8 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 9, 2004 ARTS 01 Go ahead. Pick out the token characters. TV favorite returns in a new DVD set We would eat Death Cab for Cutle Alive. *I Courtesy of Domino Records By Adam Rottenberg Daily Arts Editor I IVaa Jerry Bruckheimer's "CSI' is the highest-rated show on television. Now in its fourth season, the venera- ble drama returns to DVD with a col- lection of its third season. Starring William Peterson __....._..__.__ as Gil Grissom CSI: Season - the leader of the forensic Three investigators - Paramount every episode features the team solving murder cases based solely on the scientific clues left behind. "CSI" is a procedural crime drama, - much in the vein of "Law & Order" - meaning that each episode stands alone, making the characters secondary to the crimes they solve. This facet of the series is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. There are no season long plot threads, but a viewer can watch a single show and still be satisfied. "CSI: Season Three" is not very dif- ferent from the first two years, for bet- ter or worse. Featured characters in the lab are now regulars, adding more screen time and a little more humor. The cases remain riveting and the trademark stylish camera work - fea- turing close-ups of key details - and Las Vegas setting add to the character of the show. Thesbright lights of Sin City never looked better. The disc features beau- tiful widescreen transfers from CBS's HDTV broadcasts. The sound is equally as impressive, offering Dolby Surround Sound. Like the first two DVD sets, "CSI: Season Three" is an example of a quality TV on DVD release. The set features a nice array of extras. There are six episode commen- taries, mostly by production staffers, which are informative and interesting. The requisite featurettes take viewers into the police station and demonstrate the special effects. The most interest- ing extra is an interview with the show's writers, giving insights into the brainstorming process behind the complex murder mysteries. "CSI" may not be the best show on television, but it can be incredibly engrossing. The third season shows no signs of slowing down. CBS may try its hardest to kill the series by spread- ing it out too thin (a second spin-off debuts this fall), but the original should be more than enough for fans of the genre. CLEAR WATERS BRITISH PSYCH-ROCKERS EXPAND SOUND By Andrew M. Gaerig Daily Music Editor CONCERT PREVIEW "Every band wants to sound like themselves, ultimately. That's a cliche of bands being inter- viewed. They kind-of say, 'Oh, don't pigeon- hole us, we sound like us' when a lot of them do sound like other bands," Jason Pegg observed. The frontman for British psych-rockers Clear- lake, Pegg sings and speaks Clearlakel with such a thick English Saturday, Apr. 10 accent that his band gets At the Majestic called "really British" in their home country. "Someone called us a cross between Ben Folds Five and Coldplay the other day, which is really insulting to us. I don't mind them doing their thing, but it's just so middle of the road for me." Pegg has a right to be angry - his band's lat- est album, Cedars, is a monument of translu- cent guitars, rollicking snare hits, and arcing, dramatic melodies. The sound is very British - Pegg's vocals have more than a hint of Morrisey in them - but Clearlake has very little in com- mon with most UK acts that hit American shores. In particular, Pegg's lyrics are severe, beautifully uneven sketches of his psyche. Pegg, who sings in a commanding baritone, shares lit- tle with the lilting, detached presence of singers like Thom Yorke or Chris Martin. "I never really intended to write these songs that were so literal," Pegg explained, "but I enjoy words, and I end up singing in a style that sometimes I feel I over-enunciate ... at the expense of giving information to people and saying how it is to be alive in the world." Songs like "The Mind is Evil" and "I'd Like to Hurt You" seem to peer a little too close into Pegg's subconscious, but he insisted there is a purpose. "There is an amount of artistic license. When you write a song, it's about zooming in and focusing on one thing. 'The Mind Is Evil' is just about becoming conscious of the chattering part of you that gives you a hard time." Cedars isn't all dark, however. Filled with stately ballads and tumbling power chords, the song cycle reflects a wide range of emotions and sensations. "We're not particularly heavy psychedelic drug users. It just comes from the idea of a band going to different places and hopefully being as cinematic as possible." Putting together a coherent album is a demanding task, and Cedars isn't without its flaws. There are moments that feel slow, overly aggressive or overly sentimental. Pegg, howev- er, would rather move forward than revisit past mistakes. "I knew the stuff that was wrong with it the moment we ran out of time and submitted it," Pegg lamented. But he added, "I wouldn't really change it, because it exists as what it is, and I'm much happier to move on. Whenever people talk about remixing stuff it just makes my blood run cold. I just think, 'Oh, fuck off, just move on and make another record.' " So Cedars isn't perfect. It is, however, a cap- tivating, draining listen, one in which Pegg questions the emotional stability of both him- self and the listener. But is it real? Pegg insists that there are at least shreds of truth in all of Cedar's songs. Communication -- be it literal or fabricated - is the ultimate goal. "Some- times when I don't like other people's music I don't believe what they're saying," Pegg said. "At the same time, there are people who make enormous jumps of artistic license, but they're very skilled at pulling it off. I want to commu- nicate to people. And I want other musicians to communicate to me. I want them to say 'Isn't the world odd, or isn't the world beautiful, or isn't the world sad?' I want it to be for a point, really." 