Zebrahead

This article is about the band. For the 1992 movie, see Zebrahead (film).

Zebrahead

Zebrahead is an Orange County, California-based punk/rap band which was formed in La Habra, California.

History

Early Years

The band was formed in 1996 guitarist Greg Bergdorf (formerly of 409), bassist Ben Osmundson (formerly of 3-Ply), and drummer Ed Udhus (formerly of 409). All four musicians, whose bands at the time shared the same practice space, found themselves experimenting with different sounds together and soon became friends. After deciding that they wanted to explore their musical options further, Greg, Justin, Ben and Ed quit their previous bands and Zebrahead was formed.

The group who were inspired by acts including Fugazi and The Descendents, found themselves uninspired by the local trend towards ska-punk and instead began incorporating elements of hip-hop into their sound, eventually recruiting rapper Ali Tabatabaee to join their ranks.

Professional career

After issuing the self-titled EP Zebrahead on the indie label Doctor Dream Records in May 1998, Zebrahead signed to major label Columbia Records to release their full-length debut, Waste of Mind, which appeared later that same year. The band’s follow up album Playmate of the Year was issued in mid-2000 and the Stupid Fat Americans EP followed the next year as an exclusive release for Japan.

Zebrahead headed over to Europe with Green Day to support the records and played various festival dates as well. Throughout the years, they also shared gigs with bands like Less Than Jake, Kottonmouth Kings, 311, MxPx, Reel Big Fish, Unwritten Law and Goldfinger.

Three years after having released a full length album, MFZB (aka Mother Fucking Zebrahead Bitch!) appeared in 2003, which the band spent the majority of their time promoting overseas in Japan where the record soon went gold. Zebrahead found themselves performing at various festivals including Summer Sonic Festival and Punkspring, as well as headline shows throughout Japan.

Change In Line-Up

Shortly after their 2004 Japanese tour, lead singer/guitarist Mauriello exited the group to pursue other interests. The news of Mauriello's departure was broken to fans via the band's official website in December 2004. His exit from the group distressed fans, as the singing/rapping dynamic between him and Tabatabaee was crucial to the band's sound. The same month, Matty Lewis (formerly of the band Jank 1000) received a call from Zebrahead's management Todd Singerman (who also had a management deal with Jank 1000), and was informed that Zebrahead were looking for a new co-lead singer. Lewis set out to California to try out for the role, and after being heavily impressed with what they saw, the four remaining members officially named him Zebrahead's new co-lead singer with him being formally introduced to the world at a "secret" show at the Anaheim House of Blues on March 12, 2005.

Broadcast to the World

After two years since their last CD release, Zebrahead, now armed with a new vocalist, released their fifth studio album Broadcast to the World on February 22, 2006.

After touring Europe and the UK at the start of June 2006, including a spot on the annual UK Download Festival, Zebrahead spent the rest of the summer in the USA on the Warped Tour. During this time their current album Broadcast to the World was released on July 3 in Europe through the German based record company SPV. October 24, 2006 finally saw the long awaited, American and Canadian release of the record via new label ICON MES. The rest of 2006 was spent touring Europe and the US as part of the Broadcast To The World tour.

In March 2007, the band took two months off to begin writing new material for their, currently as of yet, untitled new studio album. The band later returned to Europe in May on a co-healine tour with MxPx and a headline UK tour. From June - July of the same year, Zebrahead toured America, supporting Unwritten Law with the band Bullets and Octane. On completion of the tour, Zebrahead spent more time writing material for their new album which had a planned release date of February, 2008.

Current And Future Events

Recently, after several of the active users at MFZB.com made it apparent they were in need of update from the band during this 'quiet' period, Zebrahead responded by posting a video update to YouTube which was promised as "the first of many". The video talks about the writing/recording process and has an update on Zebrahead's official fanclub.

October 2007 saw the return of Zebrahead to the UK as part of the annual Get Happy Tour where they shared the stage with Army of Freshmen, The Bloodhound Gang and Bowling For Soup. Zebrahead will be returning to Download 2008 (UK) after their first appearance in 2006. For the rest of 2007 the band continued to write songs for the new album. Demos were recorded and received input from Jason Freese of Green Day fame.

