Drawn to the City’s Dark Side

Eleni Mandell loves L.A., but not in a sun-’n’-fun kind of way. Rather, the singer-songwriter finds inspiration in the city’s dark corners, where illicit romances and quirky personalities flourish.

That’s not surprising, given that the native Angeleno cites Southern California-based icons Tom Waits and X as enduring fascinations. Their influence shows in the lyrics and sound of her critically praised current album “Thrill,” with its emphasis on romantic desperation and its spare-yet-luscious blend of bluesy folk and noir shades of jazz and cabaret.

“I also read a lot of Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski, and much of that was centered in L.A.,” says Mandell, 31, who grew up in Sherman Oaks and now lives in Los Feliz.

“It’s a good place to be creative, sort of because it’s as bad as it is.” She laughs. “I love downtown, but even sometimes when I go into the Valley, I get this elated feeling, like, ‘Wow, it’s ugly and empty, and you could just think of a million things [to write about]!’ ”

In an era when major labels, trying to prove that, really, they do support something other than buff young singing dancers, breathlessly tout minimally talented troubadours and cute teen “singer-songwriters,” Mandell stands out as an artist who has a unique talent for limning atmospheric tales of heartbreak, betrayal and fatal charms. But she’s been overlooked so far.

On one hand, this doesn’t bother her much. Being independent is good, because she has creative control over her recordings and gets to work with people she admires, including X drummer DJ Bonebrake, producer Brian Kehew of space-age cover band the Moog Cookbook, percussionist Danny Frankel and bassist Sheldon Gomberg, all of whom will appear on her third album, which she hopes to release next year.

She enjoys the intimacy of such venues as Largo, Fais Do-Do, and the Fold at the Silverlake Lounge. “In my neighborhood, the East Side, it’s starting to feel like there’s a musical community,” she says, sipping decaf at a hip Hollywood coffee shop. “People go out even when they don’t know what the band sounds like, and I really like that.”

It was like that when Mandell started listening to X when she was 13. “When something gets inside you as a kid, it’s just always there,” says the singer, who attended Cleveland Humanities Magnet High School in Reseda and studied art at UC Berkeley.

“Recently I realized how much I had been influenced by Exene [Cervenka]. The way she dressed, her handwriting, everything. I wanted to write words that didn’t necessarily seem like they went together, and hop around [stylistically], and stuff like that.”

Mandell never got to know X’s frontwoman beyond passing introductions, but she was excited to have Bonebrake provide percussion for some tracks on “Thrill,” which was praised by critics locally and around the country.

Web exposure and extensive North American touring have broadened her fan base. Like many artists deemed unsellable by big labels, Mandell has found more acceptance in movies and television, most recently placing her song “Pauline” in the season finale of HBO’s “Six Feet Under.”

Still, she wouldn’t mind having deeper pockets to plumb. She’d like to capitalize on the positive reactions “Thrill” has gotten in Europe, but putting together an overseas tour now would be logistically and financially tough.

“Sometimes I just think, ‘God I wish I had money!’ ” admits Mandell, who waits tables at a Silver Lake greasy spoon when she’s not on the road. “Eventually, you get tired of being the underdog.”

She doesn’t like to dwell on what-ifs, but acknowledges feeling frustrated and surprised by the music industry’s apparent indifference.

“I think I do have commercial appeal,” she says. “But I’m not complaining, either. When I read artists [complaining] about the music industry, I’m like, ‘Oh, spare me. Are you a waitress?’ ” She laughs. “Even as it’s been hard, I have been so lucky. I’ve gotten to meet my hero [Waits] and have him tell me I was good.”

That happened thanks to longtime L.A. fixture Chuck E. Weiss, who has been Mandell’s mentor for about a decade. She had been a fan of the singer-songwriter before they met, and when they did, she jokes, “he decided it was worth letting me drive him around.”

Back when the Viper Room was still the divey Central, where Weiss had a weekly residency, he called her one evening before the show. “He said, ‘Tom Waits is gonna be here tonight, so bring your guitar and wear your blue dress,’ ” she recalls. “As I walked off stage, [Waits] said, ‘That was beautiful.’ I will always have that.’ ”

With her talent, and any sort of luck, Mandell won’t have to settle for mere fond memories of a hero’s kind words. After all, her work can be powerfully compelling. “One older woman in North Carolina said my song ‘No Good, No More’ was instrumental in helping her leave her husband,” she says, amused.

Even a tune she wrote for the dark comedy feature “Monkeybone” that appeared at the tail end of the closing credits didn’t escape notice.

“I actually got e-mail from the projectionist in a [Massachusetts] cinema, and he said, ‘I love your song. I always dance around the projection booth when it comes on.’ ” She laughs. “That was really cool!”

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Eleni Mandell performs Tuesday at the Fold at the Silverlake Lounge, 2906 Sunset Blvd., L.A. 9 p.m. (323) 666-2407.