Two members of the band-bassist Marley D. Williams and drummer Wesley Finley-took a break from a national headlining tour to dish about their Desert Island Discs, a diverse array of music that goes from gangsta rap to Canadian indie rock.

Marley D Williams:

Bob Marley and The Wailers Legend
If I was stuck on a deserted island with a dope sound system, I would be just fine if I had these five albums.

Legend by Bob Marley and The Wailers is a must. This album is packed with his top hits and besides being island music, it is life music. His message and sound is universal and positive. I grew up on Bob Marley and my mom even named me after him. I owe so much to what he has done with his music and could listen to him anytime.

Dr. Dre Chronic 2001
Next up is Chronic 2001 by Dr. Dre. This album you can play the whole way through at a party and people can’t help but dance and put a few drinks back. Dr. Dre is my favorite producer of all time and his formula to separating the highs, mids and lows is uncanny. His beats and hooks are catchy yet still hard. It takes a lot of talent to do this and because of it, you are left bobbing your head every time.

Sublime Sublime
Sublime’s self-titled album is one of those albums that only comes out rarely. It is a complete mixture of so many genres. I would say it is the 7 iron of golf when it comes to music and you could arguably say that all 5 of the albums on my list are mixed into it. From the first track to the last track you are enjoying it’s diversity and originality. So many great memories while listening to this album.

Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik by the Red Hot Chili Peppers is one of the first albums that I listened to over and over again. I appreciate how funky it is while still incorporating rock. So many great songs on this album!

A Tribe Called Quest Midnight Marauders
Midnight Marauders by A Tribe Called Quest serves as my Hip Hop side of the bunch. This album is full of catchy punch lines and awesome old school horn samples. Q Tip and Phife Dawg bounce of each other greatly with their poetic rhymes and shine with their original voices and style.

Wesley Finley:

Dredg El Cielo
My favorite album of all time. An opus from beginning to end, the album is conceptually based on sleep paralysis and dreams. Surrealism is subsequently tied into the dream imagery, and a nod to Dali can be seen in the first track’s title – “Brushstroke: dcbtfoabaaposba”, which is an acronym for Dali’s famous painting “Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate One Second Before Awakening”. I always feel like I’ve gone on a long journey after listening to it, which is what conceptual albums are meant to express.

If you had to go away for awhile and you could only take five of your favorite albums with you, which ones would you choose? Yes, we know it isn’t a fair question, but that hasn’t stopped us from asking music fans who happen to be recording artists in their own right. This week’s Desert Island Discs list comes courtesy of singer/songwriter Maureen Toth, currently promoting her latest release, Shine. Take it away, Maureen!

Florence and the Machines – Lungs

This is my favorite current CD. These songs have so much energy. I love working out to this CD as well. If I’m on a desert island and I need to work for my food, I am going to need to be pumped up. Her voice is fantastic and the band has the same intense power as her voice. The lyrics are haunting and smart and so atmospheric. I love female vocalists generally, and her vocal strength is really inspiring.

Patti Griffin – Living with Ghosts

These are amazingly heartfelt songs – extremely personal and beautiful. You feel like you know her well after listening to this CD. Her vocals are gorgeous. Every song is a treat to sing along with, and the sound has a hint of Americana in a way that is subtle and compelling. Her simple guitar accompaniment is pared down and lets the lyrics and vocals be the star of the show. But she’s an amazing guitar player and that comes through as well.

The Beatles – Abbey Road

What do I really need to say about this one? The Beatles simply…make me happy. If I was on an island and bumming out for my tough circumstance, I’d have to have a CD that lifts my spirits, and this is the one. I think most of the world feels the same about the Beatles, so that’s that!

Tom Petty – Anthology

I can say, for sure, that my favorite classic rock and roll band is Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (and Tom Petty solo). I tried to avoid anthologies, but I just have to be honest about this one — it would be a must-have for me. His music is timeless, and his voice for me is strangely comforting – like coming home. I bow low to a master and just adore his life’s work.

Jeff Buckley – Grace

One of the most haunting and beautiful albums ever. I tend to prefer female vocalists, but his vocals are otherworldly. I also tend to like songs that don’t meander, but his do — and to great effect. The tragedy of his short life makes the music more special, like he was meant to be here for just a little while to create great beauty and depart.

Ready to hear what all those influences add up to? Have a listen to five tracks from Maureen Toth’s Shine, out now.