In March 2008 Zebrahead entered the studio and recorded 18 songs for their new album. The first two songs, including "Art Of Breaking Up" were recorded with Howard Benson, while the remaining 16 were recorded with Cameron Webb. Zebrahead released clips giving an insight into the making of the album the same month.

June saw Zebrahead return to the UK and Europe to headline a tour and play certain festival dates including Download, Leeds Slam Dunk Festival and Greenfield Festival. Several new songs from the upcoming album are likely to make their debut appearance in live form.

Phoenix

On May 17th 2008, it was revealed via the band's MySpace tagline that the upcoming album would be entitled "Phoenix". A day later, Zebrahead Blog Postcards From Hell revealed that the first single from the album would be entitled "Mental Health" and its music video was be directed by Elliot Dillman of Pandaworks.

On July 8th 2008, it was released a new EP entitled "Not the New Album EP". This EP was released to promote Zebrahead's Phoenix

On August 5th, "Phoenix" was released in the US and Canada.

On September 11th, the band announced tour dates for UK, Europe and Japan from October to December 2008.

Members

Current members

• Ali Tabatabaee (1998-present) - vocals
• Matty Lewis (2005-present) - guitar, vocals
• Ed Udhus (1998-present) - (born September 5, 1969) The band's drummer. He is one of the founding members of the band and, along with other founding member Greg Bergdorf, played in the band 409 before creating Zebrahead. In August 2006, while Udhus was touring with Zebrahead in Japan, his wife gave birth to their first child, Lucy.
• Ben Osmundson (1998-present) - (born 13 March, 1972) The band's bassist. Prior to his career in Zebrahead, Osmundson was in the band 3-Ply for two years with whom he released a vinyl EP, a full-length CD, and a music video. Osmundson is currently married and resides with three children in California.
• Greg Bergdorf (1998-present) - (born 2 November 1973 in Los Angeles California,USA) Plays guitar for the band. Bergdorf is also the owner of a small recording studio in Fullerton, California, called "Noise Factory." The studio was recently hired out by the UK band Fandangle, who recorded their new album there. Greg served as a guest musician and producer for the record. In May 2007, Greg and his long term girlfriend Tiffany eloped to the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas were their wedding ceremony was held. In his spare time Greg is a keen online player of the Madden NFL series of videogames.

Former members

• Justin Mauriello (1996-2005) - guitar, vocals

Zebrahead in popular culture

Throughout the years, Zebrahead has had their work featured in popular culture. Some notable appearances include the following, in chronological order:

• In 1998, the band provided uncredited instrumentation for Lemmy on the Grammy-nominated Metallica cover, "Enter Sandman" (ECW: Extreme Music).[1])

• In 1998, the song "Jag Off" was featured in the David Spade comedy:Lost and Found.

• The off beat horror comedy Idle Hands starring Devon Sawa Jessica Alba and, Seth Green, featured the song "Mindtrip" from their first released, self titled album "Zebrahead"

• The song "Playmate Of The Year" featured in the 2000 movie Dude, Where's My Car?.

• Part of the song "Now or Never" played in the 2000 movie Little Nicky.

• Part of the song "Runaway" - "In another town|With the same old Bacardi" is used in a Bacardi banner ad.

• The song "Check" was featured in the 2001 hit video game "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3" for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Xbox and Nintendo GameCube.

• "Now or Never" appears in the 2001 Warren Miller ski film Cold Fusion and also the 2000 Adam Sandler movie Little Nicky

• "I Am" appears in the 2002 Warren Miller film Storm.

• Two songs, "Falling Apart" and "Alone" featured on the 2004 video games WWE SmackDown vs. Raw for the PlayStation 2 and WWE Day of Reckoning for the Nintendo GameCube.

• The band has also had the tracks "Falling Apart" and "Rescue Me" on the 2004 game S.L.A.I. Steel Lancer Arena International, as well as the Japan-exclusive "Are You For Real?", for the PlayStation 2.

• Their song, "Lobotomy For Dummies", is featured in the 2006 game FlatOut 2.

• In 2006, 2 songs from the album Broadcast to the World are featured on the Fast and the Furious game, "Wake Me Up" and, "The Walking Dead". The game was released for the Sony Playstation 2, and the Sony PSP.

• In 2006 the band recorded the song "With Legs Like That", which is featured on the WWE Wreckless Intent Album, intended for Stacy Kiebler, but is currently being used as WWE Diva Maria's entrance music.

• Due to Zebrahead's growing popularity in Japan, vocalists Matty Lewis and Ali Tabatabaee were asked by SEGA to record vocals for a new theme song, entitled "His World", which appears in the game Sonic The Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Ali and Matty both recorded their vocals on August 29th, 2006. Shortly after, on September 19th 2006, the entire band recorded an alternate version of the song (known as "His World (Zebrahead Version)" to fans) for the game's vocal soundtrack CD. This version uses Zebrahead's traditional instrumentation and resembles their other songs. Both tracks feature in the compilation album True Blue: The Best of Sonic the Hedgehog.

• An "MFZB" poster appears in a scene in the 2007 film, Superbad.

Discography

Studio Albums

Album Information
Yellow Release date: April 21, 1998 Label: Doctor Dream Records Producer: Zebrahead Length: 27:21 Singles: N/A Tracks: "Check","All I Need", "Swing", "Walk Away", "Bootylicious Vinyl", "Hate", "Mindtrip", "Chrome", "Jag Off", "Song 10"
Waste of Mind Release date: October 13, 1998 Label: Columbia Records Producer: Howard Benson Length: 48:08 Singles: "Get Back", "The Real Me", "Feel This Way", "Someday" Tracks: "Check", "Get Back", "The Real Me", "Someday", "Waste of Mind", "Feel This Way", "Walk Away", "Big Shot", "Swing", "Jag Off", "Time", "Move On", "Fly Daze", "Bootylicious Vinyl" Bonus Tracks: "Hate", "Song 10"
Playmate of the Year Release date: August 22, 2000 Label: Columbia Records Producer: Howard Benson Length: 50:21 Singles: "Playmate Of The Year", "Now Or Never" Tracks: "I Am", "Playmate Of The Year", "Now Or Never", "Wasted", "I'm Money", "Go","What's Goin' On?", "Subtract You", "The Hell That Is My Life", "E Generation", "Livin' Libido Loco", "In My Room" Bonus Track: "Get Back"
MFZB Release date: October 21, 2003 Label: Sony BMG, Golf Records Producers: Cameron Webb, Marshall Altman Length: 56:04 Singles: "Into You". "Rescue Me", "Hello Tomorrow" Tracks: "Rescue Me", "Over The Edge", "Strength", "Hello Tomorrow", "The Set-Up", "Blur", "House Is Not My Home", "Into You", "Alone", "Expectations", "Falling Apart", "Let It Ride", "Type A", "Runaway", "Dear You (Far Away)", "The Fear" (Hidden Track) Bonus Tracks: "Surrender" (Cheap Trick Cover), "Dissatisfied", "Good Thing"
Waste of MFZB Release date: July 22, 2004 Label: Sony BMG Producer: Cameron Webb Singles: "Are You For Real?" Tracks: "Are You For Real?", "Let Me Go", "One Less Headache", "Burn The School Down", "Lightning Rod", "Blindside", "Veils And Visions", "One Shot", "Timing Is Everything", "Wannabe" (Spice Girls Cover)
Broadcast to the World Release date: February 22, 2006 Label: Sony BMG, SPV, ICON MES Producer: Cameron Webb Length: 51:04 Singles: "Anthem", "Postcards From Hell", "Broadcast To The World" Tracks: "Broadcast To The World", "Rated "U" for Ugly", "Anthem", "Enemy", "Back to Normal", "Postcards from Hell", "Karma Flavored Whisky", "Here's to You", "Wake Me Up", "Lobotomy for Dummies", "The Walking Dead", "Your New Boyfriend Wears Girl Pants" Bonus Tracks: "Riot Girl", "Down In Flames"
Phoenix Release date: July 9, 2008 Label: Sony BMG, SPV, ICON MES, EMI, Fontana North Producer: Cameron Webb, Howard Benson Length: 1:02:36 Singles: "Mental Health" Tracks: "HMP", "Hell Yeah!", "Just The Tip", "Mental Health", "The Juggernauts", "Death By Disco", "Be Careful What You Wish For", "Morse Code For Suckers", "Ignite", "Mike Dexter Is A God, Mike Dexter Is A Role Model, Mike Dexter Is An Asshole", "The Junkie And The Halo", "Brixton", "Hit The Ground", "Two Wrongs Don't Make A Right, But Three Rights Make A Left", "All For None And None For All", "Sorry, But Your Friends Are Hot" Bonus Tracks: "The Art Of Breaking Up", "We're Not A Cover Band, We're A Tribute Band"

