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[Fairytale of Hurt]

MGMT has a large musical orbit.  Mentions of influences, inspirations, and favorite artists/songs/albums are frequent.  This thread is intended to be the one place where we can keep all of this straight and refer back to.

The list was started by myself and jcj but is in no way complete and only intended to be a starting off point. Please post new mentions, updates, corrections, discussions, etc. and we will do our best to keep this first original post updated.   

Many artists can go under multiple different categories so if you feel strongly about an artist going in a specific category please indicate that and site the source if possible.  In order to keep some sort of categorization, most artists are only listed once and not in the multiple categories they can fall under. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Types of Influences: American/Psychedelic/Californian/Sunshiny Pop from the 60’s, English music from the 80’s Lo-fi, Shoegaze, Prog, Post Punk,

Specific Artist Influences: The Beach Boys, Brian Eno, The Deep Freeze Mice, Electric Prunes, Red Krayola, Euphoria, 13th Floor Elevators, Julian Cope, Neil Young, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan (specifically 80’s material), Suicide (Alan Vega & Martin Rev), The Grateful Dead,  Pink Floyd, The Mamas & The Papas, Talking Heads, Television Personalities, The Millennium, The Tornados, Joe Meek, Felt, CCR, Dead Meadow, Chrome, Spiritualized, Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom, Throbbing Gristle, T. Rex, Loop, Stereolab, Prince, Mayo Thompson, Mercury Rev, Sparks, The Specials, Buzzcocks, Magazine, Roxy Music, CA Quintet, Monochrome Set, Love (Arthur Lee), Black Sabbath, Royal Trux, Radiohead, The Flaming Lips, Telegraph Avenue, The Clash, Leonard Cohen, Psychic TV, Captain Beefheart, Cabaret Voltaire, The Band, The Teardrop Explodes, Ben Phelps, The Pretty Things

MGMT Enjoys (Not Otherwise Listed in Influences): Royal Trux, Neil Young, Velvet Underground, R. Stevie Moore, Spectrum, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Van Morrison, Grateful Dead, Alan Vega, Lou Reed, The Clean, The Kinks, Echo and the Bunnymen, Hall and Oats, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Phish, Pavement, Bruce Haack, Tangerine Dream, Shuggie Otis, Ultimate Spinach, Ariel Pink, Pretty Lights, of Montreal, Panda Bear, Animal Collective, The Flaming Lips, Pearl Jam, The Verve, Disco Inferno, Kraftwerk, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, The Incredible String Band, King Crimson, Charles Mingus, Aphex Twin, Townes Van Zandt, The Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Tame Impala, Beach House, Violens, Blonde Redhead, Warpaint, CSS, Cameo, Richard Strauss, Cindy Lauper, Dungen, Bo Hansson, Älgarnas trädgård, Dead Moon, Arthur Lee, Thomas Leer, Joy Division, The Castaways, Seeds, Tamaryn, Crystal Stilts, Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, Tanlines, Keepaway, Faust, The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, The Troggs, 

Artists MGMT Have Covered: The Kinks, The Clean, The Cleaners from Venus, Electric Prunes, Laid Back, Velvet Underground, Magazine, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Van Morrison, John Lennon, ‘Til Tuesday, Cindy Lauper, Oasis, Alice in Chains, Genesis, Talking Heads, NIN, Pulp, Jesus and Mary Chain, Aerosmith, Leonard Cohen, Brian Eno, England's Glory, Bauhaus, Bubble Puppy, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Rolling Stones, Faine Jade, Great Speckled Bird

Collaborations: Flaming Lips, Kid Cudi, Jay Z (unreleased)

Record Club Collaborators: Devendra Banhart, Beck Hansen, Bram Inscore, Brian LeBarton, Binki Shapiro (Little Joy), Andrew Stockdale (Wolfmother)

Tourmates (in the loosest sense of the word): of Montreal,  Violens, Tame Impala, Kuroma, Smith Westerns, Amazing Baby, Devendra Banhart, Yeasayer, Radiohead, Francis and the Lights, Florence + The Machine, Beck,  Paul McCartney, Chairlift, A Place to Bury Strangers, Fiery Furnaces, The Willowz, Janelle Monae, Kings of Leon, Surf City, Boy Crisis, Bat for Lashes, Sad Day for Puppets, Magic! Magic Roses

MGMT Shout Outs & Thank Yous: Deerhunter, Das Racist, Tame Impala, Spectrum, Violens, The Legendary Pink Dots, Ben Allen, Nas, Angelo Badalamenti, Cypress Hill

Additional Artists in MGMT’s Orbit (Not otherwise listed in SPIN below):
•   of Montreal:  MGMT has opened for them in the past and Andrew's side project Blikk Fang is on indefinite hold with of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes.
•   Wolf in a Spacesuit: Thanked on Oracular Spectacular.