Maureen Toth Shine

If you had to go away for awhile and you could only take five of your favorite albums with you, which ones would you choose? Yes, we know it isn’t a fair question, but that hasn’t stopped us from asking music fans who happen to be recording artists in their own right. This edition of Desert Island Discs comes courtesy of singer/songwriter Terry Radigan, whose latest release, The Breakdown of a Breakup, is out February 14. Visit Terry’s site for samples of her music — after reading her Desert Island picks, of course.

I have a penchant for sad songs in minor keys, but if I were stranded I’d probably opt for my feelgood tunes. I have a “Good Morning T” mix that I play nearly every morning to start my day.

If I had to choose five tunes, they would be :

“Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive,” Peggy Lee

I could listen to this track all day long. Impossible to be bummed while listening to this tune & Ms. Lee is my true north.

“Let A Little Lovin’ Come In,” George Jones

The possum & a baritone guitar solo – ’nuff said!

“Feeling Good,” Nina Simone

Brilliant singer + BRILLIANT artist = perfection.

“Lovely Day,” Bill Withers

This man can do no wrong — and this song makes everything lovely.

“I Smile,” Kirk Franklin

This song makes me smile, every time. Hallelujah!

Now that you’ve read Terry’s Desert Island picks, take a look at the IndieGoGo campaign video for her upcoming album, The Breakdown of a Breakup – and if you like what you hear, visit the campaign page to help make its release a reality:

The Breakdown Of A Breakup Indie GoGo from terry radigan on Vimeo.

If you had to go away for awhile and you could only take five of your favorite albums with you, which ones would you choose? Yes, we know it isn’t a fair question, but that hasn’t stopped us from asking music fans who happen to be recording artists in their own right. This edition of Desert Island Discs comes courtesy of Bradley Skaught of the Bye Bye Blackbirds, whose latest release, Fixed Hearts, is out now. Visit their site to stream the whole album — after reading Bradley’s Desert Island picks, of course.

Clearly, the most dangerous enemy on a desert island is boredom. It’s not enough to just stuff your lifeboat full of your favorite records, books and movies, you also have to find ways to engage with all that media in thought provoking ways so that you don’t go crazy and realize that you really should’ve brought your favorite bottles of water, canned foods and flare guns. Life is going to be short on the desert island, so keep it interesting!

Right before I start eating my own left arm, I’m going to be thinking about my beloved adopted home in the Bay Area and organizing the list of my five favorite albums recorded in the Bay Area:

Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

The Danny Whitten-era Crazy Horse is such an amazing, strange band. Raw and ferocious, but far more sophisticated than the overdriven caveman Crazy Horse of later years. There’s a certain amount in common with the psychedelic jamming that defined much of the SF scene at the time, but Neil is always doing his own thing and it’s the songwriting, along with the almost monochromatic focus on the sound of the band, that makes this timeless. That Neil escaped from L.A. to hide out here and be himself is the classic Bay Area story. Some places are the fountains of creativity and some places are the facilitators — the Bay Area seems like the kind of place that allows you to transform whatever you bring with you into something magical.

Turf Talk – Street Novelist

Bay Area hip hop has always had a hard time making itself regionally identifiable to the rest of the world. Like most Bay Area scenes, it’s mostly made up of a collection of strong individual personalities. The short-lived Hyphy phenomenon was kind of an exception and it had the added value of roping in enough older local legends like E-40 and Too Short to feel something like an acknowledgement of legacy and unity. It burnt out pretty quick and didn’t leave much trace, but this record is a stone classic. Turf seems like a mysterious dude — like he’s a lot less showbiz than some of his peers. He doesn’t make a lot of cameos, he doesn’t turn up much for the industry grind/hoop jumping. Bay Area genius Rick Rock lends some really dazzling production.

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – Tiffany Transcriptions (volumes 1-10 — take your pick)

The Bay Area is as much country music territory as the rest of California, even though the ideological and social divides have strained that relationship over the years. The greatest contemporary practitioners of country music in all its varieties, Red Meat, are an SF based band and the Tiffany Transcriptions, one of the great documents of the creation of modern country music, was taped in a ballroom on Nob Hill. A lot of the great Bay Area bands, the Dead and The Beau Brummels come immediately to mind, have country and bluegrass embedded in their DNA. If it’s in the water, it might have trickled into the bay from the sweat of the migrant workers and farmers out in the valley and delta or through the pans of gold miners in the foothills. It might also have been left there by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys.

