I Wednesday January 12, 2005 arts. michigandaily. com artspage@michigandaily.com ARTS 5 ,. TH [E HOTTEST PICKS IN ENTERTAINMENT FROM A DAILY ARTS WRITER Nas's "Street's Disciple" - Hip-hop heads lament over Nas's Illmat- ic heyday like their favorite childhood pet had its head chopped off. Will we ever hear a Nasty Nas again? No, but Street's Disciple is top quality, which is very rare for a double album, let alone for a Nas album. S 0I Re-release of O.C.'s "Word ... Life" - No more digging in used record stores. No more bidding over $50 on eBay for this classic hip-hop album. Lyricist O.C. released Word ... Life in 1994 only to see it fall on deaf ears. It was nonetheless hailed a classic in the eyes of hip-hop fans many years later. "Kinsey" - The conclusions regarding human sexuality drawn from this movie are very profound because of its controversy today. With the discrimination against lesbians and gay men being brought to the fore of American politics, Kinsey expands the debate to include the overall repression of sexuality in American life. Definitely expect the religious right to be shitting in their pants with this one. r "The Simpsons: The Complete Fifth Season" DVD - "How come I can't get no Tang 'round here?" Homer complains in a drunken phone call to NASA officials in season five, epi- sode 15.1 have no idea why I liked this show when I was 10 years old with its adult humor. In episode nine, the Department of Labor's S.W.A.T. team burst into the plant with criti- cisms of enslaving a Brazilian soccer team. The classic episodes in season five make this DVD a worthwhile grab. Courtesy at Sub Pop We'll each have a Grand Slam and an orange juice, please. THE CONSTANTINES HEAD SOUTH TORONTO-BASED ROCKERS CHANNEL AMERICANA By Andrew M. Gaerig Daily Music Editor CONCERTPREVIEW Neil Young may be the pinnacle of Canadian rock music, but he's not the classic-rock comparison The M.F. Doom - For many years, I could not say I had a favorite M.C. because of the dismal state of hip hop at the time ... until I discovered Doom. In 2004, he released VV2: Venomous Villain, MM..Food?, a string of instrumen- tal CDs and the highly acclaimed Madvillainy. With the announcement of possible collaborators like DJ Danger Mouse, Ghost- face Killah, and Madlib again for a second Mad- villain album, Doom is the cat to watch in 2005 - again. Constantines are used to getting. fans associate the distinctly American growl ofBruce Spring- steen with the young band, with lead singer Bryan Webb's thun- derous howl the likely target. "Initially it was very flattering ... It's been repeated so many times that I have to start rethink- Instead, critics and The Constantines Thursday at 9 p.m. The Lagerhouse Detroit, MI native country with their self-released, self-titled debut. The following months were spent appearing on the college radio charts and garnering Juno nomina- tions. Their equally excellent sophomore release for American iber-indie Sub Pop, Shine a Light, stirred some Converse sneakers but ultimately never caught on. Webb and the band remained undeterred by their relative anonymity, even amid the unprecedented success of their peers. "I just want to be a good live rock band," said Webb. The band will be touring behind new material for an album they plan to record in February. "(The new material is) a bit more stripped down with room for the performances to be different each time. We play in this Crazy Horse cover band on the side, playing songs like "Cortez the Killer," three chords for 20 minutes and each performance of that song is different. We've learned a lot from that experience," said Webb. Webb also ensured that the band's live energy would transcend its already visceral albums. "We have different versions of some of the songs live. We still haven't really found our groove as a studio band. I'm not satisfied with the performances or the sound of those two records. It sounds really self-conscious still to me. We're still just trying to find inspired per- formances in that situation." Though the band's presence is remarkable, it's Webb's accomplished lyrics - about cities, punk rock and youth - that really set the band apart. "A lot of the songs were written after I moved to Toronto. I started to think a lot about regionalism," Webb said. "It's just part of making sense of your environment." In the end, though, it's the charming youth of The Constantines - their hip-shaking rhythms, rude guitars and Webb's urban poetry - that makes them seem somehow more important than other bands. "Rock'n'roll is about energy and physicality ... that 'Live hard, die young' (attitude) is behind a lot of rock'n'roll music." Webb's attitude toward his heroes mirrors The Con- stantines' outlook. Recalling a recent Rolling Stones performance, he said, "Keith Richards played a couple of notes at the beginning of the song and then he'd just be doing this gypsy dance and laughing and pointing at people in