Scott McCall's Blog

What if a sound logo or piece of branded audio could DO something?

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:39:00 +0000

What if a sound logo or piece of branded audio could DO something? Of course, I mean doing something in addition to connecting people to a brand via sound--the power of audio branding.

I read about Sonic Notify by Densebrain here and I think it may be a game changer for creative use of sound with mobile, primarily because a user does not have to actively switch on an app to listen to a coded sound. Sonic Notify is based on bus tracking technology and you could see it as a kind of “audio QR code” that delivers some relevant content to a user via their smartphone. However, QR codes are too much work and require action on the user’s part.

This is what differentiates it from sound apps like Shazam, which the must consciously turn app on for it to hear and identify a sound code and follow through with content delivery. With an auto-playing audio "code" instead of a picture you must photograph, your smartphone can pick up nearby sound that you may not be able to hear and you receive branded content on your phone. It works with sound outside of the human frequency range, but that doesn’t mean it cannot be combined with a sound logo, or any audio for that matter. Plus, content can be location specific due to the inherent properties of sound coming from a speaker source.

Consider the possibilities for creative use of sound to deliver content via mobile and how that could enhance someone's experience with a brand.

Untitled from Densebrain on Vimeo.

The Radioactive Orchestra

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 21:16:00 +0000

With 2011 wrapping up, this year's best-of lists are starting to make the rounds. In terms of creating a fun and stimulating sound experience, the Radioactive Orchestra from this summer is one of the year's interactive sonic highlights.

Give people something fun to do, and they might stay to play, create and share. The Radioactive Orchestra, an interactive sound project created by a Swedish nuclear safety team in collaboration with composer Axel Boman and musician Kristofer Hagbard, demonstrates the fun and the potential power of utilizing sound and music for active engagement. I love the way this project creatively uses sound to demonstrate the relatively heady concept of radioactive decay, inviting site visitors to create their own music based on the unique decay patterns of isotopes. This project is primarily education and awareness focused (awareness of the concept, not necessarily the KSU brand), but imagine the potential for active sonic engagement with commercial brands and products. This year's Google Les Paul doodle comes to mind as a successful example in this vein.

If this were a brand with an existing sonic identity, reigning in the options and offering a curated palette of sounds and options could reinforce or help build that identity. Also, I would have loved to see the option of a simplified design for a broad target in order to quickly get non-musicians creating and sharing. The interface is fairly advanced and you’d have to know a bit about music to really have fun. Perhaps taking a cue from the Google Les Paul doodle and simplifying the interface and sharing functionality would make for a friendlier experience and a broader appeal.

I’m still impressed. Check it out and start playing by choosing isotopes from the blue cloud.

Visit the Site

Music for a Rainy Morning

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:24:00 +0000

Fog. Rain. Trench coats. Raw deals. Dredging the river for evidence of the crime... Well, maybe not that dark. But, there's definitely a noir-ish feel to this one that resonates with me.

Now that the touring and live shows have slowed down, I'm getting taste for loud electric guitars again (it never really goes away). I put this one down on a recent rainy morning.

Paper Lamps

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:50:00 +0000

I've been busy lately with the demands of the advertising world, recording sessions and non-electronic music, but I've been working on a few bits and pieces in the spare moments. I've been enjoying pushing the envelope with the gnarly side of FM synthesis and cross modulation, finding the nasty sounds with instruments traditionally associated with the slick, bell-like tones ubiquitous in the pop and soundtrack music of the 1980's. It's more fun when you find something a little scary and try to make it into something beautiful than when you start with a well-groomed and presentable palette.

For some reason, I see glowing paper lamps when I hear this number. Don't ask me why...I have no idea.

Color Field

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 16:49:00 +0000

I had a conversation recently about synesthesia as it relates to music. Synesthesia, according to Wikipedia, is "a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway." People who experience synesthesia with music often associate or "see" certain colors with certain sounds, pitches or keys.

I imagine that, at some level, people associate stimulation of one sense with another. I'm not certain where this comes from--could it be from associations we make from our everyday experiences? For example, parsley always smells green to me, but is that because I know that parsley is the color green and my mind creates an association? Does this happen for you? Do just-baked chocolate chip cookies smell light brown to you?

