Saturday Night Live

#958: Coffee With Scott

LeBrain Train viewers know Scott, my mega-Kiss-fan friend for four decades.  The other day we went out for a hang in the freezing cold, drinking bad coffee, eating bad food, and freezing our asses.  But we had a great time doing it.

Our conversation was wide-ranging, from idiots in the drive-through, to childhood memories.  This led to a tangent on the “Mandela Effect“.   One of Scott’s memories, of a rare Saturday Night Live sketch with Will Ferrell and featuring Kiss music, was driving him crazy.  Was it real, or just fantasy?  Probably due to music copyrights, you can’t find this sketch online.

One day sitting at home with no PVR or ways to record television, Scott saw the episode that the Kiss sketch was in.  He sat at the edge of his seat, waiting to see the sketch again for the first time in years.  Refresh his mind on what it was about, and the Kiss tunes used.  Just as his dog needed to go walkies.

I don’t need to tell you what happened.  But I will.

Scott got back in, and his lovely wife Ellen told him, “There was just a sketch on Saturday Night Live that you would have liked, it had Kiss music!”

Ooft.  Shock me!

 

REVIEW: Aerosmith – The Other Side (1990 EP)

Welcome to the Week of EPs! No sooner do I finish the Record Stores Tales before I’m off on yet another series!  Each day this week, I’ll be checking out a variety of EP releases, both famed and obscure. Let’s start with a major band: Aerosmith.

THE OTHER SIDE_0001AEROSMITH – The Other Side (1990 Geffen EP)

The first time I bought this, it was on cassette in a mall in Calgary, Alberta in August of 1990.  I also bought Judas Priest’s Hero Hero at the same store, also on cassette.  A completist even then, there was no way I was leaving without The Other Side.  Of all my finds on that trip, this one I had never seen before.  I later replaced it on CD while working at the Record Store.

The Pump CD is a great album, probably my favourite.  The two songs from Pump that are on this single are “My Girl” and “The Other Side”, neither of which are really as great as the rest of Pump.  That’s in my opinion; “The Other Side” was a popular hit.  Notably, “The Other Side” lacks its intro, “Dulcimer Stomp” which may make it interesting for some.

The CD also has two useless remixes of “The Other Side”.  The “Matt Dike ‘Honky Tonk’ Version” is just as offensive as the “Club Mix”.  Maybe the Matt Dike version is slightly less offensive, but the added backing vocals and dance vibe is just crap.  Neither mix adds anything of value to the song, but they are dragged out to 5:09 (Matt Dike mix) and an agonizing 7:04 (Club mix).

The main track that I bought the disc for was “Theme from ‘Wayne’s World'”.  I actually had no idea what Wayne’s World was, although my cousin Geoff apparently did.  Back then, I wondered what the hell this was.  There were no liner notes to help either.  This track is a mere 1:29, and it’s a straight up recording of the Saturday Night Live performance by Aerosmith of that song.  I didn’t give a shit, I love it now.  Perfect filler for the end of a mix CD!

Since this CD consists of two album tracks, two pointless remixes and a 1:29 song, you must be sure not to pay too much for it.  As a kid I rarely played it, and the same can be said of the adult version of me.

2/5 stars

THE OTHER SIDE_0002