Review: “The Wedge” Feat. Fucked Up’s Damian As New Host

Posted on January 27, 2011 |

Last night, on Muchmusic, was the beginning of the new, improved and re-imagined
“The Wedge” that’s been host-less since the departure of Sook-Yin Lee
back in 2001.

In charge of this redux edition is Damian Abraham a.k.a. Pink Eye,
frontman of Polaris Music Prize winning Toronto harcode punk band Fucked Up.

For you non-Canucks outthere, “The Wedge” is a show featuring the latest
“indie” music videos which has been airing on Much since 1992.

A show much like the sadly defunct “120 Minutes”, a staple of 90’s era
MTV but somehow managed to survive all these years.

I’ve been an avid watcher since 1999. The number of episodes I own on tapes and
DVDs is kind of insane really.

When they unexpectedly pulled the plug on the show last month, it left me
pretty much cold. The show had lost it’s zest. They were playing the same
videos over and over and over and you could tell they were just phoning it
in and I just got sick of it.

Imagine my surprise a week later, when they announced that it would come back
with a host.

From this first episode aired live last night, which will do so for the
remainder of it’s hopefully long run, I do believe Much did a mighty fine job
in seeking out Damian.

Very affable, quick ad-liber, makes thing fun and lively. It actually makes
me wanna tune it again. This also being live, I’m pretty damn sure some crazy,
unexpected shit will go down at some point. This is Pink Eye afterall. The dude
who’s known for stripping to his undies at any given time during a Fucked Up
show or destroy an entire bathroom during a live TV performance.

He mentioned in an Eye Weekly interview that he was a big fan of the show
back in the day and I can tell that he wants to make this new version appointment
TV for the youngins outthere force fed the latest Bieber / Disney Tween videos
on Much today, give them a little taste of what’s outthere on the fringe.

Interviews will also be conducted, first guest on the show last night was fellow
Torontonian Diamond Rings who had just came off stage opening for
Robyn @ Sound Academy.

They even snuck in a 20 seconds interview with her talking about DR.

And you cannot forget the sole reason for this show in the first place, the music videos, and they had a pretty killer video playlist for their debut:

Matt & Kim - “Camera”
Best Coast - “Boyfriend”
The Vaccines - Post Break-Up Sex”
Freelance Whales - “Enzymes”
Diamond Rings - “Something Else”
Born Ruffians - “The Ballad Of Bruce Moose”
The Sadies - “Another Day Again”
Fist City - “Debbie Get Your Boa”
Wolf Parade - “Yulia”
Pixies - “Here Comes Your Man”

A small thing I noticed aswell is they brought back the director’s credit.
I always like to know the wizards behind those videos  so props to the
Wedge producers for bringing those back.

You can follow Damian on Twitter (@leftfordamian) where you can request
videos to be played on the show or inform him of a cool local band in your area
he might take a shine to and talk about on the show.

If you missed last night’s debut or do not have access to Much and are curious
to see how in played out, I encoded the show for your pleasure which you can download — > HERE.

“The Wedge” airs Wednesdays @ 10pm (repeat @ 1am) on Muchmusic.

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Category: Music Videos, Reviews, The Wedge
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Comments

3 Responses to “Review: “The Wedge” Feat. Fucked Up’s Damian As New Host”

  1. p.w.
    January 28th, 2011 @ 1:03 pm

    thank you so much for uploading this episode!

    i don’t have a tv anymore, so i haven’t watched the wedge in years. new host damian did a pretty good job with this first revival episode: he was likeable, kept things moving, did some unexpected little things (like the makeup reveal, haha) to make his segments entertaining.

    will you be uploading future episodes? because that would be awesome!

  2. Paul
    January 29th, 2011 @ 7:14 am

    My pleasure.

    Indeed it would but sadly, this was a one-off.

  3. Adam Medley
    January 30th, 2011 @ 10:43 pm

    Thanks for uploading the episode. You just made my Sunday night!

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