Ko Melina
Ko Melina, also known as Ko Shih and Ko Melina-Zydeco, is a musician and radio DJ from Detroit, Michigan.
Ko Melina
- Name
- Ko Melina
- Occupation
- singer, DJ
- Nationality
- United States
- Fields
- garage punk
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Ko Melina • Origin — Detroit, Michigan • Instrument — vocals, bass, baritone guitar • Genre — Garage punk • Occupation — singer, DJ • Label — various • Associated Acts — The Dirtbombs Ko & The Knockouts
Biography
Biography
A bartender at the Garden Bowl, a rock n' roll hotspot in Detroit, Melina befriended scene fixtures like Jack White and Steve Shaw from the Detroit Cobras. Shaw asked her to play bass for his new band the Breakdowns. With only childhood piano lessons under her belt, Melina taught herself bass. After hearing her cover Mary Wells's "Bye Bye Baby" with the Breakdowns, Long Gone John of the record label Sympathy for the Record Industry asked her to contribute to his Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit compilation and so Ko & The Knockouts were formed with Steve Nawara and Jeff Klein. Eddie Baranek from the Sights later replaced Klein, and the band released a self-titled album on Sympathy for the Record Industry and toured Europe and the United States. Ko later joined The Dirtbombs, replacing Tom Potter as "fuzz" bass player, though she later switched to a baritone guitar. Steven Van Zandt asked her to be a DJ for his Underground Garage show on SIRIUS Satellite Radio after he heard the Ko & The Knockouts album Ko was featured alongside fellow Dirtbomb Zach Weedon in the documentary on Detroit called 'Detroit Lives' by Palladium Boots for their website. In the documentary, Melina and Weedon accompany host Johnny Knoxville on a tour of the abandoned Eastown Theatre, and offer other interview segments about Detroit.
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Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Ko Melina, revision 1305829285 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 05 October 2026.
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