Taco Bell named 100 artists to its 2008 Feed the Beat lineup as it once again hooks up America’s up-and-coming rock acts as they hit the road. Bands from across the nation, hailing from music hotbeds like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York and Seattle will receive $500 in free Fourthmeal, the late night meal between dinner and breakfast, and vie for an important next career-building step: marketing support for their music.
Feed the Beat bands each have a dedicated page on Taco Bell’s recently launched Virtual Music Festival Web site (www.feedthebeat.com) which showcases their music, photos, bios and tour schedules. Music fans can listen to bands they know or discover new tunes as they stream music via the Feed the Beat Music Player. If they discover a band they like and want to purchase music, they are directed to the band’s iTunes page, where they can purchase the song.
All 100 bands will also have the opportunity to compete in Feed the Beat’s “Best of the Beat” contest for the chance to be one of three winning bands to have a single produced and promoted by Taco Bell. Bands will need support from their fans, and build loyal new followers who can discover their music, as the public can vote and have the ultimate say in which three bands will be crowned “Best of the Beat.”
These three winning bands will work with Taco Bell to identify and hire a well-known producer to record a single for them. The singles will then be promoted on www.feedthebeat.com and through online advertising and in-store efforts in the Spring of 2009, as the Web site address will be featured on Taco Bell’s iconic Sauce Packet, which reaches more than 208 million people in about a month. More than 36.8 million customers come through Taco Bell’s 5,600 restaurants every week.
Taco Bell is congratulates all of the 2008 Feed the Beat bands:
Northeast:
A Place to Bury Strangers (Brooklyn, NY), Charlotte Sometimes (New York City), Cobra Starship (New York City), Crime in Stereo (Levittown, NY), Damiera (New York City), Four Year Strong (Worchester, Mass.), I Am the Dream (Long Island, NY), Laura Warshauer (New Jersey), Let Me Run (New Brunswick, NJ), Patent Pending (Mt. Sinai, NY), Person L (Eastern PA), Polar Bear Club (Rochester, NY), Racing Kites (Brick, NJ), Senses Fail (Ridgewood, NJ), Shadows Fall (Springfield, Mass.), Soul Control (Providence, RI), Street Dogs (Boston), The Gaslight Anthem (New Brunswick, NJ), The Hymns (New York City) The King Left (New York City), The Morning Of (Newburgh, NY), The Parlor Mob (Red Bank, NJ), The Shackeltons (Chambersburgh, PA), The Urgency (Brooklyn, NY) These Green Eyes (New Haven, Conn.), Thursday (New Brunswick, NJ), Verse (Providence, RI)
Midwest:
Boston Spaceships (Dayton, OH), Every Avenue (Marysville, Mich.), Greenwood (Decatur, Ill.), Hit the Lights (Lima, OH), I:Scintilla (Chicago), Inhale Exhale (Canton, OH), Kill Hannah (Chicago), Lovedrug (Cleveland), Ludo (St. Louis), Madina Lake (Chicago), Murder by Death (Bloomington, Ind.), NeverShoutNever! (Joplin, Mo.), One for the Team (Minneapolis), Quietdrive (Minneapolis), Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band (Indianapolis), The Academy Is… (Chicago), The Devil Wears Prada (Dayton, OH), The Envy Corps (Ames, IA), The Hush Sound (Lisle, Ill.), The Republic Tigers (Kansas City), The Swellers (Flint, Mich.), The White Tie Affair (Chicago)
Southeast:
Alesana (Raleigh, NC), Between the Trees (Orlando), Colour Revolt (Oxford, Miss.), Fireflight (Eustis, Fla.), Maylene and the Sons of Disaster (Birmingham, Ala.), Mercy Mercedes (Greensboro, NC), My Favorite Highway (Fairfax, Va.), Poison the Well (West Palm Beach, Fla.), School Boy Humor (Little Rock, Ark.), Telescreen (Winston-Salem, NC), The Bigger Lights (Virginia City, Va.), The Mile After (Charlotte), Thousand Foot Crutch (Nashville), Turbo Fruits (Nashville), Underoath (Tampa, Fla.), Wild Sweet Orange (Birmingham, Ala.)
Southwest:
Dear and the Headlights (Phoenix), Lydia (Phoenix), Oh, Sleeper (Ft. Worth, TX), PlayRadioPlay! (Aledo, TX), Smile Smile (Dallas), The Frontier Brothers (Austin, TX), The Maine (Tempe, Ariz.), The Riverboat Gamblers (Denton, TX)
West:
3OH!3 (Boulder, Colo.), A Skylit Drive (Lodi, Calif.), A Static Lullaby (Chino Hills, Calif.), Bleeding Through (Orange County, Calif.), City and Colour (St. Catharines, Calif.), Danger Radio (Seattle), Delta Spirit (San Diego), Demon Hunter (Seattle), Fear Before (Aurora, Colo.), HelloGoodbye (Long Beach, Calif.), Karate High School (San Francisco), Middle Class Rut (Sacramento, Calif.), Monte Negro (Los Angeles), My American Heart (San Diego), On the Last Day (Seattle), Pierce the Veil (San Diego), Say Anything (Los Angeles), Silverstein (Los Angeles), The Bronx (Los Angeles), The Cab (Las Vegas), The Little Ones (Los Angeles), The Lives of Famous Men (Anchorage, AK), The Mae Shi (Los Angeles), The Photo Atlas (Denver), This Providence (Seattle), This Time Next Year (Walnut Creek, Calif.), Tiger Army (Los Angeles)
