"Good music brings people from all walks of life together. Our oldest DJ is in his 70s." Chris Manak said that to the Los Angeles Times in September, sitting in Gold Line. Gold Line is the bar on the ground floor of the Stones Throw offices, which take up half a block of North Figueroa. Manak records and DJs as Peanut Butter Wolf. He founded the label in 1996, and from October 16 to 18 it celebrates 30 years with a three-day outdoor festival at Avenue 56 and Figueroa.
Festivals usually arrive from somewhere else. This one has a short walk. The label's headquarters, its first bar, its new bar and the venue hosting the festival all sit within a few doors of the same intersection. For three days, a block that has been running on one label's record collection opens up to everyone else.
Half a block of offices, and a bar underneath
Manak told The Eastsider he moved to Los Angeles in 2001 and to Highland Park in 2002. At first he ran Stones Throw out of his home, and he moved the label into its Figueroa building a few years later. Gold Line opened under those offices at 5607 N. Figueroa St. and was running by October 2018. When the Times covered its debut, the label had already been upstairs for 15 years.
He explains the idea behind the room plainly. The label had used the space for private parties, and at one of them he stacked crates of his own records floor to ceiling and let guests DJ from them. He enjoyed watching how other people used those records. Then he learned about the listening bars in Japan and wanted one of his own. The Times framed it this way: Gold Line set a precedent in Los Angeles for bars built around close listening to records on a good hi-fi.
The bar also matters to the musicians. Manak points out that a lot of the up-and-coming artists he works with don't have a 9-to-5 and DJ several nights a week at different places. The shifts at Gold Line help them pay their bills. The bar is part of how the label's scene earns a living, which is a big reason it has stayed on this block.
A second room across the street
This year the idea got a second address. Palomino opened at 5630 N. Figueroa St., in the space that used to be ETA, from the Gold Line team. The Times grouped Gold Line and Palomino together as Manak's Highland Park listening bars.
Time Out reviewed Palomino on September 22 and called it more toned down than its sibling. It has stained-glass light fixtures, a disco ball, and a large front window that makes the entrance a semi-outdoor spot for watching the street. DJs play on weekends. The review singled out a Limonada and a pear elderflower martini made with Suze and Mexican rum. It also noted a "Quickies" section of two-ingredient drinks priced a few dollars below the $18 signature cocktails.
Palomino keeps later hours than most of the block:
- Monday and Tuesday, 5 p.m. to midnight
- Wednesday and Thursday, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
- Friday and Saturday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
- Sunday, 5 p.m. to midnight
During the festival, that schedule means a room across the street stays open well after the outdoor sets end on Friday and Saturday.
Three days outside Lodge Room
The festival grounds are outside Lodge Room, at Avenue 56 and Figueroa. Lodge Room's address is 104 N. Avenue 56. The organizers haven't named a specific lot. Manak names Lodge Room as one of the small venues that act as curators for the city's music scene. It makes sense that a label based on Figueroa would hold its birthday next to a venue it already counts as a peer.
Day | Doors and show | On the bill |
|---|---|---|
Friday, October 16 | 6 p.m. | Automatic, Los Retros, Sudan Archives, N8NOFACE, Gabriel da Rosa, Angela Muñoz |
Saturday, October 17 | 2 p.m. | Peanut Butter Wolf, Aloe Blacc, Tuxedo DJ set with Mayer Hawthorne and Jake One, A-Trak, Dâm-Funk, J.Rocc, Karriem Riggins, Wildchild & DJ Romes, Mndsgn, Rasco & Planet Asia, The Koreatown Oddity, The Architect, Fanatik, Eric André |
Sunday, October 18 | 2 p.m. | Mild High Club, Egyptian Lover, John Carroll Kirby, Bardo, Michi, Gary Wilson, Jerry Paper, Lionmilk, Vex Ruffin, Maylee Todd, Kyle Mooney |
On the Lodge Room event page, a single-day general admission ticket costs $75 with fees and a three-day pass costs $150. The same page still carries older promotional copy about a $100 early-bird pass, so go by the ticket table. The festival is all ages, and children 5 and under get in free.
None of the day pages list an end time, and no organizer statement mentions street closures around Avenue 56. If you live nearby or have a Saturday errand on Figueroa, check closer to the date.
A lineup that reads like the label's address book
Manak told the Times he started with the artists putting out Stones Throw records now: Automatic, Los Retros and Sudan Archives. Then he reached back to the beginning and booked Rasco and Planet Asia, the first rappers he worked with on the label, along with The Architect and Wildchild. He said some of them haven't played shows in a long time.
So Friday night leans toward the current roster, and Saturday afternoon gathers the label's early history in one place. Saturday is also the day Peanut Butter Wolf plays at his own party, about a block from the building where the label has been based for most of its 30 years.
The label's catalog runs from indie hip-hop into funk, rock and R&B. It includes Madvillain's "Madvillainy," and the label has won a Grammy for progressive R&B album. Those genres split roughly across the three days, which helps if you're picking a single-day ticket.
The daytime end of the same stretch
A couple of blocks north, Figueroa runs on morning hours. Mokja is a Korean market-café from chef Debbie Lee and Frank and Michelle La of Be Bright Coffee. It opened August 7 at 5715 N. Figueroa St., next to Yi Cha, and is open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, when festival doors open at 2 p.m., Mokja's hours overlap most of the afternoon.
The Old L.A. Farmers Market sets up every Tuesday at North Figueroa and Avenue 58, next to the Highland Park Metro station. It runs from 3 to 8 p.m. and closes at 7 p.m. during the winter months. The business improvement district has run the market on this stretch since 2004, and it accepts CalFresh and Market Match. The Tuesdays on either side of the festival fall on October 13 and October 20.
Between Avenue 56 and Avenue 58, then, there's a café open from breakfast to early evening, a farmers market on Tuesday afternoons, two listening bars that open at 5 p.m., and the venue the label considers a curator. On October 16, 17 and 18, the space outside that venue fills with the people who built the label's catalog, many of them playing within sight of the offices where the records were made.
If you'll be out for any of the three days and the block makes you curious about the streets around it, Tracey would be glad to share what she knows about this part of Highland Park. Tracey Kardash works across Northeast LA and is happy to talk Figueroa whenever you are. Let's Connect.
