"I was half tempted to put in all of The Beatles' albums. It's really hard for me to pick one because I fucking love all of them. They mean so much to me. I think Revolver, because it pointed the way forward. It's interesting that 'Tomorrow Never Knows', which still sounds like something that's coming from the future, was the first song that they started work on. They started that in early 1966 or whatever. Pretty far out when you think about it. That song always sounds contemporary to me. That thing with the bass and drums where it's just one groove, like a loop. And all the tape sounds that are coming in and out. It's very advanced for its time. The sound was so different that you knew there was something else going on, that something was changing culturally and musically for people, which of course it did the following year. The Indian influence is there as well. Obviously it's in 'Love You To', the George track, but also the way the guitars are played. You've got a slight drone going on with the guitars."

"The first one is Paul Thomas Anderson and There Will Be Blood. I had seen that movie at a very crucial point in my life. I had just torn my shoulder in wrestling, and it was like the world had fallen away from me. Like a lot in the movie is autobiographical. So yeah, I was really kind of lost. And then I saw There Will Be Blood in the theater, and it rocked my world. It blew my mind. The first Paul Thomas Anderson movie I saw was Boogie Nights at a really young age, and it was perfect for an adolescent. But it also made me realize there’s a creator behind all this. I was transported and inspired. That was when I started getting back into filmmaking and loving movies again. Because I couldn’t do sports. That movie was really huge for that."

"I think Hanin [Elias] from the band was a Bikini Kill fan so she sent it to me. They mixed punk rock with electronic music and it was the first time I'd heard that done. So definitely that inspired Le Tigre, and I was listening to it while I was making the solo Julie Ruin record, in 1997. It inspired me to get into electronic music because I was like, "Oh, if I want to do something different and if my band's not practising, I can make electronic music." They gave me the idea to learn how to programme a drum machine and use a sampler. It's just really like the world is opening up for you. Their music had a huge effect on the direction my career was going in, that I could mix electronic music with punk rock, that electronic music could be punk."

"Again, this is a really recent discovery. I was touring with Kevin Morby in America and we were talking about maybe trying to do a cover together at the end of the night. He kept talking about this guy called Bill Fay and kept telling me to listen to this album. He kept at it and eventually said, ""Can I play you Bill Fay, because I don't know why you have never heard of him? This album is like a classic record."" So, Kevin put some songs on and I remember thinking, ""Shit – this is incredible!"" and then to learn that Bill is a British musician and had made an album that is as classic as this record but I had never heard of him was a huge surprise. It wasn't an album that was in the tapestry – like a record by David Bowie that you would have heard of. The songwriting and musicianship on the album is amazing and this seems like a classic story of being dropped by a record label after a second album - this was the second record he'd made. I don't understand how he could have been dropped – you listen to this album and it contains some of the best-written songs ever. There is a song on it called 'I Hear You Calling' which is really poignant and beautiful and arresting. The album as a whole is just perfect – it's an absolute classic and to me it should be a staple in anyone's collection. I'm just glad I finally discovered it and am just sorry it took that long."

"Last summer we were playing some versions of Dark Side of the Moon that were more like our versions, that we did with my nephew [Star Death and White Dwarves] and Henry Rollins and Peaches. This summer we're playing another version that has some of the Wizard of Oz themes and ideas running through it, so that'll be a lot of fun. It's just great emotional music. Judy Garland, when they picked her to be the singer, and the embodiment of that longing... she's so perfect for that Dorothy character. There are bits on the Wizard of Oz soundtrack CD that I have - and it's an old CD, maybe 15, 20 years old - when you take the movie away and just hear her singing, and there's a song where she cries. I've put it on to a room full of people and they tear up, it's so real. There's not many pieces of music that can do that. She's so perfect, but it's not just the singing - she's an actor. She's on camera at the same time, she's wearing this ridiculous costume, there's fake backdrops behind her, there's a lot of elements that have gone into this thing, and so for her to be so pure, so potent: it's uncanny. That's why that movie is so good. There's a lot of fantastical, ridiculous, musical movies out there that, to me, are nauseating. Wizard of Oz should be one of those - out-dated, overdone, with horrible music – but it rises above what it's made of. It's unbelievable."