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Which one comedian Jason Mantzoukas and not an indie singer-songwriter?

watch Jason Mantzoukas talk Destroyer, MBV, Hop Along & more music/movies

As much as I like Jason Mantzoukas on The Good Place, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Big Mouth and elsewhere, he is at his sharp-witted best when just talking off-the-cuff, be it on his bad movie podcast How Did This Get Made? (which was just in NYC), appearing on other podcasts (like Jo Firestone’s Dr Gameshow which he’s on this week) or other guest appearances. He’s featured on this week’s edition of Amoeba Records’ “What’s In Your Bag?” series which is really funny but also shows what an in-touch pop culture guy Jason is, with a lot of great recommendations for music and movies. In addition to hyping recent records from Hop Along and Big Thief, he recommends records by Thai psych group Khun Narin Electric Phin Band, tropicalia legend Gal Costa, plus Konono No. 1, Hailu Mergia and more. He also goes rogue, recommending things he couldn’t find in the store and making the editors add cover art digitally, like when he recommends “my favorite album of all time,” My Bloody Valentine‘s Loveless…on cassette. (“Lotta post on this episode.”) He also notes, when recommending Destroyer‘s Streethawk: A Seduction, that he looks a lot like Dan Bejar and Jose Gonzalez, as shown above.

On the movie and TV front, he recommends Deadwood (which is officially coming back as an HBO movie), documentary Touching the Void, ’70s crime film The Friends of Eddie Coyle (which his grandfather appeared in as a background extra). The “What’s in My Bag?” series is always pretty good, but this one is an especially entertaining, informative, and very funny. Watch below.

If you need more recommendations from Jason Mantzoukas, we got a few out of him in our recent interview.