Taco Bell Gives $500 of Free Food to Bands

Life's tough as a touring band these days --piracy, record labels going under, trying to scrape enough money together to buy some food.

One hundred band's lives just got a little easier, however, because Taco Bell is giving them $500 (£314) to spend in-store (via Stereogum).

The Mexican fast food chain has just announced the line-up for its annual "Feed the Beat" campaign.

Among the 100 bands and musicians chosen are Best Coast, Andrew WK, Les Savy Fav, Wavves, Passion Pit, and Tokyo Police Club.

Anyone who has visited Taco Bell will know that $500 is an awful lot of money. It represents 500 Beefy 5-Layer Burritos, or 562 Cinnamon Twists (presuming you live in a state with no sales tax, like New Hampshire).

It also represents much better value for solo artists like Andrew WK, who won't have to share the food with his bandmates, like Dead Confederate or Maps & Atlases will.

New Found Glory are another band who've been signed up. Their bassist Ian Grushka said in a statement, "We are psyched to be working with Taco Bell and Feed the Beat. After having the Taco Bell Truck involved with our video for 'Truck Stop Blues,' we were afraid they'd never talk to us again."

Unfortunately for bands touring the UK, there is only one Taco Bell in the UK, and it's not in any of the usual stop offs, located as it is in Lakeside Shopping Centre, Thurrock.

Given the now lowered cost of touring the USA, however, more bands will now be able to afford to spend their money on traditional rock 'n' roll antics: destroying hotel rooms, drugs and entering the ladies.