Metro Art has partnered with local community-driven radio and arts foundation, dublab, to create this special programming series. Each episode is a multimedia dive into the various intersecting musical histories embedded into the streets, buildings, and neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Hear from a spectrum of musicians who defined their respective scenes along with a collaged soundtrack of hand selected music, interviews, archival photos, and a broadcasted livestream of the accompanying geographies as seen from a Metro Bike as visual accompaniment.

The first three episodes corresponded with a Metro Rail transit corridor that is currently under construction: Regional Connector in Downtown LA, Purple Line Extension along the Wilshire Corridor, and Crenshaw/LAX connecting to Mid-City and Leimert Park. The next three episodes connect more music and social history geographies multi-modally accessible via Metro Rail, Bus and Bike: the Sunset Strip extending west from the B Line (Red) from Hollywood via Metro Bike and Bus, Hyperion Blvd. in Silver Lake, and the future Los Angeles River Path Project linking Elysian Valley to Maywood.

DEEP ROUTES Episode #6 – Frogtown, Music at the River’s Edge

About this episode:

For this sixth episode of Deep Routes, record collector and cultural historian Ruben Molina (Southern Soul Spinners) shares stories from his youth in the Frogtown neighborhood of Los Angeles. This Elysian Valley enclave is a sliver of land pressed between the Los Angeles River, 5 Freeway and Elysian Park. It’s a space that can be easily overlooked yet proves idyllic for those lucky enough to find its embrace. Through his vivid, personal history, Molina treats us to a firsthand view of a neighborhood that has been molded by natural and manmade forces, yet like the river it borders, retains a spirit all its own. Ruben’s compelling narrative touches down in various Los Angeles River-adjacent neighborhoods and is propelled all along by a music soundtrack that creates a compelling portrait of a special place and time within Los Angeles.

A message from Ruben Molina:

Join me as I share musical memories from the first 12 years of my life in Frogtown. As a kid growing up along the Los Angeles River in Elysian Valley, I absorbed all the sounds around me. Even though there were no formal public spaces to experience music in Frogtown, there were always records being played and a house party or family gathering to attend. Music was integral to these functions. As we got older and discovered the Los Angeles River, it became our playground and a paradisiacal escape from ordinary life. The natural ambience of the river intermingled with the sounds of acoustic guitars, transistor radios, portable 8-track players, and the rumbles of the lowriders cruising Blake Avenue. This sonic environment influenced me greatly and as a record collector I have devoted my focus to the music I discovered in that period of my life. I hope my stories and the sounds contained within them rekindle your own memories of the music that’s been formative in your journey.

About Ruben Molina:

Ruben Molina is a prominent independent scholar and soul music collector. He holds an extensive collection of Mexican-American and soul music recordings which he has compiled since he was a teenager in 1960’s Los Angeles. In 2000, Ruben penned his first book, The Old Barrio Guide to Low Rider Music. His first book cataloged the music consumed by Chicanos in the seventies’ low rider culture. In 2008 he wrote Chicano Soul: Recordings and History of an American Culture which further documented the recordings and history of Mexican American soul groups and garage bands throughout the Southwest. In 2018 Chicano Soul was reissued by Texas Tech University Press and this year Chicano Soul is being pressed in Japan for Japanese consumption. Ruben Molina also served as co-producer on the documentary Chicano Rock for PBS. He also worked on the Smithsonian Institute’s traveling American Sabor museum exhibition that focused on Latino popular music and contributed to the film Latin Music U.S.A. going back to his number one love Ruben also shares his soul music collection through his DJ sets. In 2011 he became co-founder of the Southern California record collective called the Southern Soul Spinners. Most recently his DJ sets have been enjoyed in Los Angeles, San Diego, New York, Oakland, Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, England, Mexico City, Spain and Germany. In 2017-2018 Ruben Molina co-wrote/co-produced the documentary short Soul Of Lincoln Heights which premiered August 11, 2018.

This project is made possible by a mini grant through the Southern California Association of Governments’ Go Human program, funded by the CA Office of Traffic Safety.