Inflight At Night

Not really sure what this is, but it’s French. Does that say enough? All I know is it kicks ass, check out her MySpace page to start your trip.

When I first heard these two lines in the chorus of Girls by Eleni Mandell’s, I am the dice you roll in the alley / I am the pennies that come in handy, I knew I was going to love her new album called “Miracle of Five” (available next Tuesday Feb. 6th).

“Miracle of Five” was recorded with a varitable who’s who of support players from some of the last decade’s most critically lauded acts, including Wilco lead guitarist Nels Cline, X drummer DJ Bonebrake (who plays vibes here), her longtime rhythm section of drummer Kevin Fitzgerald and bassist Ryan Feves, reed player Jeff Turmes (James Harman, Badly Drawn Boy), keyboardist Andy Kaulkin (Merle Haggard, R.L. Burnside), who also produced. But it is really Mandell’s lyrics here that instantly grab you and bring you in as she weaves introspective personal and narrative tales of her life experiences.

Fans of Emily Haines solo release “Knives Don’t Have Your Back” and Amy Winehouse’s work should take notice of Eleni Mandell and do themselves a favor and pick “Miracle of Five” next week and if you are in the Los Angeles area, check her out at The Echo on February 8th.

Download Girls (mp3) from “Miracle of Five” which you can buy it at insound next week.

Ever since reading about Sunsplit on Can I Get A Receipt back in September last year, I have been anxiously awaiting for anything new from the band, whether it be songs, tour dates, or hell, I’d take just some plain old news.

From what I can tell the only thing officially released by the band is the song The Need on the Psyilocybin Sounds comp, All In The Mind. Though I was able to track down one other track from the band called All I Want (download below), which may or may not have been recorded in Scotland, as you can tell, information on the band is very scarce.

What I do know is Sunspit currently reside in Philadelphia after recently relocating from Oakland and the band at it’s core are newlyweds Ryan and Aislinn. Other than that, I’ve got nothing. The band has a total of four songs up on their MySpace page, including the two mentioned above and two apparently newer tracks, one of which is called Running After You that I can’t get enough of, and wish everytime I hear it that I could take it with me.

All I Want (mp3) from the album “Sing For Sunday”, though I have no idea where you can buy it.

Maybe you don’t know about the Dillinger Four, but you should. Of all of the bands that could be lumped in with the Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph sound of the late ’90’s, Dillinger Four are one of the few stand outs whose songs still stand the test of time of a listener who has long since packed away most of his albums from the aforementioned labels and time.

A band that rarely tours and has only three proper full lengths, a live album, and compilation of old songs from 7″’s, splits, and other comps, Dillinger Four have created a fanatical following in the punk rock community, as I witnessed this weekend in Vegas at Punk Rock Bowling, where every person I talked to said that their performance was the thing they were most looking forward to this weekend.

With the impending release of a new album entitled, Civilwar, lucky fans across the country may just get blessed with a Dillinger Four tour in 2007, but don’t hold your breath.

Download a track from each of their prior albums courtesy of Hopeless Records and Fat Wreck Chords.

Q. How Many Punks Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb? (mp3) from “Versus God” buy it at insound!

Doublewhiskeycokenoice (mp3) from “Midwestern Songs of the Americas” buy it at insound!

Noble Stabbings!! (mp3) from “Situationist Comedy” buy it at insound!

I was perusing the world music stacks at Ameoba a couple months ago when Boogaloo Pow Wow caught my eye, without knowing anything about it other than the kids in the picture seemed pretty cool, I picked it up. Upon listening to it I was introduced to a whole new world of late 60’s era latin soul, called boogaloo, a short lived music trend that grew out of Puerto Rican and Cuban neighborhoods of New York City.

With further investigation I was able to track down some more albums by the many salsa artists who released a boogaloo album during the trend’s high point. In tracking down these other albums I also came across some great blogs and podcasts* who introduced me to these artists as well as some amazing r&b and soul performers, who’s tracks are interspliced into this intoductory podcast. There are also two current artist’s tracks in the podcast because their songs fit in so seemlessly with these other songs from some almost 40 odd years ago.

Mixtape 001 Latin-Soul-Rock-Boogaloo:
NF Porter - Keep On Keeping On
Mongo Santamaria - We Got Latin Soul
Tito Puente - Hit The Bongo
Orchestra Harlow - Freak Off
The (International) Noise Conspiracy - Born Into A Mess
The Joe Cuba Sextet - Do You Feel It
Joe Bataan - Subway Joe
Willie Rosario - Shining Knight
Amy Winehouse - Rehab
Hector Rivera - I Want A Chance For Romance

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* Fistful of Ganas, Solid State Deluxe, Funky 16 Corners, The A Side, The B Side

This 16 member Athens, GA blues-rock-jazz-punk band released their first album last year called Universal Indians, which Flagpole Magazine called “cathartic, swaggering, optimistic, completely mad and uninhibited” and named the band their #1 favorite local band. Universal Indians released via Cloud Recordings is like a drunken Southern Thanksgiving house party/backyard bbq that somehow remains cohesive enough for 11 continuous songs to be called an album, while retaining a looseness that you would expect from a 16 piece rock band.

Download two tracks below from Universal Indians and hear more on the band’s MySpace page.

Angel Of Meth (mp3)

Dead Man (mp3)