Zebrahead

Zebrahead is an Orange County, CA-based rap-punk band which was formed in 1996 by vocalist/guitarist Justin Mauriello (formerly of Once There), guitarist Greg Bergdorf (formerly of 409), bassist Ben Osmundson (formerly of 3-Ply), and drummer Ed Udhus (formerly of 409).

Inspired by acts including Fugazi and The Descendents, Zebrahead 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 Zebrahead .

After issuing the EP Yellow 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. Zebrahead’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, Zebrahead 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, and shortly afterwards lead singer/guitarist Mauriello exited Zebrahead to pursue other interests (namely start a new band I Hate Kate). His departure distressed Zebrahead fans, as the singing/rapping dynamic between him and Tabatabaee was crucial to Zebrahead's sound. However, Zebrahead was soon back in action with the addition of new vocalist/guitarist Matty Lewis (formerly of Jank 1000) to their lineup.

Zebrahead spent summer 2006 on the Warped Tour while their new album Broadcast to the World was released in Europe on July 3 through the German based record company SPV. The album which had come out in February of the same year in Japan, went gold in just over a month's time.

The rest of 2006 was spent touring Europe and the US as part of the Broadcast To The World tour.

In March 2007, Zebrahead announced they had started writing new songs while on tour. Later, a message was added on the tour page, saying that upon the end of the tour on July 1, Zebrahead would spend more time writing songs.

from Wikipedia licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.