Artists/Songs Influencing Specific MGMT Songs
•   Siberian Breaks - Telegraph Avenue, Leonard Cohen, Joe Meek
•   I Found A Whistle - Van Morrison, It's All Right
•   Flash Delirium - The Beach Boys, All I Wanna Do
•   Song For Dan Treacy - The Deep Freeze Mice
•   Electric Feel - The Rolling Stones, Emotional Rescue / The Brothers Johnson
•   Someone's Missing - Isley Brothers/ Shuggie Otis / Todd Rundgren / Psychic TV
•   It's Working - CA Quintet / Love /  Buzzcocks / Pink Floyd's See Emily Play

Bands in MGMT’s Orbit
SPIN Magazine, November 2008
•   Amazing Baby:  Guitarist Simon O’Connor roomed with Ben and Andrew at Wesleyan.
•   Beach House: While at college, Andrew emailed Victoria Legrand, praising Beach House’s self-titled 2006 debut album.
•   Boy Crisis: Tal Rozen, & Victor Vazquez (also of Das Racist) also went to Wesleyan with Ben, Andrew, & Will. Rozen used to sleep on Andrew’s dorm room floor before he actually attended Wesleyan.
•   Chairlift:  The two groups have shared a Brooklyn rehearsal studio.
•   Dark Meat: Trumpeter Nick Canada has designed MGMT tshirts.
•   Deastro: Randolph Charbot says, “I knew them when they were still called Management.”
•   Empire of the Sun: A solo Steele opened for MGMT’s Australian shows.
•   Kuroma:  Hank Sullivant is an old friend of Andrew’s and moonlighted for a while as MGMT’s touring guitarist.
•   Yeasayer: Tourmates, the band met through photographer Sam Fleischner who shot the Oracular Spectacular cover.

James’s Favorite Bands
Strangerdance.com, June 2008
•   The Black Angels – hands down the best band right now
•   Verdena – if you haven’t heard them that’s ok, not many people outside of Italy have. Perfectly awesome early-nineties grunge sound (the best part being they don’t even know it).
•   Deerhunter
•   Spectrum
•   E.A.R.
•   Spacemen 3 – duh
•   Jacobites
•   Paris Sisters – a Phil Spector masterpiece

Andrew’s Playlist of Influential Artists on Gay Beach (East Village Radio)
•   Great Speckled Bird - Calgary
•   Howling Hecks - Apache Energy Plan
•   Alex Chilton  - Hey Little Child
•   Bob Dylan - Dear Landlord
•   Dan Carlson - Fantasies

Andrew's Playlist on Naked Fridays
•   The Beach Boys - All I Wanna Do
•   The dB’s - The Fight
•   The Jazz Butcher - Water
•   The Brazada Brothers - Lonely Time
•   Laid Back - I Wanna Go Back
•   Strawberry Switchblade - Trees and Flowers
•   The Deep Freeze Mice - I Am Big Chief Radio Luxemburg
•   Love - She Comes in Colors
•   The Only Ones - The Whole of the Law
•   Mayo Thompson - Fortune
•   Paul Haig - Silent Motion
•   Shira Small - Eternal Life
•   Richard Yorun - Springtime At My Feet (song in background)

Ben Walks You Through Killer Tracks
Wired.com, November 2009
•   Suicide - Shadazz
•   Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham (remixed by Sonic Boom) – Moonshot (Tears of Heaven)
•   Julian Cope – Sunspots
•   Parliament - Automobile
•   Bruce Haack - Party Machine
•   Chairlift – Evident Utensil

Favorite three new bands/songs & Favorite three old bands/songs
Tokyo Questionnaire, July 2010
Ben
Tame Impala, Kuroma, Violens
Magazine, Disco Inferno, Velvet Underground
James
Tame Impala-Lucidity, Kuroma-The Magic Deed, Violens-Violent Sensation Descends
The Castaways-Liar Liar, Spacemen 3-How Does It Feel, Seeds-Can't Seem To Make You Mine
Matt
Girls-Lauren Marie, Tamaryn-Mild Confusion, Crystal Stilts-Prismatic Room
The Velvet Underground-Ocean, Beach Boys-Feel Flows, Beatles-Happiness is a Warm Gun

