Line #31 Music/ZebraheadBand


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/zebrahead_1.jpg]]
2
3	Zebrahead is a RapRock band 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
4
5	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.
6
7	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'' Music/SpiceGirls), and released a whole album of womens' pop covers, ''Panty Raid''.
8
9	----
10	!Members:
11	* Ali Tabatabaee - rapped vocals
12	* Ed Udhus - drums
13	* Ben Osmundson - bass
14	* Dan Palmer - lead guitar (2013-present)
15	* Adrian Estrella - clean vocals, rhythm guitar (2021-present)
16
17	!Former members:
18	* Justin Mauriello - clean vocals, rhythm guitar (1996-2004)
19	* Matty Lewis - clean vocals, rhythm guitar (2005-2021)
20	* Greg Bergdorf - lead guitar (1996-2013)
21
22	----
23	!This band's discography consists of:
24	* ''Zebrahead[=/=]Yellow[=/=]The Yellow Album'' (1998)
25	* ''Waste of Mind'' (1998)
26	* ''Playmate of the Year'' (2000)
27	* ''Stupid Fat Americans'' (2001; Japan exclusive)
28	* ''[[{{FunWithAcronyms}} MFZB]]'' (2003)
29	* ''Waste of MFZB'' (2004; Japan exclusive)
30	* ''Broadcast to the World'' (2006)
31	* ''Phoenix'' (2008)
32	* ''Panty Raid'' (2009)
33	* ''Not The New Album'' (2010; EP)
34	* ''Get Nice!'' (2011)
35	* ''Call Your Friends'' (2013)
36	* ''Way More Beer'' (2014)
37	* ''The Early Years – Revisited'' (2015)
38	* ''Walk the Plank'' (2015)
39	* ''The Bonus Brothers'' (2017)
40	* ''Brain Invaders'' (2019)
41	* ''Wanna Sell Your Soul?'' (2020; EP)
42	* ''Brain Invaders - Deluxe Goes Instrumental'' (2020)
43	* ''[=III=]'' (2021; EP)
44	* ''[=II=]'' (2023; EP)
45
46	----
47	!! This band provides examples of
48	* AWildRapperAppears: Averted, since Ali is actually a part of the band and the rapping is to be expected from their style.
49	* AntiLoveSong: A few, of different flavors, particularly "Enemy," and "Here's To You," and "Do Your Worst."
50	* AttractiveBentGender: Averted. Oh, dear gods [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6LLSgyd7Cw averted]].
51	** Although one or two members of the band have commented on how hot they thought Matty was as a girl.
52	* CoolShades: Courtesy of Ed, who wears them in almost every single music video.
53	* CoverVersion:
54	** "Wannabe" by the Music/SpiceGirls was covered on ''Waste of [=MFZB=]''.
55	** ''Panty Raid'' is an album of cover songs originally performed by female recording artists.
56	** "Ready Steady Go" by L'Arc-en-Ciel was covered as a Japan-exclusive bonus track for "Call Your Friends".
57	* TheCoverChangesTheGender: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] - All of ''Panty Raid'' leaves the lyrics the same.
58	* 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.
59	* DumpedViaTextMessage: How Matty left the band. The other members didn't take it well.
60	* FunWithAcronyms: MFZB means "Motherfucking Zebrahead, Bitches!"
61	* HotBlooded: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yb5P2dgcyU&feature=rec-LGOUT-real_rn-HM Hell Yeah!]]
62	* IntercourseWithYou: "Playmate of the Year" (The song, not the album that the song gives its title to.)
63	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Hoo boy, "Karma Flavored Whiskey." The song is like the soundtrack to beating the shit out of people.
64	* PowerOfFriendship: "Strength" is about this. "Hell Yeah!" also invokes it.
65	* 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.
66	* RearrangeTheSong:
67	** 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.
68	** ''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.
69	** ''Brain Invaders - Deluxe Goes Instrumental'' is (as the name suggests) the deluxe edition of ''Brain Invaders'', minus the vocal parts of the songs.
70	* SanitySlippageSong: "The Walking Dead" seems to be this.
71	* SelfTitledAlbum: Their first release, although these days it's better known as ''Yellow'' or ''The Yellow Album'' due to the album cover simply being bright yellow.
72	* ShoutOut:
73	** The aforementioned "Mike Dexter is a God..." is named after a character in ''Film/CantHardlyWait''.
74	** "We're Not a Cover Band, We're a Tribute Band", which aims to namecheck as many songs in VideoGame/GuitarHero III as possible.
75	* SomethingSomethingLeonardBernstein: "Song 10" is very heavily this, to a point that the members of the band say that the lyrics don't exist.
76	* 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]]''.
77	* 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.]]
78	* TakeOverTheWorld: The reason for the subject of "Broadcast to the World."

Context Music / ZebraheadBand