the audience. It seemed like they didn't have a set list - that they were just fucking around, which is great. It's why they're still a good rock'n'roll band." Richards would no doubt be proud that The Constantines had captured a piece of his rock'n'roll gypsy dance. It is, after all, why they're a great band. ing the way I sing," said Webb, chuckling. The Constantines, however, have more in common with the Boss than just Webb's cigarette scratched voice. The band seems to have stolen a few drops from Springsteen's youthful, rock-as-immortality vial, or perhaps from The Clash's "Only Band that Matters" potion. The Toronto five-piece, which blends throaty pop hooks with the thrusting guitars of '80s punks Husker Du and The Replacements, found an audience in its Courtesy of Fox Searchlight I 'Capcom Fighting Evolution' falls short By Brian Stephens Daily Arts Writer 'Swimsuit Model Search' flounders That EECS kid down the hall already has this game and loves it. Over the last two years, Capcom has released a long line of video game com- pilations from "Mega Man Anniversary Collection" to "Street Fighter Anniver- sary Collection." With "Capcom Fighting Evolution," the devel- opers are trying their hand at something dif- ferent: merging several good games into one that should be great. "Evolution" contains Capcom Fighting Evolution PS2/Xbox Capcom way to "Darkstalkers," grouped into one game. Given the success and popularity of "SNK v. Capcom" and "Marvel v. Cap- com II," "Evolution" is horribly lacking when compared to other titles. Instead of adding all of the characters from these five games, the developers seemed to have randomly chosen four from each title, dis- appointing gamers who would have liked to play as B.B. Hood from "Darkstalker" or Blanka from "Street Fighter." But "Evolution" isn't a total failure: From fighting in Guile's air force base to performing Chun-Li's "Spinning Bird Kick" the game succeeds (and does so admirably) in invoking nostalgia. In "Evolution," the controls and music mirror those of the original titles; the only difference lies in the addition of "super" moves that can be performed in battle. When it comes to fighting games, Cap- com has always seemed to be ahead of the competition. Hopefully the mediocre approach to design applied to "Evolution" is a temporary setback and not a sign of the company loosing its foothold in the genre. The game lacks the completeness of other Capcom compilations and the fun derived from other fighting titles from the same company. The high standards gain- ers have come to expect out of Capcom haven't been met - "Evolution"just isn't fit enough to survive. It stands to reason that nothing could be better than beauti- ful babes in bikinis competing for a spot in the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. But Sports Illustrated: NBC has done the unthinkable: Swimsuit Model Somehow, the network has man- Search aged to screw up the age-old idea Wednesdays at 8 p.m. that girls in bikinis equals ratings gold. Hats off to you, NBC. That's NBC a difficult feat to accomplish. "Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Model Search," or The Great- est Disappointment Ever, is not only an unattractive package - it's also a horrendous piece of reality television. The show lacks every key aspect of decent reality TV - interesting chal- lenges, abrasive personalities or even a good catch-phrase. Sim- ply put, the show is a disaster. "SI" begins with an impromptu walk-off between the six- teen contestants. This is the audience's first flirtation with the beauties. As the girls cruise the runway, bombarded by nasty comments from judges, the camera swoops in on each model for an unattractive close-up. The screen also shows a multitude of boring facts about each girl. After the requisite move-in scene, the girls are whisked away by a trio of buff trainers (eye candy for the many girlfriends forced to endure this crap). Under the watchful eye of the three men, the ladies of "SI" take part in a Simon-says-like aerobics contest for which prizes are a diamond necklace and decision making power in the upcoming photo shoot. The photo shoot, billed as an elimination contest, takes place on a beach. Each girl models for five minutes. The three judges - a modeling agency owner, a former SI swimsuit model and the founder of the SI swimsuit edition - must then narrow the playing field to 12 girls. However, by the time the elimination ceremony actually takes place, complete with the terrible catch-phrase, "I'm sorry, we're dropping you," audiences will be so bored by "SI" that it won't even shock viewers when the two prettiest girls are kicked off. NBC's "Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Model Search" had the potential to be great. Sadly, however, this show is more night- mare than fantasy. Total IQ: 95. Courtesy of NBC fighters from five fighting classics, rang- ing from "Street Fighter Alpha" all the