Psychedelic Song Recommendations
Rolling Stone Playlist Issue, December 2010
•   Pink Floyd - Summer ‘68
•   The Velvet Underground - Sister Ray
•   The Beach Boys - A Day in the Life of a Tree
•   The Brazda Brothers - Lonely Time
•   Funkadelic - Mommy What’s a Funkadelic?
•   The Rolling Stones - The Lantern
•   The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever
•   T. Rex - Dawn Storn
•   Chrome - Pygmies in Zee Park
•   Judee Sill - Crayon Angels

Andrew and Ben’s Personal iPod Playlist
Live on DRS Virus – Zurich, Switzerland ~ December 13, 2010
•   Priscilla Paris - Down By the River
•   Roky Erickson (from 13th Floor Elevators) - I Had to Tell You 
•   Gnomes of Zurich - 2nd Fiddle
•   Magic Kids - Skate Land
•   Solid Space - Destination Moon
•   Openheimer Analysis - Subterranean Desire
•   Tame Impala - It's Not Meant to Be
•   Deutsche Wertarbeit - Unter Tage

Inspirations
Q Magazine, January 2011
•   Neil Young - Tonight’s the Night
•   Chrome - Half Machine Lip Moves
•   Di Go Pop - Disco Inferno
•   Tyrannosaurus Rex - Unicorn
•   Mayo Thompson  - Corky’s Debt to His Father
•   Julian Cope - World Shut Your Mouth
•   The Cleaners From Venus - On Any Normal Monday
•   Bob Dylan - New Morning
•   Harmonia 76 (With Brian Eno) - Tracks and Traces

Favorite Tracks
BBC Radio
•   The Seeds – Cant Seem to Make You Mine
•   Priscilla Paris – My Window
•   Art – Love is Real
•   Joe South – Children
•   Slapp Happy – Blue Flower
•   XTC – Rocket From the Bottle
•   The Chills – Look for the Good in Others
•   The Beach Boys – A Day in the Life of a Tree

Andrew VanWyngarden on Psychedelia 
NME Magazine, January 1, 2011
•   The Electric Prunes - Underground
•   The Red Crayola - The Parable of Arable Land
•   Euphoria - A Gift from Euphoria
•   The Television Personalities - They Could Have Been Bigger Than The Beatles
•   Love - Da Capo

Russian Roulette of Songs with Andrew and Ben
BlogRadar, January 11, 2011
•   The ideal song to combat a hangover:  The Velvet Underground - Sunday Morning
•   The song that transports you to childhood: Talking Heads - City Of Dreams
•   Song to peacefully lose your virginity to: Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
•   The most rock and roll song in the universe: The Stooges - No Fun
•   The gayest song in the world: Ce Ce Penniston - Finally

Songs To Get To Know MGMT by 
La Nacion, January 17, 2011
SIDE ONE
•   Ghostbusters, Ray Parker Jr.
•   Time to Pretend, MGMT
•   Race for the Prize, The Flaming Lips
•   Wild Wild Life, Talking Heads
•   Rollercoaster, Spacemen 3
•   Siberian Breaks, MGMT
SIDE TWO
•   It's Working, MGMT
•   Surfin' USA, The Beach Boys
•   My Generation, The Who
•   Sugaree, Jerry Garcia

Andrew's DJ Set (not complete)
Coachella, April 17, 2011
•   Omar-S - "Psychotic Photosynthesis"
•   David Bowie - "Golden Years"
•   Spacemen 3 - "Big City"
•   Roxy Music - "Love Is The Drug"
•   Laid Back "Fly Away/Walking in the Sunshine"
•   Ice Cube - "It Was A Good Day"
•   Panda Bear - "Alsatian Darn"
•   Kraftwerk - "Neon Lights"
•   Kurt Vile - "Baby's Arms"

LateNightTales
October 3, 2011  MGMT create their own ultimate "late night" collection

•   Disco Inferno: “Can’t See Through It”
•   The Great Society: “Love You Girl”
•   Suicide: “Cheree”
•   Television Personalities: “Stop and Smell the Roses”
•   The Velvet Underground: “Ocean”
•   Felt: “Red Indians”
•   Julian Cope: “Laughing Boy”
•   Durutti Column: “For Belgium Friends”
•   Charlie Feathers: “Mound of Clay”
•   Mark Fry: “For Wilde”
•   MGMT: “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything” (Bauhaus Cover)
•   Cheval Sombre: “Troubled Mind”
•   Dave Bixby: “Drug Song”
•   The Jacobites: “Hearts Are Like Flowers”
•   The Chills: “Pink Frost”
•   Martin Rev: “Sparks”
•   The Wake: “Melancholy Man”
•   Spacemen 3: “Lord Can You Hear Me?”
•   Pauline Anna Strom: “Morning Splendor”
•   Paul Morley: “Lost for Words Part 2”

