Infamous Duets-part one

Trancendental Music Moments

There are a couple of duets/mixes that don't exist, but that I'm longing to hear, the latest inspired by a little trip to the Troubador.

Sunday, May 14th 2006 The Red Hot Chili Peppers played a secret show at the Troubador. As part of the encore set, John Frusciante--a rock god--sang a riff of the Donna Summer song "I Feel Love," with Flea--also a rock god--holding tempo on bass. Remember kids punk and disco used to diametrically opposed schools of music. Hearing the disco classic drummed up to the beat of Flea's thrumming bass backed by the tightly coiled tension of of how deep Frusciante must've had to reach down to hit the high notes was excruciatingly (fruciantingly) pleasurable. In the split second that the sound of Fruciante's inhalation registered through the speakers, Frusciante transformed from a rock god singing about love to a rock god who was love in all its ecstatic harmonic bliss. The song, in that moment, transcended all the bubbly haze of party people disco and became a Frusciante anthem.

Every performance was rock solid. Anthony moved and swayed in hottie boy sweats, the word MARS stitched in pink fuzzy letters across his ass. His voice, as longtime fans know, keeps getting better, in part because that ache of longing that appears during the ballads is becoming more pronounced. Chad is simply one tight drummer and it was his throbbing beat (and I only use the music cliche because the Peppers preoccupation with their members is well documented...) that made me think that Erol Alkin would be the man to mix Frusciante.

Flash back two years and I'm at Alkin's club T*R*A*S*H in London (and mind you I'm not rich or a music writer or anything like that, I just have a spouse who is a big time music fiend/whore). It's a great place to stay happy. The cover is low and the drinks are cheap and even though some kids get super dressed up (four guys showed up in versions of the admiral jackets the Beatles wear on the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) most wear top shop threads and sport casual looks. The emphasis is on the music not on attitude or scene, something people seem to miss the point of in LA, which may be why the best DJs like Tiga, DJ Hell, Alkin and Ellen Aileen don't come by that often. Alkin came on late and by that time, so much sweet music had played that I was ready for almost anything, except what came next, the surprisingly deliciously unpredicatable Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band. It was mixed into the set but wasn't a mash (something Alkin had been doing the summer before) and was played straight without irony. The kids in the crowd, Miller Band virgins that they were, loved the airy misty melody all over again.

What I'm dying for is an Alkin mix of Frusciante. It doesn't have to be the Donna Summer cover. That might be, as it were, a little too obvious. But could you imagine what Alkin would do with Frusciante's vocals on something like the song Carvel? Touched again, like the very first time.

[photos of Frusciante courtesy of http://www.jameskocsis.com/troubadour/troubadour.html]