History Music / Zebrahead

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zebrahead_1.jpg]]

Zebrahead is a PunkRap group consisting of Ali Tabatabaee, Ed Udhus, Ben Osmundson, Dan Palmer, and Adrian Estrella providing a bizarre yet interesting mix of high-energy rock guitar and high-energy hip-hop style vocals. Over the years their style has evolved from a more funk hip-hop style in their early albums to a more refined hard rock sound, with rapping (usually by Ali, who as an actual rapper nicely makes his rapping flow with and transition to and from the non-rap vocals) mixed in. Former members include founding lead guitarist

Mostly unheard of in America, they're strangely popular in Japan. This was enough to warrant Ali and Matty being called on to perform the main theme to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', "His World", which (along with the rest of that game's soundtrack) is arguably the best thing about that game. They also came out with a full band remix of said song, which is arguably even cooler. (Music/{{Crush 40}} later made another version of "His World" as noted on their page.)

They also have a thing about singing womens' cover songs, as they released a cover of "Wannabe" (yes, ''that'' "Wannabe") by the Spice Girls (yeah, ''those'' Spice Girls), and released a whole album of womens' pop covers, ''Panty Raid''.

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!Members:
* Ali Tabatabaee - rapped vocals
* Ed Udhus - drums
* Ben Osmundson - bass
* Dan Palmer - lead guitar (2013-present)
* Adrian Estrella - clean vocals, rhythm guitar (2021-present)

!Former members:
* Justin Mauriello - clean vocals, rhythm guitar (1996-2004)
* Matty Lewis - clean vocals, rhythm guitar (2005-2021)
* Greg Bergdorf - lead guitar (1996-2013)

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!This band's discography consists of:
* ''Yellow'' (1998)
* ''Waste of Mind'' (1998)
* ''Playmate of the Year'' (2000)
* ''[[{{FunWithAcronyms}} MFZB]]'' (2003): Also note that this is when the band began to shift in a more rock-oriented direction.
* ''Waste of MFZB'' (2004)
* ''Broadcast to the World'' (2006)
* ''Phoenix'' (2008)
* ''Panty Raid'' (2009), consisting of covers of women's pop songs.
* ''Get Nice!'' (2011)
* ''Call Your Friends'' (2013)
* ''The Early Years – Revisited'' (2015), consisting of re-recordings of songs from ''Waste of Mind'' to ''MFZB''.
* ''Walk the Plank'' (2015)
* ''The Bonus Brothers'' (2017), consisting of Japan-exclusive bonus tracks from ''Broadcast to the World'' to ''Walk the Plank''.
* ''Brain Invaders'' (2019)
* ''[=II=]'' (2023)

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!! This band provides examples of
* AWildRapperAppears: Averted, since Ali is actually a part of the band and the rapping is to be expected from their style.
* AntiLoveSong: A few, of different flavors, particularly "Enemy," and "Here's To You," and "Do Your Worst."
* AttractiveBentGender: Averted. Oh, dear gods [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6LLSgyd7Cw averted]].
** Although one or two members of the band have commented on how hot they thought Matty was as a girl.
* CoolShades: Courtesy of Ed, who wears them in almost every single music video.
* TheCoverChangesTheGender: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] - All of ''Panty Raid'' leaves the lyrics the same.
* DissonantSerenity: "Mental Health". Ali seems crazy through most of the song in the lyrics (About a patient in a mental hospital), and when Matty's lyrics come in he sings 'All I want is to go home, just for a bit...but these padded rooms are the shit!'. Moment of clarity, then back to the nut farm.
* DumpedViaTextMessage: How Matty left the band. The other members didn't take it well.
* FunWithAcronyms: MFZB means "Motherfucking Zebrahead, Bitches!"
* HotBlooded: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yb5P2dgcyU&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rn-HM Hell Yeah!]]
* IntercourseWithYou: "Playmate of the Year" (The song, not the album that the song gives its title to.)
* LongTitle: There are a few of these. Special awards to "Mike Dexter Is a God, Mike Dexter Is a Role Model, Mike Dexter Is an Asshole".
* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Hoo boy, "Karma Flavored Whiskey." The song is like the soundtrack to beating the shit out of people.
* PowerOfFriendship: "Strength" is about this. "Hell Yeah!" also invokes it.
* PunkRap[=/=]RapRock: As mentioned above, the rock part became emphasized more starting with ''MFZB''. Of course, the combination of rapping and rock instruments has always been their style.
* RearrangeTheSong:
** After Matty and Ali were approached by SEGA to provide vocals to "His World" - the main theme of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' - the band would go on to record their own arrangement of the song.
** ''The Early Years - Revisited'' saw the band re-record a number of songs from their first three albums, with Matty singing all of the parts originally sang by Justin.
* SanitySlippageSong: "The Walking Dead" seems to be this.
* SelfTitledAlbum: "Yellow" was actually a self-titled album initially, but the cover was just bright... yellow.
* ShoutOut:
** The aforementioned "Mike Dexter is a God..." is named after a character in ''Film/CantHardlyWait''.
** "We're Not a Cover Band, We're a Tribute Band", which aims to namecheck as many songs in VideoGame/GuitarHero III as possible.
* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: "Song 10" is very heavily this, to a point that the members of the band say that the lyrics don't exist.
* SongOfSongTitles: The choruses of "We're Not a Cover Band, We're a Tribute Band" reference the titles of several songs featured in, of all places, ''[[VideoGame/GuitarHero Guitar Hero III: Warriors of Rock]]''.
* SophisticatedAsHell: Ali seems fond of this. Brixton makes use of the word "rhetoric," for starters, and several of their songs tackle major social issues by Ali basically screaming a combination of [[LikeASimile clever analogies]] and [[ClusterFBomb cusswords.]]
* TakeOverTheWorld: The reason for the subject of "Broadcast to the World."
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This band provides examples of:

Mostly unheard of in America, they're strangely popular in Japan. This was enough to warrant Ali and Matty being called on to perform the main theme to ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', "His World", which (along with the rest of that game's soundtrack) is arguably the best thing about that game. They also came out with a full band remix of said song, which is [[UpToEleven arguably even cooler]]. (Music/{{Crush 40}} later made another version of "His World" as noted on their page.)

** After Matty and Ali were approached by SEGA to provide vocals to "His World" - the main theme of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' - the band go on to record their own arrangement of the song.