LOS ANGELES, CA. (Top40 Charts/ Columbia Records) - AMERICAN TEEN MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE is more than just a motion picture soundtrack, it is the soundtrack of five young adults as they embark on one of the most sacred and significant years of their lives.
Film critics are already raving about the 2008 Sundance hit documentary AMERICAN TEEN, the touching, candid and hilarious look at five real students during their senior year in small-town Warsaw, Indiana. Directed by Academy-Award nominated Nanette Burstein, AMERICAN TEEN chronicles the lives of five completely different teenagers, from the popular girl to the socially awkward "geek," examining the cliques they belong to, the questions they ponder and the trials and tribulations they face preparing for adulthood in the new millennium.
Through it all, the one constant is the music. The eclectic soundtrack features some of today's hottest up-and-coming acts (The Ting Tings, Black Kids, MGMT, and Does It Offend You, Yeah?), timeless classics including John Paul Young's "Love Is In The Air" and Cat Stevens' "Trouble," and a steady mix of the teenager's favorite bands culled directly from their iPods during filming.
"When I approached the music for this movie, I wanted the musical choices to be inspired by the playlists of the featured teenagers. So throughout the year of filming, I would download as much music as I could from their iPods. I think the sum really captures the emotions that these five seniors experienced throughout their final year of high school," says director Nanette Burstein.
Critics agree, those emotions connect throughout AMERICAN TEEN.
Entertainment Weekly calls the film "sensationally engrossing. A heady, eye-opening pleasure," and Vanity Fair hails, "AMERICAN TEEN is the great Hughes movie that Hughes never made." Other accolades include "Undeniably entertaining" (Variety), "A riveting and resonant drama" (Elle) and "AMERICAN TEEN is a modern day 'THE BREAKFAST CLUB' that will make you stand up and cheer." (E! Entertainment Television).
The soundtrack's SUNNY DAY SETS FIRE will perform at the Los Angeles Film Festival's premiere of AMERICAN TEEN on June 25 at the Ford Amphitheater. Many of the soundtrack's artists will be performing together in August, when MGMT, The Ting Tings, Black Kids and Does It Offend You, Yeah? entertain tens of thousands of fans at Lollapalooza, in Chicago.
AMERICAN TEEN opens in select theaters July 25 and nationwide in August, and is being released by Paramount Vantage, the specialty film division of Paramount Pictures Corporation and a unit of Viacom. AMERICAN TEEN MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE is being released by Columbia Records on July 15.
AMERICAN TEEN MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE Track Listing:
1. Black Kids - "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You"
2. The Ting Tings - "Great DJ"
3. Sunny Day Sets Fire - "Lack of View (Edit)"
4. Frou Frou - "Breathe In (The Jason Bentley Remix)" *
5. Patrick Watson - "The Great Escape"
6. Cat Stevens - "Trouble"
7. John Paul Young - "Love Is In The Air"
8. Ryan Lindsey - "Let's Go Out" *
9. Does It Offend You, Yeah? - "Dawn of the Dead"
10. Luna Halo - "Kings and Queens"
11. Blackalicious - "Your Move"
12. The Unicorns - "Sea Ghost"
13. The New Pornographers - "Adventures In Solitude"
14. Nyles Lannon - "Train" *
15. MGMT - "Kids"
* indicates an exclusive, previously unreleased track