REEL LIFE: How’s this for confusing? Tommy...

REEL LIFE: How’s this for confusing? Tommy Keene’s new album (on Geffen Records) is called “Songs From the Film,” but the critically acclaimed young artist’s record isn’t a sound track at all (just the usual collection of songs). Yet when we ran into Keene the other day, he and his band were tucked away in a trailer on the set of an upcoming Columbia Pictures film called “Out of Bounds,” where they’ll perform a song called “Run Now.” And as if that wasn’t complicated enough--the song isn’t on his album either. But it’ll be on the film’s sound-track album, which is due out this July (just in time for the film’s release).

“Boy, this movie stuff is really slow,” said Keene, whose new single, “Places That Are Gone,” is already getting a host of East Coast radio play. “It took us nearly two full days here before we even got to actually play. But we’ve really enjoyed the experience. I was expecting a real ‘Hollywood-type’ director, but the guy here (director Richard Tuggle) is great. He’s almost humble. He asked us if we were nervous and when we admitted we were, he said, ‘Don’t worry. I’m nervous every day. It’s normal.’ ”

Keene’s biggest problem was finding the right outfit to wear for his scene. “They made me put on these black things,” he groaned, pointing at a pair of black shoes with small buckles. “I had these perfectly good brown ones, but the costumer said, ‘Come on, you can’t wear brown shoes with black pants--it won’t look right.’ And I said, ‘Gee, you guys are just gonna shoot us playing up on stage. Who’s gonna notice that I’m wearing brown shoes?’ But I guess that’s just Hollywood.”