Hello, my name is Van from Catfish & the Bottlemen
Hello, I'm Bondy from Catfish & the Bottlemen
We're at Amoeba record store in Hollywood
and this is What's in My Bag.
So Bondy got me into Father John Misty, this dude.
'cause you'd just be playing them on repeat in the dressing rooms all the time
that 'Hollywood Forever Cemetery' song, which is on this one
I always remember that just ringing around the dressing room before we go on stage
and then we just played the Hollywood Forever Cemetery
the Masonic Lodge, like a little intimate show
so we're there and then I started realizing..."We should let this dead guy sleep..."
I liked Father John Misty's music when Bondy started playing it
because it reminded me you could write a song
and make it so funny, yet so heartfelt at the same time
First one I picked was 'Dots and Loops' by Stereolab
This is probably my favorite of theirs, but the first I got was
'Emperor Tomato Ketchup'
sounds non-sensical, but
they're absolutely just a fantastic band
It's got a really French soundtrack-y sound to it
but it's really rhythmic as well
Eels Royal Albert Hall one
because it's got near enough of everything on it.
He's great live.
Just like again for me lyrics and
just heart-on-sleeve...
Like 'It's a Motherfucker,' that tune
"It's a motherfucker being here without you"
Soundtrack to 'Taxi Driver'
I would actually just sit and listen to that around the house, I love it so much
just DeNiro driving around New York in the 70s, seeing
the pimps and prostitutes on the street
and things like that, this proper
suspicious sounding trumpet creeping over the top
I've got a Doors record. I got the 'L.A. Woman' record
because we were on the top of the Capitol Building
right at the top of the building, you can look down and see these four
brown bungalows, and he said that's where
the actresses and models used to all come and stay when they used to come to L.A.
Jim was dating a girl there, he used to go and see them
and in that line...
'Hung out with the girls in a Hollywood bungalow,' or whatever he says
Then he pointed out
yeah, and he's like, 'that's where the L.A. Women were, and they had a bungalow'
There's a song right before that called 'Cars Hiss By My Window'
and he does this kind of
mouth organ vocal guitar solo
I'm pretty sure he's just singing a guitar solo into a
y'know, like a bullet microphone
So I really like that tune as well.
Jean-Claude Vannier
I'm a huge Serge Gainsbourg fan, and he's
the man behind all those beautiful orchestrations that you hear
He's a string writer, and this is his solo piece
it was reissued by Finders Keepers
I don't know this album all that well, but
I know what a big part he played in making
some of my favorite Serge stuff.
There's a track called 'Les Enfants des Mouches' or something
there are no track listings on the back, so I don't know
I'm pretty sure...it's sort of like a mad
psychedelic clip of
YSL fashion show in the 60s
and it was Jean-Claude Vannier's music soundtrack
and it's just the most surreal thing for a fashion show
It just looks manic.
It looks like Lennon looking for Yoko
for the front of his album cover
I'm gonna go for this Van Morrison album
'Moondance'
My favorite's 'Tupelo Honey' or 'Saint Dominic's Preview' I think, but
this one's got 'Caravan' on it
Have you seen 'The Last Waltz,' the film about The Band
and they get all the people they played with up
Van Morrison plays, and it's probably my favorite live performance of anything ever
because of his voice, innit.
The story I've been told was
he went away because he got stage fright for years
he didn't like the pop scene, and he didn't like
the fact that he'd signed to this corporate industry and he was quite
integral
soul songwriter, so to speak
couldn't even go on stage, because he had nerves about, and stuff like that
and that was his first performance back, after that.
And 'Into the Mystic's on it.
which is the best love song I think I've ever heard
apart from the one you wrote for me
Plenty more where that came from.
That's not on vinyl yet, is it?
My dad...
my middle name is Evan McCann like his Ivan Morrison so
and he always called me Van after that
and my mom was like, 'you can't call him Van, it kind of sounds like Humpty Dumpty, know what I mean?'
but he always did.
I chose Les Baxter's 'African Jazz'
I heard a song called 'The Left Arm of Buddha'
originally, and that song is unlike anything else of his that I've heard
Sort of got a really weird string loop and a drum groove
drowned in tape echo and it sounded kind of
quite ahead of its time.
There's a song called 'Mombasa After Midnight' on this
which I play lot in the dressing room, just a really
relaxing song, a really smooth, squawky jazz number
I'm gonna go with the third Strokes album, because this one, from what I remember was the one that
people were like, 'they've lost it' kind of thing,
they've lost the Strokes kind of vibe, y'know the critics were saying about it
but this is by far my favorite
'You Only Live Once'
It's got YOLO on it.
It's got 'Juicebox' on it. My favorite Strokes song, 'Ize of the World.'
where every line in the chorus ends with '-ize'
like a city to vaporize and a body to deodorize, and all that kind of stuff
I always wanted to sound like that kind of band, like the third album Strokes
was always my favorite kind of sound in bands
it was garage-y, but it was well-produced
so it sounded lo-fi, yet
if you turned it up in an arena, it sounded huge
so that was a big help with songwriting
so thanks for that lads
Cheers, lads.
Cheers, boys.
I chose a live Roxy album
They were always a band that was played around the house when I was growing up
my dad was totally into his punk stuff
my mom was into northern soul and Motown
but the 2 things they agreed on were Bowie and Roxy
I got to see them live in about 2010 or something
and still absolutely incredible
I was looking for a guy called Benji Hughes, because he's one of my songwriters
but not many shops have his stuff
but whilst looking for that, I found Catfish Hodge Band.
The album's called 'Eyewitness Blues'
Look at that, who's that? That guy made it.
Look at him. That's great.
I've got this National record, 'Trouble Will Find Me'
As soon as I heard it, I did not stop playing it from start to finish
I'm a genuine fanatic of the National.
His lyrics are... again put him back in there with the other boys
Went for a Todd Rundgren record.
I first heard Nazz through Nuggets
and then realized Todd Rundgren came out of that
and went on to be pretty fantastic
I don't know a great deal of this record, but I heard a track called 'Cold Morning Light'
and loved it because it sounds...
it sounds like it could be a Carpenters record or something
I love him.
He's a fantastic guitar player too.
This is the only Streets they had in here but Mike Skinner of The Streets, he's my favorite
of all time, he's the one I got myself into
in general, the reason I started liking lyrics
I just love the way he can write a song about smoking
with his girlfriend and watching the TV
There's a song called 'Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way'
which is that kind of story I'm talking about
Last pick is 'Parable of Arable' by the Red Krayola
As far as I know, they were acid buddies with the 13th Floor Elevators
and I'd first heard about them through
Spacemen 3, covering a song called 'Transparent Radiation' off this.
Absolutely frantic psychedelia, but it's a brilliant record
and I love that track 'Transparent Radiation,' it's just...
balmy lyrics
There you go. Thank you.
Thank you for having us.