Pump up the polka!

Sarah Kozar, the queen of Milwaukee polka, is onstage with her band, The Squeezettes.

Look, hipster. You can’t escape it. Your toe is tapping. You have a need, a deep need to do the chicken dance, hardwired in your DNA. The beer that made Milwaukee famous will make a fool out of you, and you will do the hokey pokey, and you want to know why?

Because that’s what it’s all about.

“I live in Milwaukee, work at a brewery, and play in a polka band. I don’t know how much more stereotypical you can get!” Kozar told me, laughing.

I recently met Miss Kozar for a happy hour cocktail to discuss her history with the art of polka (although it should be mentioned the band also does a lot of other “covers, swing, anything fun really”) and The Squeezettes. The band consists of two other female accordion players and singers, Linda Mueller and Pamela Scezeniak. Mike Chaltry provides the oom pa pa on the tuba, Mike Eels plays drums and sings and Tom Schwark sits in with the group sometimes providing mandolin and vocals.

Kozar was raised on polka records, and her granddad and aunt both played the button box accordion in polka groups. She began playing piano at a young age and eventually picked up her first accordion at an estate sale.

Kozar was part of the now-defunct Riverwest Accordion Club and later helped form the splinter group The Squeezettes. The group performs anywhere. As their business card says,“Festivals – Parties – Pubs – Random Encounters.” They’ve even formed a mobile version of the band and went on a pub crawl.

“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I wasn’t playing in a band. It’s a great friendship within the band, and within the neighborhood.”

And the band is well loved by Milwaukee. While they chugged through their set at a recent Café Lulu show, playing covers of songs like “Wooly Bully” and “La Cucharacha,” a Squeezettes fan turned heads as he began the ancient art of clogging to the band’s music.

“That’s what I really love about it,” Kozar says. “Sometimes we really bring out the character in people.”

You heard the lady! Roll out the barrel!

The band has a CD available, Live At Big Fun Studios. You can find out more info on that and upcoming shows at squeezettes.com!

You can see The Squeezettes perform this weekend at the Kickapoo County Fair in Crawford County. They’re also performing at the East Side Green Market in the Beans and Barley parking lot on August 1.