Taco Bell Wants To Give Touring Bands $500 Worth Of Chalupas

Some fast food giants try, with just a whiff of desperation, to make you forget what they are. We have salads now! they cry; we are putting bacon in our tacos, y'all love bacon right? they plead. But Taco Bell knows exactly what it is, and what it is, is a place where you go at one in the morning when you are really tired and grumpy and you just need to eat something immediately, right there in the car. When a tired person needs to annihilate a burrito, they live más.

So they're making it easier for a few lucky musicians to do just that.

As marketing gimmicks go, Feed the Beat is a pretty delightful one. Taco Bell's been at this one since 2006; in that time, they've helped feed (or at least promote) 1,500 solo artists and bands. It works like this: the band or artist in question submits themselves through a pretty simple submission form before September 14. Taco Bell picks 100 of them. Then that band or artist gets $500 worth of no-strings-attached gift cards to use for sad stress-eating on the road.

Recent alums include BJ the Chicago Kid and Bebe Rexha. Other, earlier notable names include Blitzen Trapper, CharliXCX, Girl Talk, and Jukebox the Ghost—and, in a partnership that's blissfully on brand for both parties, Andrew W.K.

Point being, tell your favorite on-the-road musician that it's no longer shameful to enjoy Taco Bell and point them toward the application. Maybe they'll take you out for some Nacho Fries with their winnings.