The Loud Family – Interbabe Concern

Finding out that this record was recorded in a living room in the commuter city of San Bruno is a lot like imagining Wallace Stevens, insurance executive and genius poet, jotting notes at his desk in Hartford. A work of imagination this dense, sprawling and overflowing with energy seems like it must require an equally electric locale to inspire, and maybe even contain, it. But the landscape of Scott Miller’s mind was enough, apparently, to generate this masterpiece of lyrical adventurousness and sonic experimentation. There are plenty of precedents for wild musical exploration in the Bay Area, but the psychedelic inspirations of the Summer of Love aren’t quite the launching point for this kind of exploration. Maybe this is more in line with the seekers down in Silicon Valley, shuffling the fragments of information that combine in unexpected ways and seem to create, as much as reflect, our dreams.

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Pendulum

As desperate for credibility as Creedence were in their time, it seems they still don’t get a lot of respect. The, admittedly, pretty crappy “tape experiments” that end this record don’t go very far towards establishing them as artists in any kind of convincingly psychedelic way. Nor is this record even one of the loaded-with-iconic-hits classic LPs from their catalog. It’s an underdog fighting for a chance, loaded with fiery rockers and amazing grooves (and even a ballad you wish Bobby “Blue” Bland could’ve gotten his hands on: “Just A Thought”.) That working class mystique and chip-on-shoulder grittiness is so very East Bay — and that desire to identify yourself as something more recognizably legitimate in American culture (bayou boys, country folk, the workin’ man) also seems to reflect the inferiority complex of the cities living in the shadow of the mighty San Francisco. Pendulum’s genius is that it so clearly reflects the struggle — Fogerty’s pushing the limits to make the case for himself and his band. His considerable talents and genuine soulfulness guarantees that it all works. The guitar tone on “Hey Tonight” alone should seal the deal!

If you had to go away for awhile and you could only take five of your favorite albums with you, which ones would you choose? Yes, we know it isn’t a fair question, but that hasn’t stopped us from asking music fans who happen to be recording artists in their own right. This edition of Desert Island Discs comes courtesy of singer/songwriter Jon Macey, whose latest release, Intention, is out now. Visit Jon’s site for samples of his music — after reading his Desert Island picks, of course.

Here I am, sitting on a desert island, with MacBook, wireless router, and turntable (relics from a different desert island list), sending an email to POPDOSE. I have opted not to name the obvious pantheon of Dylan, Beatles, Miles,Velvets. Here are five of my all time favorite albums:

Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes, The Ronettes. I am a true lover of unabashed 60s/70s pop. I could have easily picked The Archies, Monkees or ABBA but, in my opinion, it largely emanates from the New York City songwriting teams and Mr. Phil Spector. This record has great tunes, singing, production (and drumming!). I know Phil had a few issues, but who wouldn’t smile listening to this music?

The Modern Lovers, The Modern Lovers. The greatest band ever to come from my home town. I  knew these guys well and saw them perform many times. This album is actually a collection of demos (lo-fi out of necessity; not lo-fi as hip) but it stands out as the missing link between the late 60s (think VU) and late 70s (punk rock).

Here Come The Warm Jets, Brian Eno. (This should be coupled with his second album, Taking Tiger Mountain.) If you have never heard this, you MUST find it now. The music is shockingly ahead of its time and absolutely prescient as to the post-punk future.

Warren Zevon, Warren Zevon. Overshadowed somewhat at the time by his cohorts in the SoCal scene, Zevon looms larger as time passes. His singing of the line “I drank up all the money with these phonies in this Hollywood bar” is worth the entire careers of other singer-songwriters.

The Complete Hank Williams. Ok, I’m glibly cheating here as a way to get 15 discs out of 5, but this is the dawn of creation for the transition from ‘show biz’ song and dance men to the modern iconic music stars. Hank set the stage for the singer-songwriters in all genres to follow. This has it all.

Some pretty inspired picks, no? Now see what all those influences added up to: the video for “Trapped By My Own Creation,” from Jon’s latest album.

Common’s list of Desert Island Discs is a potpourri of sounds; drawing from divergent genres of music. We’ll shut up now and let him talk.

I try very hard to avoid being stranded on desert islands, but it happens sometimes, despite one’s best intentions. So this is a reasonable question. My current five D.I.D.’s are:

Mambo Sinuendo by Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban. This record makes me want to drink rum endlessly while playing a pawn shop hollowbody through a vintage fender amp in a dank, stucco room.  Nickel wound strings, please.

Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Sam Jones, Art Blakey.  Drive all night from the Holland Tunnel to Tallahassee, Florida while listening to this record on repeat and tell me you haven’t been permanently transformed. I defy you.

Bruce Springsteen: Darkness on the Edge of Town

After the success of Born To Run I heard that Springsteen felt disconnected to the life in his hometown that he believed inspired the album. Darkness, he said, was his attempt to reconnect to the way of life and the people he grew up around. In a similar way I feel like I’ve become more compelled by the stories of the people around me lately. I love how Bruce writes extraordinary songs about ordinary people.

The Black Pepper Corns: Tumbling Ground

They put out one album in the ’90s, but it was one of my favorites. It kind of sounds like Van Morrison meets Dylan Thomas in the dirty South. I love Kevin’s voice and I feel like the imagery in songs like “Tumbling Ground” and “Please” have often haunted me in my attempts at songwriting.

Ryan Adams: Cold Roses

It’s hard to be a thirty-something year old dude from North Carolina and not enjoy Ryan Adams. This is the only double album that I know I wouldn’t skip a single track. I could listen to “Dance All Night” or “Life is Beautiful” any day of the week and I think songs like “How Do You Keep Love Alive” are so beautifully sad. I’m a sucker for sad songs.

Beck: Sea Change

There are so few albums that could be classified as “timeless” and this is one of those to me. You could have told me it was recorded any time in the last 30 years and I would almost believe you. The vibe and the production are subtle and smart but the songs are real songs that could stand on their own. I love Beck’s willingness to take risks and to move into territory that is so different from what his audience may expect from him.

Bob Marley & The Wailers: Catch a Fire

I love Bob Marley. Something about the struggle in his voice and the way he sings for the people has always been compelling to me. I guess I love the idea of a champion and he certainly seemed to be one. Plus I can listen to Caribbean music all year round. I don’t just hear happy, fun beach music. I hear a story about people.

If you had to go away for awhile and you could only take five of your favorite albums with you, which ones would you choose? Yes, we know it isn’t a fair question, but that hasn’t stopped us from asking music fans who happen to be recording artists in their own right. This edition of Desert Island Discs comes courtesy of Scotty Alan, whose latest EP, Wreck and the Mess, is out now. Visit Scotty’s site for samples of his music — after reading his Desert Island picks, of course!

Ramones, Ramones

My first major musical impression came in 1986 as a passenger in the cold back seat of a Volkswagen Beetle. The self-titled debut album sustains enough energy to build several huts, a raft and a tiki bar for any desert island recluse. The upbeat musical simplicity combined with catchy lyrics will easily help preoccupy the mind while engaged in the labors of the day during the early stages of being stranded and beyond.

Wire, Pink Flag

A few years later, now driving my own 1974 Beetle, I was listening to Wire’s Pink Flag. This collection of 21 lickety-split raw energy songs will be perfect for the long days ahead. “12XU” is still my favorite song — and is, in fact, one of the first cover songs I ever learned. Perfect choice while collecting, bundling and installing the thatch for your roof.

The Replacements, Tim

Nostalgic listening by one of my favorite bands. It was really hard to pick which Replacements album, but since I will be deserted for awhile I felt an immediate need for this one. Sharing similar thoughts and desires for both the more quiet, intimate acoustic songs yet still having the need to be loud from time to time, made this the right choice and a perfect segue to the next artist…

Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Rust Never Sleeps

Capturing the two sides of Young’s musical self, this album has a personal cyclical feel for me. Combining both acoustic and electric songs, this album has always been a special listen during any transition. The two versions (one acoustic, one electric) of “Hey, Hey, My, My” appropriately placed, first and last song, bring the listener full circle. And as Young says, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”… best get another log for the fire.

Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads

At this point one would be hard pressed not to appreciate the solo efforts of a pioneer like Guthrie. Appreciating the homespun, somewhat autobiographical solo approach to hard times, best crank up the gramophone for this one. Sometimes good to strip it all down. Back to the core. The man and his machine. Perfect with coconut milk and a stalk of sugar cane.

