At this point, several of you are probably wondering who Todd Kerns is, well let us continue.
My best friend, who saw Todd Kerns with me on both of the aforementioned occasions, saw Todd Kerns a third time, when he toured with Slash playing the bass guitar. Though Kerns is not on the studio recording, I did review Slash’s debut solo album a very long time ago, focusing on the “Mather Maria” featuring Beth Hart:
https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2011/03/june-2010-slash-beth-hart-mother-maria.html
Despite the number of different groups he has performed with, many people will best remember Kerns for his early work with his band Age of Electric.
Age of Electric was a band comprised of two pair of brothers, Todd and his younger brother John, and Kurt Dahle and his younger brother Ryan. They hailed from Saskatchewan. The Dahle brothers lived in Regina, whereas Kerns resided in Lanigan. I have never heard of Lanigan, but since it is in Saskatchewan, I am comfortable assuming that it is a very small farm town.
The young man’s dream of being rock stars got off to a good start for the Kerns and Dahle brothers when they released their independently released debut self titled album. This album’s first single “Ugly” would become a big hit, at least in my hometown.
As is often the case, many bands only ever create a small following in their home countries, and when I sat down and started typing out this review, I suspected Age of Electric would be the same. Because Age of Electric were only relevant in the early nineties I thought it best to brush up on my knowledge of the band, like for example I forgot the family names of the brothers the Kerns worked with. What I have discovered just now, is that there is not a lot of information about Age of Electric online. Their big hit songs “Ugly” does not have a Wikipedia page, and here I thought that song was a big deal. I can view Age of Electric’s Wikipedia page in its entirety on a single screen.
Doubtless Age of Electric being a Canadian band are presumably remembered almost exclusively by Canadians. However, I am starting to suspect that only Western Canadian’s remember Age of Electric.
Let us rewind to the year 1993. I am in grade school, nine years old, and this song “Ugly” is on the radio and it rocks. These are the years I first start discovering my love of rock and roll. Years go by, and people are still listening to “Ugly” in my hometown. I think it was the year 2000 I see Static and Stereo open for The Tea Party, and Todd says that him and the drummer are the Kerns brothers of Age of Electric, that connection is made. Several years after that Kerns opens for The Tea Party and I remember him from before. Given all this, from my perspective Todd Kerns remained relevant this entire time, and with that, Age of Electric and this amazing song “Ugly” has remained in my playlists the entirety of my music listening life. If I asked one of my friends from High School if they remember Age of Electric, most of them are almost assuredly going to recall the song “Ugly.”
I always regret that I never had a chance to see Age of Electric live. Apparently, they had a reunion concert in 2015 in Calgary, so there is hope that one day I will see Age of Electric and will hear “Ugly” live. Calgary is here, where I live. So, the possibility is very real. This further strengthens my theory that Age of Electric are a uniquely Western Canadian phenomenon.
So, I am going to do what I normally do on this blog, tell you why “Ugly” is a great song, and why, after listening to it, you might like it as much as I do.
The opening guitar rift is a proficient hook to immediately capture our attention. It is a groovy guitar crescendo that leaps and dives wickedly, when the bass follows it is a like a march to the guitar intro which is complete with sharp strings.
Then this;
“Darlings of this primitive age,
Count your blessings, you know you’re going to need them.
All that’s been done, gets undone today.
Yeah, eya, eya, eya.
I feel your rage, and the pain I have too yeah.
We’re in dire, fucking straits,
You know we need luck now,
You know we need luck now more than ever.
All I see is ugly. All I hear is ugly.
I play these chords, I sing these words,
They chain my cage, until I’m swelled to burst.
All I feel is ugly. Yeah, eya, eya.”
I love all the lyrics. I typed that out from memory.
I am an okay singer, like, I do okay at karaoke, that is about the extent of my talent, but I am an above average singer and I can usual sign along respectively enough to just about any song, but for whatever reason I have never been able to sing along with “Ugly” with any grace. But you know what? I always sing along anyway. Every single time.
That Todd Kerns has a decent voice. Kerns’s voice is unique somehow, but I cannot identify what it is that makes him just slightly different. Different, pleasantly so.
Here is a small detail I never really noticed, “Ugly” is four minutes nineteen seconds long. A perfectly reasonable length for a song, but for the past two and a half decade I always thought it was shorter, like two and a half minutes or something. That opening hook, it really gets you, it really gets me, every time. This is one of those songs when it comes up in my playlist on random, I typically listen to it twice, because I get so enthralled with the sounds, and it just flies by. It is a song so good, that I am always left wanting more afterward. I mentioned a similar scenario when listen to DeVotchKa’s “How it Ends, back in January of this year:
https://colinkellymusicinreview.blogspot.com/2020/01/devotchka-how-it-ends.html
Big difference regarding my emotional engagement between the two songs though. “How it Ends” makes me desire a second listen because it is haunting, whereas “Ugly” drives me to listen a second time because of joy. It is always a pleasure to listen to “Ugly” by Age of Electric. A song that has not become even slightly old to me after all this time.
One last item, Todd Kerns is kind of awesome. Age of Electric were a legitimately good band, short lived, but gave us multiple great songs, I surprised to learn that “Remote Control” is often considered their biggest hit, but only because “Ugly” is by far my favorite Age of Electric song. Static and Stereo, was an even briefer flame, but once again, we got multiple goods songs out of the project. Admittedly I do not remember Todd’s solo work very well, but I remember that show he did opening for the Tea Party being really good. Working with Slash is naturally very cool, and I remember reading in an interview with Slash once where he was very complementary towards Kerns. Most musicians accomplish much less then Kerns has with any of the individual projects mentioned above.
Final take away Todd Kerns is an unsung hero in the history of rock and roll.
- King of Braves
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