I'm not sure if I am officially a synesthete, but I have always associated musical textures with hues of color and shapes, and this is part of the language I use when working with other musicians to describe ideas or direction. When I make ambient soundscapes, working with pure sound and texture is the main focus. Light and shade, bright and dark, hot and cold, sharp and dull.

For this piece, I wanted to play up the rich, glowing hues and saturation I love in the work of Mark Rothko. I deliberately dialed back the detail and played on the "colors" of the tones and, particularly, how the frequencies blended and created new colors when stacked together. I hope you enjoy.

Gettin' Ready for the Kumite - A Tribute to the Martial Arts Training Montage

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:37:00 +0000

Is it just me, or they're always showing that Jean-Claude Van Damme movie "Bloodsport" on the dark depths of nighttime basic cable? Like so many martial arts movies, it's heavy on the flashbacks, especially the training montage where the lead actor overcomes intense pain and rigor at the hands of a stern martial arts master living alone in the country to ultimately become a badass (well, actually, in "Bloodsport," the master is a family man who takes the troubled young Van Damme in as his son--also a common theme).

Also, like so many fine action movie soundtracks from the 1980's, there's some pulsing suspense to build tension and some faux-Asian synth stylings to make sure you know it's Eastern tension. Here is my tribute to the training montage of the 1980's. As it builds, see the pieces of a young, troubled man's training come together to meet some long sought goal...
becoming a badass.

Pure Analog Syrup - A Remix

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:46:00 +0000

I rode my bike this morning and the trails were beautiful. The weather has been cooling down and I'm noticing that some of leaves are just starting to change. I wrote Green Relief at the start of this year when winter was starting and I was itching for the warm Spring weather to come. Thinking about the weather swinging the other direction and the amount of precious daylight getting smaller and smaller, I listened back to it for the sake of nostalgia and I wanted to make a few changes. I took out the percussion and the piano, opting for smooth, purely electronic sounds to play up the element of "rich analog syrup" that I love in the older synths. Hope you enjoy the subtle changes.

Meteor Shower

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:31:00 +0000

Nature puts on the best shows, sometimes. A few weeks ago, there was a late night meteor shower visible from my house. I was working late in the studio and recorded this ambient environment with the mysteries of space in my thoughts. I'd recommend headphones to get the full benefit of floating in an extraterrestrial vacuum.

Saucer Rise

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 18:51:00 +0000

I've made straight ahead rock/roots/pop/folk/? music for a long time. I love the pure perfection of a 2-3 minute pop or honky tonk classic where everything just clicks into place so well that you are compelled to play it a few times in succession. From the Everly Bros to the early Who singles to a fat southern soul slice of O.V. Wright, hitting the listener hard and getting out before they know it is the name of the game.

These potent little pre-wrapped gems are great-- they take all of your attention, elevate your blood pressure and pretty much obliterate your troubles with their intoxicating mojo, at least temporarily. However, I've always found them to be a bit distracting if you're trying to do something like concentrate at work, read a magazine or follow a complicated recipe when cooking a big dinner (ok, maybe that's a stretch).

My workdays consist of computer oriented tasks like writing, editing, web stuff, research, emails--basically, communicating thoughts or soaking them up. For this sort of thing, listening to prime songwriting doesn't work for me because it completely breaks my concentration. I listened to jazz and classical music for years, but I really got into ambient and dub music a few years back and really grew to love it both in and out of work. Ambient music is not designed to grab you like a killer song, but it can alter your perception of your environment, encourage a productive and contemplative state or provide great "sonic design" for your surroundings, like an Eames chair in a home office with superior Feng Shui.

I'm not claiming that this ambient piece will do all of those things, but feel free to listen to it when you're concentrating on something else. The piece unfolds over 5 minutes, and I was thinking about a slowly evolving event, like perhaps a sunrise. I used a vaguely similar sonic palette to Evening Porch Bugs, and I'm still exploring that space with this one.

