Hey this is Michelle from Japanese Breakfast.
I'm at Amoeba and this is What's in My Bag.
First thing that I found was the soundtrack to 'Yentl.'
I'm a big Barbra Streisand fan.
The first movie I saw was 'The Way We Were,' which was my mom's favorite movie.
Now behave yourself.
I don't want to behave myself. I don't care about behaving myself.
I've been talking about this movie a lot lately because
Greta Gerwig is the fifth woman nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, which is totally nuts.
And everyone's like, yeah wasn't Barbra Streisand one of them? And she's not.
But she should have been for 'Yentl,' which she directed
which I think is the greatest musical of all time.
Basically about a young Jewish woman who crossdresses as a boy so she can study the Talmud.
It's amazing and it's a musical. Great jammers on here.
This is a Shin Joong Hyun compilation of...
I guess they're things that he wrote from '58 to '74.
Japanese Breakfast recently did a tour all over Asia
and I was born in Seoul. I'm half Korean and so it was a super huge dream for me
to play our last concert of the year in Seoul.
And while I was there, the promoters introduced me to this guy Shin Joong Hyun
who is kind of like the Phil Spector of Korea without the issues there.
But he is an amazing like psychedelic rock god
and also wrote a lot of songs for girl groups in the 60s and 70s.
And this one song, 'The Sun' by Kim Jung Mi
I guess is a song that he wrote for her and is just like a 7-minute acoustic jammer.
It's just like the most beautiful song I've ever heard.
I was talking to my aunt, if she'd heard of this guy, and she's like, oh y'know your mom and I used to sing
this song by The Pearl Sisters, which was a song that he wrote
called 'Coffee Han-jan' which means 'one cup of coffee.'
And the two of them would dress up as the Pearl Sisters and lip-sync and perform
to the, y'know, Korean elite.
It's not on here but there's a lot of really good songs.
The Bunny Girls are also really good 70s Korean disco music.
So I've been super into this and wanting to find it.
So I'm surprised that it's here. That's really cool.
When I was in Korea, I went to this record shop called King Pop Records.
There was like a 70s pop compilation that was playing.
A Japanese 70s pop compilation, so I saw these two here
and I'm really into finding these kind of like 70s disco gems.
And also I just adore these types of covers.
Just like how vibrant these outfits are
and the colors on the covers are so amazing.
Originally I was looking for a Bill Callahan record.
He's one of the few artists that doesn't have his music on streaming services
so I feel like you, as you should, buy the vinyl.
But it didn't seem to be here, so I got his ex-girlfriend's record.
Who is so much more than his ex-girlfriend. I'm a huge, huge Cat Power fan.
And I feel like Cat Power represents the days of my really emotional fandom
where I was I think 16 or so, and that was just like when you when you wanted to get
so close to an artist that you would watch and read every single interview that they've done.
It's just super dark and intense and I really love this album
and it inspires my writing a lot. Cat Power has always been a huge inspiration to me, so, love it.
I've been on a 'Pretty Hate Machine' kick lately.
In my mind, the third Japanese Breakfast LP is gonna be like Nine Inch Nails meets 'Homogenic'
and be this amazing industrial, melodramatic, theatrical record.
But I don't think I actually have the capability of writing that way.
So I've just been listening to this record a lot, trying to get some inspo.
Also, I think, another story of an artist kind of like locking themselves away and figuring stuff out.
The process of making this record seemed super, super interesting, and it's such an amazing album.
Gorillaz 'Plastic Beach.'
I know they came out with a new record but I just felt like I should really have this on vinyl.
Huge fan of the song 'Empire Ants' and 'On Melancholy Hill.'
It's just like an album full of bangers. So good.
I feel like this is the weirdest, most vibrant and interesting album
and love the anime art.
I'm like really repping Korea in this.
Park Chan-wook is an amazing director.
I remember watching 'Old Boy' and really not liking it.
But this is his new one, 'The Handmaiden,' and it's so good.
The camera movement in this is just so unreal, and the colors are amazing. Sick plot twists.
Which is kind of his bag. And then I got this other movie
'Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance' which is a part of his vengeance trilogy that 'Old Boy' is a part of.
Because after watching this, it made me really want to explore more of his films.
I've been meaning to read Philip K. Dick, because I'm a big sci-fi fan
and I just watched the new 'Blade Runner.'
I actually really liked it. I feel like no one else did.
I think that the world that he creates is so amazing
and I liked it in the movie. I think it's really special.
So I've been wanting to read Philip K. Dick for a while
and this is the 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' is what Blade Runner was based on.
The last thing I got was this amazing box set of Werner Herzog.
I've actually never watched any of the documentaries that are on here, but I'm a big fan.
I wish I could do a good German accent. I won't even try to.
Two figures are approaching an oil well. One of them holds a lighted torch.
What are they up to? Are they going to rekindle the blaze?
He did a lecture at UPenn, which was pretty cool to see.
He's like, there's no reason... if you want to make film or great art in general
just drop out of college
and walk the Earth. You would do better if you just dropped out of college
walked the earth, or became a bouncer.
Earn it by becoming a bouncer in a sex club.
You would make better art if you did that than attending this Ivy League school.
So I was like, man I love him, he's fucking great.
So yeah, I got this box set. That's the last thing.
Rad. Thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks.