’t done.
TN: Which I certainly haven’t done. I’ve just been looking for a place to be. My whole fucking life. Touring is a really unnatural way to live.

PW: Tell me about the solo thing. Are you coming to New York?
TN: Yeah, it’s the Hotel Café Tour, which is based in LA. A bunch of songwriters all share a van and we roll around on the same bus. I’m joining up on the east coast and then I’ll be making my way back out to the west coast. So yeah, I will be in New York.

PW: What have you been listening to lately?
TN: Well, our sound engineer has been rockin’ these sweet reggae mixes that are like straight DJ mixes. Those have been amazing. We’ve been listening to the radio. We heard a really awful NPR story–the worst we’ve ever heard. It was about gas prices and they used field recordings of cars honking. It was utterly disappointing.

PW: Are you in love with Miley Cyrus yet?
TN: I would love to say that I knew about her before a lot of people did, so I’m not just jumping on a bandwagon. I’m driving that wagon. I’m driving it. Yesterday, Bobby Brown came on the radio. I’m totally into pop music—well, older pop music. Early 90s, late 80s shit, I’m all about it. I loved The New Kids on the Block.
PW: Yes! I got to touch Donnie [Wahlberg] and Joey [McIntyre] recently. I turned into a screaming fan girl, then called my mom. They came over and touched me and I just lost my shit.
TN: I am so jealous. How do they look now?
PW: They’re just grown up. They’re older. I think Joey’s 35 now and he’s the youngest.
TN: Oh my God, seriously? That is fucked up.
PW: The best part about it was that the first thing me and my friends did when we were done was call our moms.
TN: The moms, I think, are the only ones who would understand or remember.
PW: Totally. Anything else to add to that list?
TN: As far as who I like? We were listening to Pet Sounds the other day and we just finished listening to The Talking Heads. Yeah, that’s it. I’m still angry about the stupid NPR story.

PW: The last question is hypothetical: if you were headlining your dream tour, who would be supporting you?
TN: Really? Supporting me? Wow.
PW: You can do this. It’s totally gonna happen.
TN: I will do this. I will do this. I just keep thinking of who I want to support me in my life. You know, it would be bad ass if the backing vocalists were Neko Case, Erykah Badu, and Nina Simone–if she was alive. They would be doing their own thing. I love it when people are on the same bill and they cross pollinate. I really like that sense of community and, as an audience member, I love seeing that. So anyone who opened for us, I’d just want them to play with us.

New Yorkers: catch Thao on the Hotel Cafe tour with Rachael Yamagata, Meiko, Samantha Crain, and Emily Wells on 10/30 at The Bowery and 11/1 at The Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Thao with the Get Down Stay Down: website | myspace | NYC, Phila. live reviews

For fans of Rachael Yamagata, the four year wait for a follow up to her 2004 recording Happenstance has been a hard one.

Yamagata who is set to release duel albums under the combined title A Record in Two Parts: Elephants…Teeth Sinking Into Hear, has all but disappeared from the scene during the record process. Short of a Mandy Moore tour stint, fans had very little to turn to inorder to ease their longing.

However, that wait has ended. In the following months, Yamagata’s long awaited album will drop, while she herself will embark on an epic tour in support of both the album, and the fall Hotel Cafe Tour.

In the meantime, feel free to stream “Elephants” from Elephants or listen to “Sidedish Friend” from Teeth Sinking Into Heart. We promise to keep you posted on tour dates as they are released.

Rachael Yamagata: website | myspace
Hotel Cafe Tour: website | myspace

Photo: Jessica McGinley

PopWreckoning favorite Ingrid Michaelson today debuted her music video for “Be OK” on www.standup2cancer.org. Be OK, which drops October 14th on her own Cabin 24 Records, is an album of unreleased songs, covers, and live recordings that have become fan favorites from her shows over the past year. In concurrence with the new album, Michaelson will launch the “Be OK” tour in her hometown Staten Island at the end of October (dates below).

Michaelson will also headline nine dates on the all-female Hotel Caf̩ Tour this fall (October 16 Р27). The tour will feature some of the best female songwriters performing today, including Rachael Yamagata, Priscilla Ahn, Meiko, Brooke Fraser, Kate Havenik, and Thao Nguyen, among many others.

A portion of the proceeds from sales of Be OK will go to Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), a groundbreaking initiative aimed at raising funds to accelerate cancer research and end cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death.

Michaelson has also designed a “Be OK” necklace for sale at each tour stop and online, with all proceeds going to SU2C. The “Be OK” single will be available on iTunes beginning September 2, the same date Michaelson is set to perform the song on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”