I've included some beautiful images that my wife took of the bridge that connects East Nashville to downtown. The light of the sun looks otherworldly on the rough metal structure.

Happy Father's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:11:00 +0000

Well, the first official day of summer is here for 2009. It's smoking hot down here in NC, and it's Father's Day. This one is just a single guitar track (the background pad is just a tweaked reverb), because much needed yard work and the riding of bicycles took precedence over indoor activities. I wish I had an easy to upload pic from my childhood with my dear old dad, but maybe it's best in this case to use your imagination and create your own personal image of childhood nostalgia.

PCH 1

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:35:00 +0000

Last April, my wife Ellen and I had the pleasure of driving the Pacific Coast Highway. I was on tour on the West coast, and we rented a car to drive between shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The road was closed due to a brush fire about 2 hours south of Monterrey, so we were able to enjoy Big Sur from both directions.

A phenomenal photographer, my wife documented our trip with her Diana camera. Unfortunately, much of the film was damaged in processing--camera places just don't do much film anymore, I guess. These are some of the few surviving shots.

You can see much more of her wonderful work on her flickr page.

click to see the full size images

If the trip had a soundtrack, it might have sounded something like this:

Evening Porch Bugs

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:18:00 +0000

I'm happy to be recording music again, thanks to my new studio setup. A spent computer monitor pushed me to do what I've been meaning to do for a while, which is completely rethink and replace much of my gear. It's not a decision to be rushed. So now, I'm staying busy scaling a new learning curve for my new software (Apple Logic) and getting used to using a Mac again, and I love it.

I've been hanging out on the porch a lot lately in the evenings, enjoying the noises of the forest. If you close your eyes on a quiet evening, it's amazing the music you'll hear. So much great textural complexity and ambience is created on a deep and wide "stereo field."

Here's a sonic collage inspired by porch music that I've recorded using entirely electronic means--primarily synths and samplers (from Reason software) treated and "played" with various effects. It's meant to evoke an environment, with an emphasis on ambience over structure. I recommend headphones for the full effect.

Ahhh, summer is almost here :)

Joe Romeo and the Orange County Volunteers: a Shout Out

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:11:00 +0000

The Joe Romeo and the Orange County Volunteers self-titled release is officially out this week. I realize this post could easily be filed in the shameless self promotion category, as I played lead guitar and helped with the arrangements and sounds for the sessions, in addition to supporting the songs as an Orange County Volunteer. However, the unmastered roughs have been in regular rotation at my house for nearly a year (hey, I've got to check my work!), and I'm still excited about the songs and performances. The music still sounds fresh and cohesive to me after numerous listens.

Joe gets a lot of comparisons to Springsteen and Hawks-era Dylan, and rightfully so, but my personal perspective on his music--and the way that I've always approached it--is that it is a combination of a mid to late 60's West Coast sound crossed with a New York raw simplicity. Essentially, I find it to be a nice marriage of Arthur Lee's Love and NYC's Television. I had a lot of fun recording with the great band--Rock Forbes on the drums, Alex Bowers on the keys, and Mitch Rothrock and Anthony Lener taking turns on the bass. The whole recording was tracked and mixed in 6 full days by the tasteful yet sonically sleazy Rick Miller (Southern Culture on the Skids) at my favorite local studio, Kudzu Ranch. Dave Harris from Studio B did the mastering.

Give it a listen on Joe's website.

Myrtle Lane

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:59:00 +0000

It's nice to have a quiet weekend to relax and make some music. This piece is pretty simple and might have been inspired by the low register twang of Tom Verlaine's Warm and Cool, which I was listening to this morning. I love my baritone Danelectro guitar, and I reach for it when I'm looking to create a certain down-by-the-foggy-dockside mood.

Change Comes Knocking Soundtrack, Revisited

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Change Comes Knocking, a documentary released in Spring 2008, is the story of the North Carolina Fund.

From the promotional literature:

Change Comes Knocking is a fascinating and tumultuous story of a bi-racial anti poverty organization called the North Carolina Fund (NCF) that boldly confronted the explosive issues of race, class and politics during the turbulent 1960's in an attempt to stop the "Cycle of Poverty."

I collaborated with my friend and musical director Daryl White for the film's music, contributing a few of my own compositions as well as working on several pieces together. I wrote this particular piece, and it was used as the background for footage of civil rights-era protests in Durham. It was meant to be a mixture of roots (lap slide guitar) and modern (CR78 drum machine). When remixing it, I added a clanging, generative Moog loop as well as some treated mellotron strings to give it an epic and off-kilter Kung Fu soundtrack flavor and to keep the piece evolving.

Check out the documentary--it's a fascinating story.

Giving Music a Sense of Place

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:01:00 +0000

Lately, I've been fascinated by music creating a "sense of place"--a concept Brian Eno brings up in the liner notes to his ambient work, On Land. Ambient or small group instrumental music seems to do this more readily than vocal music, but I think that the concept can and should be applied to all sorts of music to gain the benefit of a consistency of vision. For example, the best Brian Wilson music always seems firmly rooted in a more innocent and idealized Southern California, a unique and special place you can visit every time you listen to Pet Sounds.

I've always appreciated the ways in which the best film music assists the filmmaker in creating a unique space for the film to exist. This last week in North Carolina has been a cold one (despite my best musical efforts to encourage an early onset of Spring weather), and I've been watching some good films. One of the films I've seen is Transsiberian, a moody thriller set primarily on a train trekking across the the Siberian plains. The claustrophobic warmth of the cramped train car is the sole respite from the foreign and bitter cold just outside the windows, the bleak setting contributing to the tension between the characters.

I composed the following ambient piece with this forbidding situation in mind, attempting to capture the quiet desolation of a foreign train car skittering across an expansive, unfriendly terrain.

Creator's Hands (a Collaboration with Able Parris)

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:14:00 +0000

My last post was about collaboration among musicians. For this post, I wanted to feature a mini-series of collages on the theme of Creation from my friend Able Parris for a cross-medium collaboration. Able posted these two collages (along with links to several of his thematically related poems) on his excellent blog the other day, and suggested off-hand that I drum up a little ditty in response. This sounded like a lot of fun to me, as I'm always looking for a unique inspirational focus. I attempted to answer his visual collage with an "audio collage" of 3 basic elements, and I tried to avoid a straight rhythmic structure and chord form. After 2 late-night gigs and a rehearsal yesterday, this approach was a good fit for my morning mind-fog.

Thanks Able--I hope you dig it!

Communal Musical Collaboration

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:13:00 +0000

As a guitarist, I have participated in a number of musical situations over the years. The dynamic of musicians is always different, and this relationship among players is one of the most defining characteristics of the music created. Whether there is backing band behind a principal writer/singer, a Mick/Keith style partnership, a singing duo or a completely open and communal group, the interaction always feels different and begs a unique approach. There is no mold.

The following video is of me playing with the Tiny Pyramids, a loose collaborative of Chapel Hill, NC based musicians from The Old Ceremony, Max Indian, and other groups (I've been playing with Tift Merritt in 2008). This is my outlet for nearly unfettered communal collaboration in an intimate setting--a welcome respite from and fuel provider for the "big show." I can't have one without the other.

The video was taken by my friend Dave Mello, who takes really cool pictures in addition to his guerrilla video work.

Untitled from dave mello on Vimeo.

Gonzalez is Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:11:00 +0000

I love Mexican food--especially the more authentic fare I get at taco stands and tiendas. I was eating over the holiday break at La Casa de Las Enchiladas on South Blvd in Charlotte and enjoying some background Telemundo. I've always been fascinated by the way the drama seems to be pushed to the max in these programs, especially following a shoot-em-up gun fight/revenge plotting, or in the immediate wake of the realization of infidelity. These pensive moments are golden nuggets of sap that allow the characters to really show their emotions and acting chops via pained facial expressions, spurred along by occasional flashbacks of "the good times."

This short piece is for one of those moments of weakness and contemplation. I've stepped away from synthetic means--this one's all natural, recording-wise. Props to Ennio Morricone's classic score for The Good, The Bad the Ugly, and the opening sequence that I enjoyed early New Year's Day just prior to turning in for the night.

Grak Just Got Paid

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 23:16:00 +0000

I admit, I'm having a lot of fun lately playing around with software models of analog synthesizers on my computer. There are oodles of inspiring and useful presets available, but I get the most satisfaction from creating patches from scratch, or at least using a preset as a starting point (or example in the learning process) and doing some radical tweaking and shaping of the sound to get something new and, hopefully, original.

My goal with my electronic music experiments, at least this month, is to try to make something that keeps developing throughout the piece via texture or melody while avoiding the stock, genre-defining danceable beat patterns that serve as the foundation for so much synth-based music. I'm not knocking it at all--I'm just trying for a different sound.

That being said, this ditty might accompany a top-down, Saturday night interstellar cruise.

Green Relief

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 18:38:00 +0000

The holiday season is coming to a close and 2009 is just around the corner. We've had a really cold December (for North Carolina), but this recent heat wave has given me a bit of spring fever. Lately, I've been really enjoying the Buchla synth stylings of Blind Old Freak, as well as Brian Eno's Apollo, and I've been experimenting with purely synthesized music--a new challenge indeed.

I can almost see the bright spring green on the trees. Just a few months left...

Open Space

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:59:00 +0000

Here is a composition that I wrote and recorded after seeing the film "Into the Wild," which has a great soundtrack. I thought Eddie Vedder's songs were great, but I was really inspired by the instrumental film score by Michael Brooks as well. Both contributors conveyed the feeling of venturing into the unknown and the quiet contemplation that accompanies that sort of journey.

Volume Wars: Modern Mastering Discussed in the WSJ

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 17:24:00 +0000

Is louder better? Most musicians and engineers don't think so. Then why are there so many top tier artists following the trend of over-maximizing their masters? Apparently, there is a perceived need to make a new release sonically compete with the current crop of releases, pushing the overall volume of a track as high as possible (at the expense of dynamics) so as to never fade into the background. Many feel that this me-too approach is sucking the life out of modern recordings, and this debate has moved from the insider recording forums and trade magazines onto the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

Ethan Smith's article brings the issue to the public using the latest Metallica release "Death Magnetic" as a prime example. Contrasting their latest release with the mix and master of "...And Justice for All" is a bit of an easy comparison, as the generally thin sound of the bass-shy "...And Justice" mix gives the listener the perspective of hearing the band run their set through the lobby wall of a rehearsal space. Still, the waveform comparison of the 2 recordings is a great visual example of the overhyped and dynamically flat mixing and mastering trends currently being used in popular music.

Running the Curry Mile

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:39:00 +0000

Coming to a theater near you: "There Will be Blood...Pudding," the riveting documentary chronicling the UK phenomenon known to most as the Full English Breakfast. Highlights include scrambled powdered eggs, bland white toast, and a compelling sequence *spoiler alert!* where a famished Daniel Day-Lewis slurps down a greasy sausage for 3 minutes, washing it down with a strong cuppa PG Tips while digesting section C of the London Times. Can you feel the culinary drama?

In all seriousness, English cuisine has never really enjoyed a stellar reputation in the food world. According to Wikipedia, the United Kingdom does not have a single "national dish," but fish and chips, the roast beef dinner, and, yes, the ubiquitous full English breakfast, all come to mind as stereotypically English food. During a recent 10 day tour of the UK with the band, I was pleased to see a general trend towards healthier foods, evidenced by the popularity of a relatively new national chain accessible at highway exits. This is a great development, and despite the high prices, I really enjoy access to fresh juices and hand-cut potato chips. Still, on the hunt for culinary satisfaction while not trying to lose all of my spending money, I found the boxed sandwiches to be disappointing. Essentially, the sandwiches consist of various combinations of cucumber, cream cheese, mayonnaise, and some meat or fish, all cold and packed several days prior. When we got to our destination town, I wanted something hot, comforting, and full of flavor.

Enter the Indian curry, and all its variation and splendor. Of course, curry seems to be a catch-all term for Indian cuisine, but I typically order some type of curry as a main dish along with a vegetable and naan. While there are many fine "curry houses" throughout England, some are better than others. Researching the internet or quizzing the locals worked for us, depending on the area. If you happen to visit Manchester, I would recommend the Curry Mile, a section of Wilmslow Road in the Rusholme area comprising of several blocks of South Asian restaurants, many open into the early morning for that post pub fix.

On our curry quest, the band (some of us more often than others--I ate 5 Indian meals in a week) consistently found an Indian restaurant in just about every town to be the best option for the money, and I'm happy to say that it delivered the spicy comfort that was so difficult to capture so far removed from the Mexican and Italian food we regularly enjoy. From intensely hot chicken and lamb vindaloos to a jalfrezi cooked without tomato sauce (sort of like a light green Thai curry--one of the highlights), from creamy spinach saag to stewed okra, we thoroughly enjoyed the wellspring of flavor. The single disappointment for me was the store-bought papadum (crisp lentil flour flatbread) and sub par chutneys offered as an appetizer at every stop.

How does it compare to Indian cuisine in the US? I found that most all of the main dishes in the UK were of high quality--much better than average, and one or two were on par with the best I've had in large US cities. So, if you find yourself in the UK, don't miss the curry!

Road Food for the Touring Musician

noreply@blogger.com (Scott McCall) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:08:00 +0000

"Buy local." "Eat organic." Sounds good to me, but these take a priority nosedive when you're hustling down the nation's highways in the cozy confines of a rented Econoline van with an exhausted but willing touring band. For 5 or so veritable hamsters running day after day on the rock-and-roll treadmill, survival is the primary objective--fueling up, staying healthy on little sleep, and, yes, seeking comfort far from home in anything that resembles your favorite comfort food...turkey gravy, anyone?

Consider the typical day:

8:30 am Wake up call. Complain to roommate about getting only 3 hours of sleep, while brushing my teeth.

9:00 Lobby call. Hastily pack my bags and grab an unripe banana and O.J. from concentrate at the complimentary lobby breakfast zone. Jump in the van to travel 7 or so hours to make the 4pm load in and soundcheck at the next club. Just before getting on the highway, we stop at an internationally recognized coffee chain and I get my daily 20oz brewed coffee, to go, of course.

**Disclaimer** to the green-minded, local coffee contingent who turn their noses up at you-know-where:

Our official stance is that we positively adore local coffee houses, and in fact seek them out whenever possible. But, please tell me where you get a consistently good cup of coffee on a highway exit (or a tasty breakfast sandwich on a whole wheat English muffin, soon to be discontinued along with all other hot food items--R.I.P)?

1:23 Quick lunch at another popular sandwich chain just off the highway. I order a hot turkey and cheese. What, no gravy on the menu?

1:38 Back in the van

4:03-7:15 Load in 2,000 lbs of gear, set it up, and make sure everything works and sounds good. Munch on an energy bar and drink 2 waters from the dressing room to regain my strength from sitting nearly a full workday in a van bench. Sometimes, I refer to the activity as "road yoga," but I'm not sure what pose.

7:45 Quick dinner of a Buffalo chicken sandwich provided by the club. Hmmm, would this be "local" if we were playing Buffalo, NY?

9pm Showtime. Ample bottled water and beer served--a big bonus if it's local...or pretty cold and imported from Belgium...

11:45-1:15 Load out.

2:13 am Arrive at hotel and fall asleep, only to do it all over again. And again.

As one can imagine, finding good eats while traveling on the road is a challenge. Case in point: we've driven around a town for well over an hour, after traveling all day, just to find Thai food in eastern Washington state. The result--an additional 5th day in a row of Mexican food. Sometimes, you've just got to be strong. It's a sacrifice we make for the music. BUT, when you're on the road for sometimes 6 weeks at a time, the search for a tasty meal becomes a irresistible quest--the one opportunity in the day to momentarily unwind and feel human. Despite the seemingly impossible odds, the desire for quality sustenance and rich, new culinary experiences keeps the search going.