01 Show:***l% Picture/Sound: **** Features: ***1 I Listless debut lacks dynamics Emotional songstress mixes genres on LP By Evan M-Garvey Daily Arts Writer Music REVIEW Sparkle is an essential element in almost all U.K. guitar rock. If a song is an earnest plea to an unrequited love, the piano must twinkle. If it's a soaring search for identity, expect the guitars to clash S serenely. Snow Patrol, a Snow Patrol Northern Irish quartet, pro- Final Straw vides so much shine on Final Universal Straw one has to wonder if it's designed to conceal the under-cooked lyrics. When front-man Gary Lightbody cries, "I'm broken and colder than her," on "Grazed Knees," it's almost too confessional, a type of soggy meekness that produces little emotional reso- nance with the listener. Most of the album is filled with the same bleating and fussy lines. Other, more powerful Brit-pop acts evoke more specific, affecting images with their wordplay. Snow Patrol is content to let images of beaches and hallways do what little they can. Final Straw finds some redemption in the album's often lucid melodies and arrangement. Celestial whistles rush in at the end of the album opening "How To Be Dead." "Ways & Means" has mechanical hisses that mesh well with the song's nonstop guitars. Sadly, the album just doesn't have enough of those guitars. Snow Patrol is content to feast on pianos and elegant reverb, never seeming to care that the dearth of guitars drains an essential chemical from their music. Only occasionally does the band let the guitars actually crack the lunar sheen. Even the disintegrations of the disc's songs share a controlled, astute quality. Perhaps the double-edged sword of this genre is while few of the bands are horrid, most of them fall in a muddled twilight realm. Spreading identical cascading pianos and starry-eyed vers- es across a plethora of bands leaves a lush but 01 empty plain of music. With no vital thrust of guitars and scrawny lyrics, Final Straw trips on its own gloss. Punk veterans 'Souls' stumble on latest release By Brandon Harig Daily Arts Writer MUsic REVIEW To put it simply, had you not read this sentence, you may never have heard of the name Carina Round. Being a relative unknown in the states, Round's latest album, The Dis- connection, has received little to no press. That makes listening to the album even more of a pleasure; the album stands alone as a promising piece in a field of formulaic and common releases. Carina The Disconnec- Round tion is compelling The music that Disconnection embodies varying emotions, like Interscope pain, anger, delib- eration and mulling. The album is a testament to reflection and analysis, each song proceeding as if a greater idea is being confronted. There is no single sound to identify the album; driven by Round's vocals, The Dis- connection is a mixture of jazz, blues and acoustic rock. Songs like "Motel 74" employ the album's minimal background vocals and ring through with the remorse and urgency of a woman collecting herself in the shad- ows of a rented room. Round's vocals, however, are what make the album a mixing bowl of music genres and singing approaches. At times, Round sings with a directed force comparable to Shirley Manson of Garbage, while at other times she yields the eerily similar tone of Fiona Apple and Natalie Imbruglia. But Round, in the end, sounds much like a mixture of all of rock's angry women on valium - there is a pacificied and thoughtful capitalization in her words that makes songs like "Lacuna" sound both sultry and wary. a0 By Amos Barshada Daily Arts Writer songs like "I Like Your Mom" and "The Toilet Song," replaced by songs like "The Day I Turned My Back On You" and "Anchors Aweigh." On "Night Train," a pseu- Everybody's trying to grow up these days. From Blink 182 to Justin Timberlake, the music industry is filled with artists attempting to gain some more credibility and establish themselves as "serious" musicians. On their new album, Anchors Aweigh, The Bouncing Souls fall prey to the trend. On their sixth full length, the Souls maintain their anthemic, sing- along sound, but the subject matter has definitely shifted. Gone are do power ballad and, unfortunate- ly, not a Guns n' Roses cover, singer Greg Attonitoi says "goodbye to me and you / good- bye to the life we knew," a theme that The Bouncing Souls Anchors Aweigh Epitaph runs throughout drinking beer in the van and trying to make it to the show on time. The Bouncing Souls never sought to make challenging, experimental music. They've built their whole career on honest, back-to-basics punk rock, and with this album they come through again. The direction toward a more adult subject matter does make the songs feel somewhat contrived, though. Lyrics like "She's having a change of heart / Without a word everything falls apart," on "Better Days," won't get Attonitoi into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, but are well intentioned. The band has maintained its sound to the point where the core audi- ence will definitely not feel alienat- ed by the new release. The Bouncing Souls have created a name for themselves in the scene,through multiple Warped Tour appearances and shows with scene heavy hitters like The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, NOFX and The Descendants. This record will only cement that reputation. It's an ade- quate batch of pop-punk songs, played as fast and as hard as ever, with a reflective outlook on life. Anchors Aweigh will do little to convert the critics, but for fans of the pop-punk genre, there's a lot to be found in the steady work of these veterans. The album's most appealing and promising song is the aptly titled "Elegy." Singing "I'm skirting the rim of reality / Don't pull me in," Round sounds a little more hung up on things than she claimed in stating that the album is about letting go. It is this impression of lingering, whether false or not, which propels The Disconnection's overall standing as a compelling piece of introspec- tion. In refusing to stay within one genre of music or vocal styling, Round creates a truly captivating album that rings with the maturity of a veteran artist. The album's impor- tance stands in its potential to be a capable flagship for female artists, bringing back to music something that's not Beyonce, not Avril, not Christina but, rather, something dis- connected and compelling. Wistful. the album. Attonitoi says goodbye to everything while pining for the bet- ter days of his punk rock youth spent 0I Please Join Us Easter Sunday: Morning Service - 11:00 am Special Music - Risen with Christ . {* Interested in a Career in Sport Business? The faculty of the University of Michigan's Sport Management Program is holding an information meeting for prospective undergraduate students a on Wednesday, April 14th * Have You Graduated... 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