You know times are tough when you can’t even sleep on a park bench without getting hassled these days. But when it gets hard, Desert Noises are just charming enough to find their way on to a stranger’s couch.---

This is a periodic feature where locally-based bands write from the road and describe the toils and virtues of the touring life. We have placed no stipulations on content, except asking them to keep it less-than-novel length and asked for their diary entries to come in roughly every week. If you are a local band and what to take part, feel free to contact the me at adiamond@cityweekly.net.

The Provo-based, Northplatte recording indie rockers, Desert Noises, will return home for a quick rest stop before continuing to the West Coast for the last leg of their tour. You can catch them at Slowtrain Records Friday at 7 p.m. for the pre-release show of their first full-length album, Mountain Sea.

For more information about the Mountain Sea vinyl release on Slowtrain Records, read this, and to read Part One of their Tour Diary, go here.

For the second leg of the tour, the band traveled from New York City southbound to North Carolina, up to Ohio and then finally onto I-80 for the return trip home. Frontman Kyle Henderson writes from the road on July 13, 2011:

This week there were no guns or future Presidents to run into, but we did spend the 4th of July in NYC. it was unreal—so many people in one place—overwhelming, to say the least.

We played the east coast this past week, and, after a very late show in Raleigh, we had no place to stay. So we pulled around back around 3 a.m. and slept in the van. Around 5 or 6 a.m., a lady saw us and thought it would be a good idea to honk for a while until we woke up; she kicked us out of the parking lot, so we headed to the beach.

After swimming in the ocean for three hours and getting kicked off park benches for sleeping in public (trying to make up on sleep from the night before), we played a show and met some really cool kids, who we hung out talked with all night. Finally, we crashed on their floor. The best part about touring is the people you get to meet.

We are almost home for our show at Slowtrain Records before we head out to the west coast, and we can't wait to see some familiar faces.

See you Friday!