Today, I'd like to have a beer with...

We're going to start a new, regularly re-visited topic for our website, here at Mike Nagel's blog.

(By "we," I mean the royal we. We like to refer to ourself like that from time to time. Apparently, since we've started living in our own apartment, we have developed multiple personalities out of boredom. You know, just like in solitary confinement.)

Anyways, the new bit we'll be shoving down your throats for Internet consumption (Yes, we know the previous statement sets off the NSFW filters on your workplace's firewall.), is telling you who'd we'd like to meet and share a beer with.

This is not, by the way the man-crush segment or the crush-crush segment. Those are coming and will give us ample opportunity to post pictures of Natalie Portman and Sawyer from Lost.
We'll leave it to you to decide which is which.

(I'm also stopping all multiple-personality typing and parantheticals...just... about...n...now.)

Okay, so down to the drinking business... I would very much like to have a beer with Kate Nash.

For those of your unfamiliar, Kate is the latest female singer-songwriter to start making waves here in the States after hitting the tops of the British charts. And, as the Brits say, she's brilliant.

Parsing out perfect pop with a signature heavy London accent, Nash's debut album Made of Bricks is the best thing I've heard this year. So far, anyway.

Everything she writes is catchy, but not in the annoying song-that-never-ends way. She coats her lyrics with enough sugar to sweeten but not sicken. A distinctly Casio-sounding piano provides the base while Nash's vocals (simple at first listen, but continually surprising) dance and flutter through the songs' melodies.

The first single, "Foundations," has already hit my top-15 Breakup Songs playlist. Or it would, assuming I had one. I would like to start making some playlists, so maybe I'll do that one and post it here. But you can bet "Foundations" would be on it... its a perfect song that sounds happy and reminiscent, but underneath lies the decay and emptiness that brings all once-good relationships to an end. It captures the feeling of knowing something is over but feeling trapped and unable to escape. "Oh God, I hope I'm not stuck with this one," Nash tags in at the end - c'mon, ladies, you've all been there. I should know; I've caught you sneaking out at 6 a.m. many, many times.

Seriously, though, Kate's written some great stuff. So, that alone would make me want to have a pint with her. The topper, though, is that thick accent. It's captivating (in a non-sexual sort of way). I could listen to her read the newspaper in a pub for 30 minutes and be fine with it. Plus, if anyone is to judge from her MySpace pictures (which, of course, is what MySpace is all about), she looks like a girl that knows how to have a good time.

So, Kate, cheers to you. Let's grab a Carling sometime...

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Since I'm so good to you, I'm giving you a free remix to one of Kate's tunes - "Caroline's a Victim." If you like it, visit her site and sign up for the mailing list, which is what I had to do to get it. Ha.

You'll need Pando to download it. Enjoy!