After touring extensively for the last year, here are my updated top picks for travel & tour essentials.. stuff that you will find useful is you’re an artist or just travel a lot.

Bose Noise Reduction headphones
If
you fly without these, you must be some type of masochist. Use these to
block out jet engines, crying babies, and people that won’t shut up on
the plane. They color the music a little, but still sound amazing -
especially the bass response on loud flights. [link]

iPhone
I
recently converted, after being a devout Blackberry user for years. The
GPS and 3G features are reason alone to get this.. and it’s one of the
best ways to stay entertained and connected in the "hurry up and wait"
lifestyle of live shows. Blackberry is still leaner and meaner for
email, but the iPhone blows it out of the water in every other possible
way. My favorite apps are Maps, Shazam, Remote, and Voicememo. The
White Noise app is great to, especially when paired with the Bose
Headphones. [link]

Custom molded earplugs
I went to an audiologist and had molds created for earplugs that block
15 decibels of sound.. you can go up to 25 dB if it’s insanely loud, or
if you want to be very close to the speakers. The filters pop right out
if you want to swap them. These cost a few hundred bucks, but are sooo
worth it. They are essential during loud sound checks and shows and I
wear them every time I go out to a club, and sometimes really noisy
bars. They actually make the music clearer, unlike normal earplugs -
and I depend on these to keep my hearing after endless nights of
DJ’ing. [link]

Kensington Travel Adapters
These
are fantastic little travel adapters that flip out plugs for any region
in the world. You can even slot in a USB clip to charge your ipod or
digital camera. I travel with a handful of these on every trip. [link]

Brookstone Travel Blanket
- aka "The Ecstasy Blanket"
A
very useful travel companion – I use this to protect my DJ mixer while
in transit – and to stay comfortable on airplanes when the AC is going
full blast.. way nicer than the ones they hand out obviously. Stuff
like this may seem unneccesary or luxurious, but you really appreciate
it when traveling. [link]

Also – for flying in the U.S., I’ve really been enjoying Virgin America and JetBlue.. good snacks, in flight entertainment and very friendly service. Once you fly these guys you’ll never want to go back to your old airlines..  and with the limited connections they offer, it’s only an occasional luxury I get to experience.