Vintage & Music Go Together Like…
When I was 13 yrs old, there was a new girl at school. She wore Guess jeans in an array of colors, zipped at the ankle, and vintage tops. She also had an older sister who was going to punk shows around town. Mary’s taste filtered down to us junior high schoolers, even though I never even met Mary. Before I knew it, X was my favorite band, and I was trying to emulate the style of the singer, Exene Cervenka, which meant vintage dresses and costume jewelry.
My aunt Charla, just 9 years older than me, took the new girl and me shopping at a vintage store on Laurel Canyon Blvd in North Hollywood. I still remember what I bought: a 1950s black cardigan with a flower, appliqué detail at the neck, for what seemed exorbitant at the time but was probably $20 or $30. I should have kept that sweater because it was the gateway to what has been a lifelong obsession.
Eleni Mandell Returns with Tailspin, Breaking Seven Years of Radio Silence to Tour this Summer
After a seven-year hiatus defined by global isolation and profound personal transformation, the noir-pop siren Eleni Mandell returns with Tailspin. Releasing this May 29th via Schoolkids Records, this album feels less like a comeback and more like a survival kit lullaby. A collection of 14 poignant songs emerging from the fog of grief, divorce, and the sometimes painfully quiet heroism of single motherhood. To support the release, Mandell will embark on a summer tour running from June 14th to August 7th.
Was it my fate to make those mistakes?
There are some tantalizingly probing questions posed in the lyrics of Eleni Mandell’s new album, Wake Up Again. But none is more key to the album than the one that closes the album, finishing off the wistful waltz of the title song. None is more core to the experiences that inspired her songs in the course of the four years that have gone by since her last album, 2015’s acclaimed Dark Lights Up, “For two years or thereabouts,” Mandell says, “I taught songwriting at two colleges and a women’s prison.”
