Peanut Butter Wolf

Stone’s Throw honcho Peanut Butter Wolf may be one of the best things about West Coast hip-hop. A longtime vinyl junkie, Wolf and partner Egon have amassed a huge collection of obscure funk and soul 45s (7-inch format) and decided, after a now legendary SF show that combined well-known turntablists with the 7 inch material, that it was time for a compilation.

So here we have raw, blues/soul jams from likes of the Highlighters’ “Poppin Popcorn” and Ernie and the Top Notes alongside fresh underground new-schoolers Breakestra and Yesterday’s New Quintet. Most of the album features the noteworthy production of Madlib, who likes his jazz skewered and his hip-hop funky. The record manages to cover a lot of territory, from Capt. Beefheart-like weirdness to hard-hitting rap and zippy little turntable breaks like A-Trak’s “Enter Ralph Wiggum.” Basically, a party record.

One of my favorite tracks is the very first single released by Stone’s Throw—Captain Funkaho’s old-school rap number “Atari 2600,” which celebrates the joys of outdated video games like DigDug and Pong. The woman whose early Blondie-esque rap dominates the song’s flow is none other than Chicoan Robin Indar, wife of CN&R News Editor Josh Indar and the former front woman for Lookout Records’ punk band Black Fork.

Wolf is headed to Japan on tour this winter, but you can learn more about his dope-devoted label at www.stonesthrow.com.