"Rock Box" Track of the Day: The Crystal Method, "Starting Over"

This is the first in a series of weekday posts about each of the existing songs that are streamed during AFOS' "F Zone" block, which is starting over today with a new name, "Rock Box" (4-6am, 9-11am and 3-5pm on Mondays and 5-7am, 9-11am and 3-5pm on Fridays). Each post will provide info on a different track from the "Rock Box" playlist and point out the movie or TV series moment where the track is so effectively used. The series of posts will end when I run out of "Rock Box" songs to write about.

Song: "Starting Over" by The Crystal Method
Released: 2004
Why's it part of the "Rock Box" playlist?: It's in the original CSI's 2004 "Dead Ringer" episode. The rousing track also turns up in Alias and Blade: Trinity.
Which moment in "Dead Ringer" does it appear?: It's in the pre-credits teaser at a nighttime relay race for cops where the CSIs are participating as runners, beautifully shot in the desert at night by cinematographer Nathan Hope.

The opening shot of runners and police escort vehicles emerging from the horizon, accompanied by the perfectly chosen opening electric piano riff of "Starting Over," is the ultimate example of Alan Sepinwall's description of CSI as "a snazzy-looking series, particularly in the way it picked up the baton from The X-Files in showing how much can be done with scenes set at night." A fan review of the episode at TV.com noted how the opening shot is "as stunning a bit of visual imagery as anything I've seen on network series TV. While you can always count on Jerry Bruckheimer's works to include plenty of nicely done location shots -- usually from the vantage point of a helicopter -- this night shot of the marathon runners was just amazing."

Hear "Starting Over" now at my SwiftFM site.