Regina Spektor: Hi, I'm Regina Spektor. I'm at Amoeba and this is What's in My Bag. [MUSIC - "Us"] RS: Well, the first thing I wanted to show you was this record. [MUSIC - "Melody of Certain Three"] RS: Really, it is one of those records where you just put it on and it just kind of opens up and there's no skippers, which is rare, even with great records. My first time ever coming out to LA was in 2003 when I got onto the Strokes Tour before I was signed for anything. [MUSIC - "Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men"] RS: After that tour, record labels started coming around and one person that was trying to get me signed, he brought me here and at that time I was really broke. So record stores were like these wonderful palaces that I would just look, you know, and he got me a CD, this Blonde Redhead, A Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons. [MUSIC - "For the Damaged Coda"] RS: It's very scratched up. I'm very excited to get it on vinyl. Unknown Speaker: So did you end up signing with him? RS: No. [laughs] He was very, very nice. So I ended up signing with Seymour Stein and Michael Goldstone to Sire and this record was something that Goldie and Seymour, they put it on my iPod and they said to me, listen to the song "Kooks" because that's "Us". [MUSIC - "Kooks"] RS: I had such huge gaps because what sometimes happens to immigrants and refugees is they come here and then all of the money goes towards like shelter and food. [EXCERPT - MTV News You Hear It First] John Norris: Before rock stardom beckoned, Regina Spektor, just nine at the time, emigrated along with her family from Russia to the United States. RS: When we were leaving, we sold the piano and just we knew that we were coming here and we were going to be, you know, with nothing. RS: So really a lot of the music that I was listening to was NPR, things that were on PBS and whatever was playing in the supermarket. [laughs] But this whole record I fell in love with and, you know, songs like "Changes", I mean, like "Life on Mars" is just one of the greatest songs ever. [MUSIC - "Life on Mars"] RS: He's just so good and I also don't have this on vinyl and the iPod died a long, long time ago. It was very sad. Okay, this record, we also don't have on vinyl in my household, but this record basically is like, you know, if you'd have a record where you break glass, you have like an emergency record. This is it. [MUSIC - "Brief Candles"] RS: This is The Zombies' Odyssey & Oracle. This was the record that when our baby would cry, we could just put it on. [MUSIC - "This Will Be Our Year"] RS: It was the most listened to record by far and the most amazing thing about it was that we never ever got to sick of it. I'm very excited about this Duran Duran reissue. [MUSIC - "Planet Earth"] RS: I think they're awesome and they think that their spirit like even anytime I catch like old interviews they just seem so into exploration and new sounds and they're just really cool band. [EXCERPT] US: Who is the strongest sense of human that bring you all back down to earth? Duran Duaran: We're all miserable. RS: Okay this one's for my husband. This is part of the music education that I got from Jack. [MUSIC - "Nobody's Fool"] RS: "Nobody's Fool" is in my head a lot. I'm a big fan of Cinderella. I'm like a late comer to a lot of metal. [MUSIC - "Somebody Save Me"] RS: But I really like metal. This is just...This is Leonard Cohen's greatest hits. Just looking at these in a row I was like, oh it'd be really nice to have it. [MUSIC - "Suzanne"] RS: Leonard, Cohen I just I'm thankful that he exists and "Famous Blue Raincoat". It's just a song I go back to over and over. [MUSIC - "Famous Blue Raincoat"] RS: "Famous Blue Raincoat" has an insane edit in it. Once you hear it you can't unhear it and it's only like in headphones and it's but it's still a perfect song and it's a perfect recording. So whatever they did however they chose it it's got this captured atmosphere to it that I love. RS: Um, the Billy Joel. When my parents did get a little bit more money we had on CD reatest hits. It's really a huge discovery for me. [MUSIC - "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant"] RS: For years getting more and more into his music I think he's an incredible songwriter and before the pandemic happened Jack and I did get to see one of those MSG shows. It's a happy place. It's a really happy place. It's just so it's good. If you like songs you can't not like this. This is Joanna Sternberg. [MUSIC - "People Are Toys to You"] RS: Joanna's from New York. She's a really really good songwriter that I got very very excited about. It's sort of from that tribe of like Jeffrey Lewis, lo-fi, just again if you love songs. I love songs. I pledge allegiance to songs. The evergreen debut. [MUSIC - "Venus as a Boy"] RS: When I discovered Björk it was like [explosion noises]. You know, "Human Behavior" comes on and you're just like this makes absolute sense in my body. So yeah I'm excited to have it on vinyl. This is a staff pick. This is my pick too. I really love Beck. [MUSIC - "Where It's At"] RS: A really adventurous, super cool, ever-changing songwriter. The more people can sort of stretch from themselves the more excited I get to kind of go down the road with them. Finally I really like Guster. I don't know this record. It's called "Keep It Together". [MUSIC - ""Amsterdam"] RS: I feel like one of the fun things about being in a record store is just literally judging a book by its cover and saying this looks cool. I'm going to check you out. I trust you. I want to be friends with you. So I'm going to check this out. I'm going to per-emptively say that I'm pretty sure it's going to be awesome. US: That's so wonderful. Thank you for shopping with us. Yeah thank you so much. [MUSIC - "Becoming All Alone"]