"Seven Day Forecast" with Blue Skies For Black Hearts - The List: Awesome Music Movies

As a recording engineer whose main hobby is writing songs and playing in a band, I spend a lot of days immersed in music. I wind down by watching TV. I gravitate to the movies and shows that involve good music. This isn't a definitive list...it's a few that I've been watching that are a little off the beaten path. - Pat Kearns

10) Cisco Pike (1972) - Kris Kristofferson plays a fresh out of jail songwriter gone drug dealer trying to get back to being a songwriter. Gene Hackman is the corrupt cop who gets him to go back to dealing. Sounds good to start, right? Plus, Doug Sahm appears in the studio, apparently on some sort of stimulant. Worth it just for the cameo.

 
9) The Secret To A Happy Ending (2009) - This film about the Drive-By Truckers documents that it may sometimes hurt, but you should always follow your heart. Because of this movie, I became a fan of the band. That's a good movie. You actually get a sense of how this band works together. And you want to root for them and be on their side.

8) Rockers (1978) - This is a classic Jamaican film, the next one down the hill from The Harder They Come. I love the scenes from the famous Harry J Studios. The language is thick, but it gives the movie incredible vibe. The story is good, but this one is so full of eye candy that you can put it on and tune in when you want. Plus Burning Spear is in it.

7) Captain Beefheart Under Review (2006) - When I need to reset, there' s nothing like Beefheart. This British doc takes an analytical view of Captain Beefheart's entire music career. It's filled with insightful interviews and obscure footage. The early footage of The Magic Band playing on the beach in Cannes, France, is mind blowing.

6) Human Highway (1982) - Neil Young, Devo, and Dennis Hopper. I was amazed when I found out that this happened. And I was even more amazed after I saw it. This is Neil Young at his self indulgent best....making a movie! And it gets weird, even more weird than you can imagine.

5 & 4) Play On, John: A Life In Music (2009) - This is a Smithsonian doc on John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers, a major player and musicologist on the American folk scene since the early 1960's. Oh, and John Cohen also makes amazing films about music. He might even be a better film maker than he is a musician. See his film, The High Lonesome Sound (1962) for further proof.

3) Color Me Obsessed (2011) - This may be the best music documentary I have ever seen...and there is no music by The Replacements in the documentary...and nobody in the band was interviewed either! I saw it in a theater. It was a special showing of an early cut arranged by Jackpot Records in Portland. I talked my wife, who was not a Replacements fan at all, into going with me. The movie goes chronologically by album and features fans telling stories about the band and their music and what it meant to them. After we got home, we listened to their first five records back to back - my wife's idea. Remember what I said about a good music movies? We also drank a lot of red wine.

2) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) - No, not obscure, but this one is different. This is the beat side of being a musician...and I don't mean "Howl" beat. This is the down side: the creative struggle, the missed connection with the audience, the failed audition, the foot in mouth. I don't know what it was about this movie that got me, but it sunk it's claws deep in me. There's not a lot of action. It's melancholy. It's depressing to watch someone that's in one of the most important musical places and times, 1961 Greenwich Village, and they're missing the opportunity to become a great artist and a self-actualized soul because of negative energy and self sabotage. I feel the Coen brothers warning...but I also wonder if there's no hope and that it all lies in fate. I constantly thought about this movie for weeks after seeing it. It haunts me.

1) The American Astronaut (2005) - Directed by and starring Cory McAbee of The Billy Nayer Show, I came across this gem by accident. And, man, I love it! It mashes up science fiction, film noir and propaganda films all into it's own, unique low budget package. Plus, I had the extra bonus of seeing my old friend Mike Silverman (That One Guy) show up in the space bar scene. There's Rock & Roll and dancing....it's actually a real musical! There's a related short film series that's even more bizarre. Totally worth the time to track down.

"Finals Week with The Hard Lessons": The List: Top 5 Best Worst Foods To Eat on the Road

THE LIST: TOP 5 BEST WORST FOODS TO EAT ON THE ROAD

After touring the world for the better part of ten years, here are the best worst things to eat after a night of rocking.

5) Donor Kebab! Kurt Cobain references the "Kebab Machines" of the U.K. in the liner notes to Incesticide, and being the students of Rock N Roll (and greasy food) that we are, we mowed through that rotating-spit-meat all across Europe while touring with OK GO and Motion City Soundtrack.

4) Pizza Rolls! I don't think a lot of people realize that Totino's Pizza Rolls are safe to eat without microwaving. More times than I care to admit we'd stop at a gas station, pick up some frozen boxes of pizza rolls, put them on the dashboard to defrost in the sun, and proceed to eat them. Boom! Dinner without stopping the van!

3) Complimentary Tater Tots and/or Bacon! Sometime around 2007 it started becoming trendy for bars to have nights where they would put out plates of bacon or tater tots instead of peanuts. It really took the guesswork out of dinner.

2) The venue's pizza! "Oh, we get a complimentary pizza. I bet it tastes great."

1) In N Out Burger! All fast food is the same and it all sucks, except for this precious gift from the Western states. We once stopped at In N Out Burger for three meals in a row after leaving California. Animal style never goes out of style!

"Cannibals Week" The List:Jessica Boudreaux’s Top 5 Influential albums

When your working with bands you never know what your going to get when you give them full freedom, but that's what The List is all about. The only thing I tell them is to keep it to 5 to 10 Items, that it has to have something to do with music (even if it's loosely), and to have fun with it.

So for this week with the Summer Cannibals, lead singer and founding member Jessica Boudreaux gave us a list of her Top 5 Influential Albums with corresponding links to hear them for yourselves.
"Cause it’s all bout me!" she says with a laugh and a smile.

1. Patti Smith – Horses

2. Iggy & The Stooges – Raw Power

3. Fugazi – Red Medicine

4. Tom Waits – Rain Dogs

5. The Fall – Grotesque