Tour Dates

02/21/09 Casbah San Diego, California
03/05/09 Joe’s Pub New York, New York
03/06/09 The Mod Club Toronto, Ontario
03/07/09 Le Divan Orange Montreal, PQ
03/08/09 TT The Bear’s Cambridge, MA
03/09/09 Tin Angel Philadelphia, PA
03/18/09 Mercury Lounge Goleta, CA
03/19/09 Cafe du Nord SF, CA
03/21/09 Mississippi Studios Portland, OR
03/22/09 The Triple Door Seattle, WA
03/25/09 The Picador Iowa City, Iowa
03/26/09 Schubas Tavern Chicago, IL
03/27/09 Cedar Minneapolis, Minnesota
03/28/09 Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club Kansas City, Missouri
03/30/09 Hi Dive Denver, Colorado
04/01/09 Plush Tucson, Arizona
04/02/09 Pappy & Harriets Pioneertown, CA
04/23/09 La Maroquinerie Paris
04/24/09 Brotfabrik Frankfurt
04/26/09 El Lokal Zurich
04/28/09 Palace St. Gallen
04/29/09 Zakk Dusseldorf
05/01/09 Pumpenhaus Munster
05/02/09 Oosterpoort Groningen
05/03/09 O 13 Tilburg
05/04/09 AB Club Brussels
05/07/09 Vooruit Ghent
05/08/09 Knust Hamburg
05/10/09 Quasimodo Berlin
05/13/09 Registratur Munchen
05/15/09 Kino Ebensee
05/16/09 Schlachthof Wels
05/17/09 E-Werk Erlangen

Discography


[1998] Wishbone

[2000] Thrill

[2001] Snakebite

[2003] Country for True Lovers

[2004] Afternoon

[2007] Miracle of Five

Read More

Eleni Mandell‘s latest album is Artificial Fire and it was released last Tuesday on Zedtone Records. With already six albums under her belt, she’s amassed quite a few fans – particularly in Canada and France.

I felt the cover artwork (in addition to songs like “I Love Planet Earth” and “God Is Love”) had an out-of-this world feel to it, black background with spiraling dots. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, the only credit to the artwork are “dots” by Alia Penner. You can see a sketch of it on her website.

Most of the album is pretty mellow, despite having a full band of guitar/bass/drums and the occasional horns and wind instruments. If you’re into mild girl singer/songwriter-type of music, this is probably up there with the best of it.

The one “loud” songs are “Cracked”, a song about losing faith in God because of someone’s betrayal? “I’m cracked for you, my soul has been twisted. I’m cracked for you, my heart has been blistered.” The song has a punk-ish attitude, which is what I liked about it.

The more I think about Mandell, her singing reminds me a bit of PJ Harvey, especially with “Pauline” from her album Thrill, and especially on the opening song “Artificial Fire”.

“Artificial Fire” is a wonderful little song that doesn’t seem to go anywhere, despite all the directions and maps and questions in the lyrics. That guitar-playing is very catchy as well! Mandell liked the song so much, they made a little music video for it.

Hey, she’s on tour! It looks like she’s coming to Minneapolis, at one of my current favorite sit-down venue, The Cedar this late March. I may do more writeup of her if I end up going to see her.

Information on how to get her records can be found on Zedtone.

 02/21/2009 14:00:38  vu () elenimandell.com myspace.com/elenimandell 

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