Andrew's Birthday Yams
Cite Your Major Influenzas/ Birthday Yams! ~ February 1, 2013

•   Testpattern - Souvenir Glace
•   Woo - Swingtime
•   Connan Mockasin - Faking Jazz Together
•   Klaus Kruger - Deutschland
•   Pye Corner Audio - Electronic Rhythm Number Three
•   Psychic TV - Black Rainbow
•   Omar-S - Foe Show
•   NAD - Distant Drums
•   ORB - SLUG DUB
•   The Fugs - Morning, Morning
•   Alan Watts - Insight & Ecstacy
•   Throbbing Gristle - Weeping
•   The Big Supreme - Don't Walk
•   Mid Air- Ease Out
•   Raw Silk - Just In Time And Space
•   Gino Soccio - Remember
•   Can - Sing Swan Song
•   C Gesualdo - O vos omnes
•   Bert Jansch -Needle Of Death
•   The Projects- Planets
•   Spectrum - The Drunk Suite
•   Atahualpa Yupanqui - Pobre mi negra
•   Autechre - Windwind
•   Francis Bebey - Pygmy Love Song
•   Stereolab - French Disko
•   The Stranglers - Ice
•   Tones On Tail - Lions
•   Desmond Dekker - Fu manchu
•   Argo - Daina I
•   Marianne Faithfull - Guilt
•   High Lonesome Sound System - Psychic Dreaming
•   Two Of A Kind - Happiness
•   Edwards & Armani - It's A Wonder
•   William S. Burroughs - The Ticket That Exploded
•   ? - Lots and Lots of Drugs
•   Third World Calling (Opus II) - Mandre`
•   Melon - Telephones
•   Bochum Welt - 8221sb
•   Ted Lucas - I'll Find A Way To Carry It All

[jcj]

 

[Purplebash]

Holy crap, how cool. I cannot stress enough that Of Montreal belongs on either the influenced by or enjoys list. I mean they thank 'em on Oracular Spectacular and seem to rave about them much, it just seems right xD

[Fairytale of Hurt]

Holy crap, how cool. I cannot stress enough that Of Montreal belongs on either the influenced by or enjoys list. I mean they thank 'em on Oracular Spectacular and seem to rave about them much, it just seems right xD

Thanks, glad you like!  Point taken and they have deservingly been added to the enjoys list.  They were definitely one of those bands that could go in a lot of the categories.

[fido]

haha I made one of these just on a piece of paper a while ago! thanks much for posting 

[Fairytale of Hurt]

haha I made one of these just on a piece of paper a while ago! thanks much for posting  

Sure!  Do you have anything to add then? 

[lala]

I know that Neil Young is mentioned, but I feel like he should be in the influences...he's so important to Andrew.

[Purplebash]

Hey no prob this thread is genius and so well written! Thanks for adding them... Yeah OM appears a lot xD

I'll let you know if I think of any decent contributions!

[Fairytale of Hurt]

I know that Neil Young is mentioned, but I feel like he should be in the influences...he's so important to Andrew.

Sounds good to me.  That's why I did this, I wanted everyone's opinions. I added him there and I love that he's important to him. 

[AbbysRoad]

Oh wow, this is amazing!  Nice job ladies!!

[fido]

haha I made one of these just on a piece of paper a while ago! thanks much for posting  

Sure!  Do you have anything to add then? 

you actually have more than me! I never heard of a 'till tuesday cover

[Fairytale of Hurt]

haha I made one of these just on a piece of paper a while ago! thanks much for posting  

Sure!  Do you have anything to add then?  

you actually have more than me! I never heard of a 'till tuesday cover

MGMT, along with Caroline Polachek of Chairlift, covered Voices Carry by 'Til Tuesday several times in 2009.  

Oh wow, this is amazing!  Nice job ladies!!

 Thank you Abby!

Hey no prob this thread is genius and so well written! Thanks for adding them... Yeah OM appears a lot xD

I'll let you know if I think of any decent contributions!

Wow, thanks, that means a lot.  Sounds good 

[Ninko]

This is such a cool thread. Thanks for the effort!

[Fairytale of Hurt]

This is such a cool thread. Thanks for the effort!

Thank you.  I figured there's only going to be more and more artists/songs that pop up in the future so there needed to be somewhere to organize and make sense of it all.  Glad you appreciate it 

[Piratepicnic]

Wow great thread I love to read about their favourite music because I always discover good music through MGMT's influences. Bruce Haack should definitely be added to the list,. I also know that James likes an album called Surfer Rosa, by the Pixies wich he mentioned in an interview. Here's also a good article with a playlist from Ben: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2009/11/playlist-mgmt-ben-goldwasser/