Listen to six tracks from Scotty Alan’s Wreck and the Mess:
Scotty Alan Wreck And The Mess by 1888Media

Shalimar’s latest project is The New Pneumonia Blues, an EP that’s available for free download on his Bandcamp site and features a groovy melange of pop, rock, funk and soul-completely performed one-man band style by Shalimar himself. Check out which titles the Brooklynite would choose to have with him in the event he ever got stranded on a desert island-where he’d probably figure out a way to make a portable studio out of coconut shells and continue jammin’ until the rescue mission showed up.

Shalimar himself says: These lists are always hard for me. As an avid record collector, I’m an obscurist (yeah, I know it’s not a real word) by nature. The weirder and rarer the record, the more satisfying the find. That attitude doesn’t work here. If I’m actually going to pick five albums that I’ll listen to  exclusively for the remainder of my days, the private pressing of the North Carolina soul band with the blown out drums and out of tune horns ain’t gonna make the cut. These, however will:

De La Soul- Three Feet High And Rising

I could just as easily pick their 2nd or 3rd albums, but what can I say? This is my Jam. It’s smart, funky, innovative “golden era” hip hop at it’s best. No one had approached MC’ing like this before. Rhythmically varied and lyrically abstract (Come on! “Potholes In My Lawn”?), De La still hasn’t really gotten their due. Plus, Prince Paul’s concept driven production is simply genius.

Sly and the Family Stone -There’s A Riot Going On

I think Sylvester Stewart was, in his prime, as great a pop music writer as has ever existed. His interesting, funky, feel-good grooves, and witty, honest lyrics made him a huge star (with all the usual trappings and excesses). By the time he made this album, things were just starting to get out of control. He would literally put down an organ part in a studio in Chicago, smoke some dust, then decide he wanted to add a bass guitar part in San Francisco, then a clavinet part in NYC. There’s something about the haphazard production of this album that makes it incredibly visceral to me. “Just Like A Baby” kills me every time, but every tune here is a masterpiece.

Jimi Hendrix- Axis: Bold As Love

Jimi is the primary reason I became a musician. It’s hard for me to pick one album of his, but  “Little Miss Lover”, “One Rainy Wish”, and the title cut seal the deal for this one.

Aretha Franklin – Amazing Grace

If I’m going to be on a desert island, I better have some gospel. As hard as it is not to bring some Rance Allen, Myrna Summers, or T.L. Barrett, I gotta go with “Amazing Grace”. Aretha at her strongest, James Cleveland’s Southern California Community Choir, and the Kingpins as a backing band? I dare you to sit still through “Old Landmark”.

The Beatles- Abbey Road

OK, I guess I gotta do it. Thank god this is hypothetical because I don’t know how I could go on with out some Bach, Coltrane, Miles, Funkadelic, James Brown, Neil Young etc., but my earliest musical memories revolve around, what I believe, to be these fellas’ magnum opus. “Come Together” “She’s So Heavy”, “Something”, “Sun King”, and that whole insane medley on the second side. How could I leave this behind?

Inspired by the country music his parents listened to as a child as well as the explorations of albums like U2′s The Joshua Tree and The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street, Munk’s latest project finds him getting deeper into the sound of American roots music than he has before. The EP Everywhere is South of Somewhere (available digitally everywhere) contains five songs that incorporate everything from rock ‘n roll rave ups to country balladry. Under the name the Munk Duane Band, this project serves as a musical rebirth for the artist.

True to his eclectic nature, Munk served up a list of Desert Island Discs from artists who blur genre lines a little bit. Read on to see what he picked.

Soul Coughing-Ruby Vroom
This disc spun my head around and changed the way I was approaching music as an artist at the time. It was such an original blend of everything I loved all in one innovative package. Hooky melodies, thought provoking lyrics, funktastic rhythmic pocket, sampled callouts to everything from classical to jazz to The Andrew Sisters, it was the sound of New York.

Jeff Buckley-Grace
From the subtle Bayou sounds to the tip of the hat to Led Zeppelin and the howl of a voice in true despair, Grace just haunts the Hell out of me every time I listen. I feel like he’s speaking to me from the other side.

Led Zeppelin-Mothership
Because if you gotta take just one…
I can listen to the innovation of Page and the boys all day long. They were the first iteration of “Mashup”.

The Beatles-Revolver
I mean, c’mon… I don’t have to explain this one. This put me on the road to becoming a songwriter.

Brad Paisley-Play
This mostly instrumental GUITAR focused disc showed me there are still guitar heroes out there to worship. From the tone to the technique and whimsy, Paisley is everything in a player I aspire to be.