Stones Throw at 30: Follow the Label Beyond the Familiar Names
A good record label can make a nuisance of your free time. One artist leads to another, the credits get interesting, and suddenly dinner is late. Stones Throw has had thirty years to perfect this particular inconvenience.
Peanut Butter Wolf founded the label in 1996. Its anniversary festival brings artists from across that history together in Highland Park, Los Angeles, on October 16–18, with Lodge Room and KCRW presenting. For those of us following from elsewhere, the lineup doubles as a discovery list.
Give five names a little space: Mndsgn, Karriem Riggins, DâM-FunK, John Carroll Kirby and Pearl & The Oysters. All appear in the label’s announcement. Rather than treating the bill as a competition between names you already recognize, use it to pick someone whose work you haven’t explored.
The range is the attraction. A label anniversary can be a victory lap, but it can also introduce listeners to the connections that kept the whole thing moving: musicians, producers, DJs and people willing to take a chance on a record.
We’d make a small evening of it. Choose one artist, play a release from beginning to end, then follow a collaborator. Give the unfamiliar name the same attention you’d give the headliner. That is a fine way to celebrate an independent label—even from the other side of the country.
Explore the official release and listening links.
Official festival lineup artwork. Source: Stones Throw Records. Artwork source.