Michael Urbano (born March 19, 1960) is an American musician, programmer, and record producer.

Career

One of Urbano's first gigs was as a member of Bourgeois Tagg, a 1980s band that was fronted by Brent Bourgeois and Larry Tagg and included Lyle Workman as the guitarist. They had moderate success with their second album, ''Yo-Yo'', which was produced by

Todd Rundgren Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who has performed a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the bands Nazz and Utopia. He is known for his sophistica ...

, and featured the Top 40 hit, "I Don't Mind At All." When Bourgeois Tagg split, Michael, Larry, and Lyle recorded and toured with Todd Rundgren for his '' Nearly Human'' Tour. While with

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including New wave music, new wave, blues, and country music, country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Gramm ...

(1995–1999), Urbano toured extensively as one of Hiatt's "Nashville Queens" that included bassist Davey Faragher (

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to ''Rolling Stone'', Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical ...

) and guitarist David Immergluck ( Counting Crows). The Nashville Queens also worked with Hiatt in the studio, recording '' Walk On'', '' Little Head'' and '' Crossing Muddy Waters''. Urbano spent time as the drummer for the pop rock group

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American Rock music, rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994 and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). Harwell's ...

. He originally joined the band briefly in mid-1999, replacing original drummer Kevin Coleman, and performed during the first portion of their '' Astro Lounge'' tour, though was soon replaced by touring drummer Mitch Marine. When Marine departed, he joined Smash Mouth permanently in early 2000. He stayed for six years and departed on February 14, 2006. Before Smash Mouth, Urbano had played drums with The Spent Poets, The Kinetics, Deathray,

Third Eye Blind Third Eye Blind is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California, in 1993. After years of lineup changes in the early and mid-1990s, the songwriting duo of Stephan Jenkins and Kevin Cadogan signed the band's first major-label reco ...

, Black Lab, Cracker, Paul Westerberg,

Red House Painters Red House Painters were an American rock band formed in Atlanta, Georgia in 1988, before relocating to San Francisco, California in 1989. Originally formed by singer-songwriter Mark Kozelek and drummer Anthony Koutsos, the pair were soon joine ...

Willy DeVille Willy DeVille (born William Paul Borsey Jr.; August 25, 1950 – August 6, 2009) was an American singer and songwriter. During his thirty-five-year career, first with his band Mink DeVille (1974–1986) and later on his own, DeVille created song ...

Camper Van Beethoven Camper Van Beethoven is an American rock band formed in Redlands, California, in 1983, later based in Santa Cruz and San Francisco. Their style mixes elements of pop, ska, punk, folk, alternative, country, and world music, among other ge ...

, and

Sheryl Crow Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and actress. She is noted for her Optimism, optimistic and Idealism, idealistic subject matter, and incorporation of genres including Rock music, rock, Po ...

. In 2006 Urbano left Smash Mouth due to creative differences. He recorded with

Fischerspooner Fischerspooner was an electroclash duo and performance troupe formed in 1998 in New York City after meeting in school. The name is a combination of the founders' last names, Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner. Career Originally a duo formed by ...

and played live with

Cake Cake is a flour confection usually made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elabor ...

as well as leading Artist Development at fuzz.com. In July 2007, he worked with

Luciano Ligabue Luciano Riccardo Ligabue (born 13 March 1960), commonly known as Ligabue or Liga, is an Italian singer-songwriter, film director, and writer. Biography Ligabue was born in Correggio, in the province of Reggio Emilia (Emilia-Romagna in norther ...

for recording a new song, "Niente paura". In early 2008 he became a band member with Luciano Ligabue, playing drums for the European Tour, and through mid-2008 in the main stadiums of Italy for the ElleSette tour. He was also in the band for the seven dates at

Verona Arena The Verona Arena is a Roman amphitheatre located in the historic center of Verona, an iconic symbol of the Venetian city alongside the figures of Romeo and Juliet. It stands as one of the grand structures that defined Roman architecture and ...

in September and October 2008 with the Arena's orchestra, and during the same months of 2009 for ten concerts. Urbano rejoined Smash Mouth in June 2009, but was replaced by Randy Cooke in 2010. Urbano reportedly will be playing at least one show with newly formed XEB on Dec 31, 2016. XEB is formed from ousted original members from Third Eye Blind. XEB consists of Kevin Cadogan, Arion Salazar and Tony Fredianelli. As of 2022, Urbano is the touring drummer for

Lindsey Buckingham Lindsey Adams Buckingham (born October 3, 1949) is an American musician, record producer, and the lead guitarist and co-lead vocalist of the Rock music, rock band Fleetwood Mac from 1975 to 1987 and 1997 to 2018. In addition to his tenure with ...

References

External links

Michael Urbano radio interview on Rundgren Radio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Urbano, Michael Living people 1960 births 20th-century American drummers American rock drummers American session musicians Smash Mouth members Third Eye Blind members Musicians from Sacramento, California American male drummers Camper Van Beethoven members Black Lab members Cracker (band) members Drummers from California