Singles

• Get Back(1998)
• The Real Me (1999)
• Feel This Way (Japan Exclusive) (1999)
• Someday (1999)
• Deck the Halls (I Hate Christmas) (2000)
• Playmate of the Year (2000)
• Now Or Never (Japan Exclusive) (2001)
• Into You (Japan Exclusive) (2003)
• Rescue Me (2004)
• Hello Tomorrow (2005)
• Are You For Real? (Japan Exclusive) (2004)
• Anthem (2006)
• Postcards From Hell (2006)
• Broadcast To The World (2007)
• Mental Health (2008)

Music Videos

• Get Back (1998)
• Playmate of the Year (2000)
• Into You (2003)
• Rescue Me (2003)
• Hello Tomorrow (2004)
• Are You For Real? (2004)
• Anthem (2006)
• Postcards From Hell (2006)
• Broadcast To The World (2006)
• Karma Flavored Whiskey (2007)
• The Walking Dead (2008)
• Mental Health (2008)
• Hell Yeah! (2008)

EPs

EP information
Stupid Fat Americans Release date: October 9 2001 Label: Sony BMG Length: 21:39 Tracks: "Wasted", "Chrome" (Demo Version), "Swing" (Demo Version), "Deck The Halls (I Hate Christmas)", "Jag Off" (Live), "Someday" (Live), "Get Back" (Live)
Not the New Album EP Release Date: July 8 2008 Label: ICON MES Length: 9:46 Tracks: "Mental Health", "Photographs", "Politics"

DVDs

DVD information
MFZB - The DVD - Banzai Mother F**ker! Release date: October 22 2003 Label: Sony BMG Length: 40 min Content: "Get Back" (Video Clip), "Playmate Of The Year" (Video Clip), "Into You" (Video Clip), "Into You" (Live Only Clip) and Japan Diary Footage.
The Show Must Go Off! Zebrahead Live At The House Of Blues Release date: May 4 2004 Label: Kung Fu Records Length: 85 min Content: Live show at the House Of Blues, Band Commentary, Bonus Footage, Multi-Angle Feature, Photo Gallery, Links and English/Japanese subtitles.
Blood, Sweat & Beers!!! Live In Tokyo, Japan August 8th 2004 Release date: September 13 2005 Label: Independent Release Length: N/A Content: Live show in Tokyo, Italian TV Footage, Slide Show, Japan 2001 Footage and Secret Features.
Broadcast to the World: THE FUCKING DVD Release date: December 16 2007 Label: Independent Release Length: N/A Content: Music videos from Broadcast To The World, live footage, and home movies.

External links

• Official Zebrahead Site
• Zebrahead's MySpace Profile
• MFZB.com - Official Zebrahead Online Community
• Postcards From Hell - A Zebrahead Blog
• Zebrahead.org Fansite
• Zebrahead's European SPV Page
• Jank 1000's MySpace Profile (Matty's Old Band)
• Official Zebrahead Street Team
• Order Phoenix now!

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