As you all know, we spend most of our time here at UberProAudio interviewing and researching musician’s rigs. Every so often we come across gear/products for musician’s that look cool and we’ll do a review. Recently we came across a cool company called MusicNomad that has just launched a whole product line of music equipment care products. The owner, Rand Rognlien, previously owned a successful car cleaning company, and has worked with other cleaning experts from around the world to create this new line of cleaning products for guitars, drums, and more. The cool new products weren’t the only thing to catch our eye – the fact that Rand puts in a lot of work to help out indie musician’s (through his website musicnomad.com) was very cool to us also. Checkout all the pictures and enjoy the review.

MusicNomad equipment cleaning supplies

Pop-punk band The SpacePimps MySpace page gives a good summary of the band, "The SpacePimps are: Five U.S. Tours, one Japanese Tour, one full-length CD, one EP, 10,000+ records sold in five continents, four magazine spreads, countless press, and three dudes who love what they do." Add to that a brand spankin new CD "Stuck Here Forever" released on June 8th 2010! If you like other pop-punk bands like Blink 182, then The SpacePimps is a band you must check out. We were lucky enough to catch the very busy Rishi Bahl for an interview. We find out about Rishi's guitar rig and more!

Image by sorakirei. Creative Commons licensed from flickr.

Long after the grandeur of their industrial glory, America’s rust belt cities present a bleak facade; decaying brick and concrete monstrosities, wrangled iron strangling the hope that their time will come again.  But if you’re willing to look a little deeper, you’ll find that these places are full of dreamers, people who stayed behind to create something special out of the ashes.  Canton, Ohio is one of these cities and Lovedrug is one of their bands.

With a career spanning a decade and a new EP (“EP – Part I”) released April 13, Lovedrug is just that; an addictive concoction of nouveau, Midwestern romanticism.  Their music brings to mind the best of Shudder to Think and the Grifters, but it’s also the sound of experienced players finding the perfect drink in the dingiest bar on the edge of town, or the prettiest girl in the most desolate of places.  The new EP is both sad and hopeful, with a healthy dose of beautifully layered noise.

Through the magic of e-mail, uberproaudio.com was able to chat with the band's Michael Shepard (vocals, guitar, piano), about their latest release and the plans for the future.

Lovedrug band members

Progressive Rock duo, An Endless Sporadic, who gained worldwide success with their 2008 EP release Ameliorate, which had featured tracks on Tony Hawk’s American Wasteland, Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock, and Guitar Hero® World Tour, spoke with UberProAudio about the release of their first full-length CD of original material, entitled An Endless Sporadic. After hearing much great buzz about the band, including positive words from Jordan Rudess, we knew we had to speak with this Progressive Rock powerhouse.  Writer Kevin Williams sat down with Zach Kamis, guitarist and keyboard palyer, to discuss the new album, guitar gear, and more!

Zach and Andy of An Endless Sporadic

Some publications have called Foxy Shazam a band to watch in 2010. We highly agree. The band has a lot going for it including it’s first major label release (“Foxy Shazam”, 2010), a song at the Superbowl (Unstoppable), a unique sound, and an incredible live show. UberProAudio was lucky enough to catch up with Loren Turner, guitar player in Foxy Shazam, to talk about all the big things the band has going on in 2010, and of course lots of guitar gear talk!

Loren playing his Washburn guitar. Image by The Style PA, C.C. licensed

UberProAudio was lucky enough to talk with Brian Byrne, guitar player for the Long Island based alternative rock band Envy On The Coast. We discuss Envy On The Coast’s new album LOWCOUNTRY (March 2010), a new music video, the bands upcoming tour with Fall of Troy, and of course lots of guitar gear!

Envy On The Coast

On the eve of Before Their Eyes newest release, “Untouchable” (2010), we had a chance to talk with Elliott Gruenberg, one of the bands guitar players. The band, hailing from Findlay Ohio, has been very busy touring, with two new upcoming tours to support the Untouchable album; one in the USA, and their first ever tour in Canada. We discuss touring, the new album, tone, and of course guitar gear with Elliott who is quite the gear enthusiast!

Image by sbfotography. Courtesy of Before Their Eyes.

San Diego based rock band Dirty Sweet has built up an international following, played big festivals, sold out shows, produced music videos, and won awards. All without being on a major record label. Whenever we see this phenomenon take place, it usually means we are looking at a kick-ass band on the verge of something really big. After a brief investigation I figured out why Dirty Sweet is doing so well……they F-ing rock. These guys have the type of song writing that makes a record filled with tracks that are so good, you can’t even pick a handful of singles. They are all that good. Seldom does this happen in my life, but when it does, the band instantly gets added to my “favorite bands” list. Thankfully I was able to talk with Nathan Beale, guitar player for Dirty Sweet, about his guitar rig, the bands upcoming release (“American Spiritual”), and much more.

Image by Zoran Orlic

Shawn Mike is a creative guy. He not only plays guitar, piano, and sings in the exciting band Alesana, he writes stories too. Alesana’s brand new album The Emptiness showcases the bands songwriting - full of killer hooks, guitar riffs that will rock your socks off, and a new added depth thanks to live strings (quartet). It also casts a spotlight on a story that Shawn and Dennis created. The record is being released with this short story, adding to the awesomeness-factor. UberProAudio spoke with Shawn about the new album, and of course music gear!

Alesana