Music On TV: Fuse TV's "Distortion"

Welcome to the latest installment of this unofficial mini series of posts. We've already had a few posts about the past attempts by cable networks to return music videos to television. The sad truth is that for the most part, music videos are obsolete on any reasonable time on either MTV, MTV2, VH1, Fuse, (BET?), or any other one of the major channels. My theory: once the creators of MTV retired or passed away, young guns came in, money-hungry and without morals, turned MTV from a well-respected music station to a reality TV circus. It's all about getting paid, am I right? This site does a great job of updating readers on the current state of rock 'n' roll on MTV. It's one of my favorites. But here's the scoop on one network and it's newest test try.

First of all, when Fuse TV, once MuchMusic (Canada), busted onto the scene in 2003, they promised, no, they VOWED to be better than MTV, to restore music to television, in a pretty stern bash campaign. Since then, they've managed to fire pretty much all their staff, add garbage films into their daily line-up, go through a slue of failed live shows, and create some of the worst TV shows of all time (Pants Off, Dance Off, Rad Girls, and The Whitest Kids U'Know). So - what was so much better about Fuse than MTV again? Christ.

Here's a little bit saving grace: a new show that airs Thursday nights at 7 PM and Sundays, as re-runs, at 12:30 AM, on Fuse, called Distortion. It's supposed to be "Your guide to the best of indie and alt rock". I'd like to change that to "Your guide to shitty Rock Band video game references and the biggest tool of a VJ to ever hold the occupation". It's run-time: 1 hour. The amount of videos they aired on the premiere: 6. SIX?!? I can't believe how hypocritical Fuse has been throughout it's entire lifespan. Steven Smith, host, spent some time interviewing guests Rise Against, a band I don't listen to often but one that I do respect. Then they had random clips featuring the cast of the new mockumentary Paper Heart at ComiCon, talking to geeks and asking them what their favorite love songs were (embarrassing).

All in all, it was... a start? I just hope for better episodes to come. Here are the whopping six videos they played:

Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Oh shit, didn't see that coming, what a shocker...)
Rise Against - "Hero Of War"
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Heads Will Roll"
Rancid - "Last One To Die"
Silversun Pickups - "Panic Switch" (Prone to epileptic seizures during viewing)
Green Day - "21 Guns"

So the music videos, as a whole, weren't bad by any means. In fact, I enjoyed them. I just wish there could've been more (and I really didn't need to hear pre-teens ask Rise Against stupid questions). So what's next for Fuse's Distortion? Hopefully a new VJ. And Sienna Miller and Channing Tatum as guests from the new G.I. Joe movie for next week. Come on. Leave it at bands and artists and that's it. Ugh.

Silversun Pickups - "Panic Switch"

Distortion airs every Thurday at 7 PM on Fuse TV.