Skip to main content
Back to Show
Artbound

Hear and Now: Cut Chemist

Welcome to Artbound's new music series Hear and Now, where we explore songs with a sense of place. The idea is simple: put Southern California musicians in the locations that inspired a song, and document a performance of the song, in that place. Through this juxtaposition, Hear and Now aims to paint a rich, multidimensional portrait of the creative process and draw connections between musical inspiration and the environment that nurtures it. Look closer. Listen in.

Six songs. Five locations. One day. For this installment of Hear and Now, we commissioned DJ Cut Chemist to make a mix for our city; a collection of songs that represented a few of the many neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Then during one crazy day, we drove across town, setting up guerrilla performances in each of these locations.

We started in the heart of Los Angeles, downtown, nestled in a snarl of our arterial freeways, and headed west, down Wilshire Blvd., that linear city lined with skyscrapers all the way to the Pacific. From day break to sun down, we explored a fraction of this sprawling city -- just one road among many - but witnessed the way L.A. neighborhoods blend together, the same way the sound of two records becomes blurred and interwoven by a DJ's mixer. As the sun tucked behind the ocean, in an almost post-card-ish, "Endless Summer" kind of sunsets, we had half the city behind us, leaving us with memories of pineapple paletas at MacArthur Park, burning sage in Little Ethiopia, parking tickets downtown, and the never-ending bustle of Venice Beach. Songs for our city. Enjoy.

Support Provided By
Season
Nobuko Miyamoto: A Song in Movement
Unlock with PBS Passport
57:03
The life of the visionary musician, dancer and activist Nobuko Miyamoto.
Black Art: A Brockman Gallery Legacy
56:38
Brockman Gallery was the center of a community of Black artists in L.A. from 1967-1990.
Arts & Architecture: The Case Study House Program
56:33
West Coast Modernism took hold in post-WWII with the “Case Study Houses” program.
Blended Worlds: The Fusion of Art & Science at JPL
56:59
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory transforms science into awe-inspiring creative projects.
The Cheech
57:08
Follow Cheech Marin's journey from comedy icon to Chicano art advocate.
East West Players: A Home on Stage
56:43
Chronicling the 58-year history of the longest running theatre of color in the U.S.
Angel City Press: L.A. through the Pages
55:51
Angel City Press has been shaping and influencing public understanding of LA for decades.
Artists-In-Residence
56:39
Artists-In-Residence programs provide artists opportunities to create uninterrupted work.
L.A. Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement
56:40
Following the Watts Uprising, UCLA increased film program enrollment of students of color.
América Tropical: The Martyr Mural of Siqueiros
56:43
David Alfaro Siqueiros created Olvera Street’s popular mural with an innovative technique.
Chinatown Punk Wars
56:43
Two Chinese restaurants became the unlikely epicenter of L.A.’s burgeoning punk scene.
A Rubén Ortiz-Torres Story
56:17
Rubén Ortiz-Torres explores his past and present in an uncertain socio-economic future.
Active loading indicator