Tour Dates:
Aug 26 – Anderson Center / (Binghamton University) Binghamton, NY
Aug 31 – Bumbershoot Festival / Seattle
Sep 02 – “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” / Burbank, CA
Sep 10 – Madison Square Garden / New York City * (SOLD OUT)
Sep 13 – Messiah College / Grantham, PA
Sep 16 – Kaufleuten / Zurich ^
Sep 17 – Gasometer / Vienna ^
Sep 18 – Magazzini Generali / Milan ^
Sep 21 – Zapata / Stuttgart ^
Sep 22 – Heineken Music Hall / Amsterdam ^
Sep 23 – Royal Albert Hall / London ^
Sep 24 – La Cigalle / Paris ^
Sep 26 – Olympen / Lund, Sweden ^
Sep 27 – The Arenan / Stockholm ^
Sep 28 - Vega / Copenhagen ^
Sep 30 - Live Music Hall / Cologne, Germany ^
Oct 01 – Grunspan / Hamburg ^
Oct 02 - Huxleys / Berlin ^
Oct 03 - Batschkapp / Frankfurt ^
Oct 05 - Muffathalle / Munich ^
Oct 07 - Monto Water Rats / London, United Kingdom
Oct 16 - House of Blues / Dallas #
Oct 17 - The Parish / Austin #
Oct 18 - Meridian / Houston #
Oct 20 - Workplay / Birmingham, AL #
Oct 21 – Exit/In / Nashville #
Oct 22 - Variety Playhouse / Atlanta #
Oct 24 - The Plaza / Orlando #
Oct 25 - Culture Club / Ft. Lauderdale #
Oct 27 - Cat’s Cradle / Carrboro, NC #
Oct 29 – Williamson Theatre (College of Staten Island) / Staten Island
Oct 30 – Paradise Rock Club / Boston, MA, USA
Nov 01 - Iron Horse Music Hall / Northampton, MA, USA
Nov 04 – House of Blues / Anaheim, CA
Nov 05 – House of Blues / San Diego
Nov 06 – El Rey / Los Angeles
Nov 07 – Great American Music Hall / San Francisco
Nov 08 - Harlow’s / Sacramento
Nov 10 – Neumos / Seattle
Nov 11 – Wonder Ballroom / Portland
Nov 13 – Belly Up / Aspen
Nov 14 – Gothic Theatre / Denver
Nov 16 – Slowdown / Omaha
Nov 17 - Pantages Theatre / Minneapolis
Nov 18 – Barrymore Theatre / Madison, WI
Nov 19 - Park West / Chicago
Nov 20 – The Ark / Ann Arbor, MI
Nov 21 - Madison Theatre / Covington, KY
Nov 23 – Theatre of Living Arts / Philadelphia
Nov 24 – Club Cafe / Pittsburgh
Nov 25 – The Birchmere / Alexandria, VA

* w/ Dave Matthews Band
^ w/ Jason Mraz
# Hotel Café Tour

Be OK will be released on Cabin 24 Records with marketing and distribution by Original Signal Recordings/RED.

Ingrid Michaelson: website | myspace | interview with | live review
Stand Up To Cancer: website
Hotel Café Tour: website | review

When Cary Brothers began mulling around ideas for taking the regulars players of the Hotel Caf� on the road, the concept he has in mind was that of a group of friends who act more like family piling into a bus and playing music in a way that it seems less like a concert, and more like a hang out. What he could not anticipate was how successful his Hotel Caf� Tour would actually become. The tour, now in its fourth season, has become a steadfast stomping ground for the music scene’s premier singer-songwriters to stumble onto the exposure needed to catch a glimpse of the national spotlight. In fact, many of the Hotel Caf� Tour alumni have found success at the hands of this road show.

The tour itself is set up in a way that is unique and cutting edge. Each band plays two sets of fifteen minutes each. This allows for roughly 3 songs per set. Each group shares a house band to allow the exclusion of set ups and tear downs. The bands also assist each other, joining each other on stage to assist with backing vocals and other instruments. It’s pretty relaxed and comfortable, allowing for the feeling that these artists are just hanging out with you in your living room, singing for fun.

I caught this year’s crop of players in a sold out show at the Record Bar in Kansas City. Progressively, I’ll run through the lineup, giving you my opinion and reflections of each, in this five part series.

Part one – Meiko

Meiko‘s journey has been nothing but hard work and elbow grease. She has been playing for anyone who would listen since the age of eight. It turns out that one of those people listening happened to be Paste Magazine editor
Josh Jackson, who instantly declared Meiko a “big success story” waiting to happen. In the months following that prediction, Meiko found her way onto L.A. radio and into the hearts of the Hotel Caf� regulars. To date, her approachable personality and bold, potty-mouth style of humor has left her a fan favorite at the cafe.

Tonight would turn out no differently. Before spilling a single note, Meiko held the Record Bar in the palm of her hand by simply asking one question; “Is this an all ages show, or can I say words like “fuck” and “shit?”" And with that, she becomes that girl you know you should run away from, yet want to run away with.

Oh, and don’t forget that she sings, too! Her music with combines flawlessly with her full on voice, which she uses to woo you with fluffy yet meaningful lines like, “Girls need attention and boys need us / So let’s make everyone glad,” from her song “Reasons To Love You.” Think Kimya Dawson with serious lyrics and a trained voice.

Her storytelling shines on tunes like “Under My Bed,” a song surrounding her breakup with a boyfriend of four years. She discusses the process of collecting her things as she prepares to move out of his house. As she packs, she stumbles across a photo album that she didn’t really want to take, but didn’t want the next girlfriend to burn. So, as she states in the lyrics, she “Has nothing to show for / Except pictures I posed for / Which i keep in a box under my bed.” The song remains cute without giving the listener a toothache.

Meiko however, takes a completely different approach to closing her second set, opting to end with a song featuring the words “cock,” “tits” and “vaginal infection.” To set up the song, Meiko confesses to the Record Bar crowd that she and the guys were sitting on the bus early in the day, discussing Ingrid Michaelson‘s breasts. Meiko, who is less endowed in the breast area than Ingrid, asked the guys, “Just how important are breasts?”

The guys, being guys, of course responded, “REALLY IMPORTANT! I LOVE BREASTS!”

Meiko muttered, “Oh! Cool. Perfect,” in a sarcastic and disappointed voice. She went on to say, “So, because of this I want to dedicate my hooters song to Cary Brothers, who loves big boobs! Happy Birthday, asshole.”

Seriously though, with spunk and a voice that sells itself, Meiko is nothing but a good time. You can stream her album on her webpage, or shoot her a message on her myspace.

Up Next: Cary Brothers