fringe
uwmpost.com
April 23, 2012
9
Now showing at a From Wisconsin’s soul theater near you A look at what’s to come at UWM’s Union Theatre
By Kevin Kaber Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com
Surgeons in Heat’s self-titled EP is a catchy work drawn from far-off corners of music in general.
Surgeon in Heat’s self-titled EP is a catchy, without boundaries effort By Kevin Kaber Assistant Fringe Editor fringe@uwmpost.com Not too long ago, a YouTube video surfaced featuring a song by one of Milwaukee’s premiere bands. The video – a collage of random clips of the television program Soul Train – showcased the raw sentiments of Surgeons in Heat. Hearing the song, “The Price,” (featured on the album reviewed here) against the joyous dancing and smiling faces of 1970s African Americans makes for an ironic, if not seamless juxtaposition, as if the afro-sporting Soul Train-ers were in fact listening to the tune. The pseudo-single, if you will, sets the tone for the band’s newly minted self-titled EP. Surgeons in Heat is a bit of a curiosity. On one hand, it’s a tightly produced, poppy work of radio play. On the other, it’s a showcase of soulful vocal talents and bright melodies, and on the third non-existent hand, it could be said to be an unvaried melting
pot of influences. A strong, pulsating rhythm commences the EP – a feature that proliferates the album, warranting a humble listening experience. But going further, there’s plenty more to keep you listening: songs that are instantly memorable, simple, yet hard-hitting melodies of light guitar work, and an affecting voice that really drives the whole thing. Call it pop, call it alternative – it won’t really matter. The Surgeons are in a very narrow genre that more or less transcends countless others, albeit solidifying them within a prim and proper type of pop that is meant or able to sell. Whatever the case, this collection of songs certainly is poppy. It’s hardly possible to walk away from a first listen without at least humming the tunes. But therein lays a fault: the EP is an almost manufactured work of a Wisconsin band. There’s a certain, limited feeling that encompasses it that’s like it’s automatically aiming for the Top 40 or a larger success. But maybe I’m wrong.
Maybe Surgeons in Heat is so littered with accessibility that it not only travels between many genres, but communities as well. It’s obvious that the EP has serious radio potential. Songs like “Can’t Do No Right” and “No One Left” are great; their handsome likings are among the album’s best. Like The Heavy and numerous British bands, Surgeons in Heat have a place in the big picture: they’re obviously talented, well produced and have a slight twang – a laundry list that might make them big eventually. Despite its slight lack of variation, Surgeons in Heat’s EP truly is good. It’s as if the band weren’t working on individual songs as they were working on a 50-ish minute epic. The theme may be humble and the audacity light, but the work is something that dignifies its own friendliness. Surgeons in Heat definitely have a way of doing work and at the same time amassing a listenability that probably disheartens other groups from getting in the game.
The UW-Milwaukee Union Theatre is one of the most notable and diverse movie theaters in the entire country, but it can be easy to overlook, in the context of studies and the day-to-day bustle of the UWM campus. Every week, the staff at the UWM Post provides a brief guide to the theater’s most notable titles, in an effort to encourage students to make the most of this unique and vibrant resource. Safarnameh (Wednesday, 7 p.m.) Manouchehr Safarzadeh’s colorful, vibrant paintings fueled controversy in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution. Having been expelled from an art school, Safarzadeh’s modernist pieces sway on the side of both tense scrutiny and questioning of the society around him. Under the Iranian government however, the same pieces were viewed as a contradiction to Iran itself, ensuing a battle of words between artist and government. In this eccentric documentary, Safarzadeh, the artist, is examined within the constructs of expression and censorship. This is Not a Film (Thursday, 7 p.m.) But it is a film. Prominent Iranian New Wave filmmaker Jafar Panahi is the focus of this autobiographical documentary.
Panahi, a frequent challenger to the Iranian government over freedom of expression, is seen awaiting an appeal to a far-off conviction of conspiracy of crime and propaganda – a conviction that eventually leads to a six-year sentence in prison and a 20-year ban from filmmaking. In a last-ditch effort, Panahi and a close filmmaking friend begin preserving the last, free creativity of one of Iran’s most important directors in This is Not a Film. Conversely, the film had to be smuggled across the Iran borders in a flash drive concealed in a cake. The Parallax View (Friday, 9 p.m.; Saturday, 7 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m.) Director Alan J. Pakula’s 1974 thriller The Parallax View is not only a milestone in his own career, but of American cinema as well. Set on the Pacific Coast, a journalist witnesses the death of a fictitious U.S. senator and presidential candidate. Three years later, she believes that the senator was assassinated, confiding with her friend Frady (Warren Beatty) that all of the witnesses of the assassination have also mysteriously died. Soon after, she mysteriously dies as well. Frady then takes it upon himself to unravel the mystery and ultimately finds himself amidst the enterprise whose sole purpose is political assassination. Pakula’s film is a cinematic work of art and only one third of the director’s Political Paranoia trilogy.