| CD REVIEW Zebrahead |
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Band : Zebrahead Would you believe I wasn't even aware of the existence of this Orange County (California) based Pop Punk/ RapCore band before this album arrived at the Concrete Web offices? And them having been around since 1996 and having brought us 4 previous full-length albums already! Formed at La Hambra by former Once There's Justin Mauriello (vocals, guitar), former 409's Greg Berghof (guitar), former 3-Ply's Ben Osmundson (bass) and drummer Ed Udhus (also ex-409) as a direct result of their bands rehearsing at the common practice space at the same time, and these four experimenting together with different sounds (in contrast to the Ska Punk sounds which were the local trend, the four felt inspired by such slightly Progressive acts as Fugaziand The Descendents, to which they started incorporating Hip Hop elements), which made 'em become close friends. Deciding they wanted to explore new musical avenues together, the four quit their previous bands and didn't even look back! To expand on the Hip Hop elements in their music, the four eventually invited rapper Ali Tabatabaee to join 'em. Issuing the self-titled 10-track debut EP on indie imprint Dr. Dream Records in May 1998, the guys impressed enough to get signed to major label Virgin, who released the full-length Waste Of Mind later that same year through their sub-label Columbia later that year. The album was also released with two bonus tracks in Japan, where the band would gradually grow a rather big following. Sophomore album Playmate Of The Year arrived in 2000, and was again issued in Japan with two bonus tracks. Such was the Japanese success that in 2001 a 7-track, Japan only, EP titled Stupid Fat Americans was issued (through Sony). Of course Europe wasn't forgotten, the band doing a tour with Green Day and playing several festivals. Third full-length MFSB (short for "Mother Fucking Zebrahead Bitch") came in 2003, and was heavily promoted in Japan with headlining tours and several festival appearances (among which Summer Sonic Festival and Punkspring), and as a result the album soon went gold in Japan. A further Japan-only EP (the 10-track Waste Of MFSB) was issued during 2004, which certainly helped to keep the guys a hot item in the country of the rising sun. Returning from their 2004 Japan tour, Zebrahead fans were distressed when frontman Justin Mauriello announced his departure from the band in order to pursue other interests. However, that same month Jank 1000's singer/ guitarist Matt Lewis was contacted by the band's mutual manager and invited to go do an audition. The other members of the band were (deservedly) impressed, and Matty did his introductionary show on March 12, 2005. The release of the band's 4th full-length Broadcast To The World has a bit of a weird story to it, as it was first released on February 22, 2006 in Bulgeria (where it went gold in just over a month). In Europe the album was released through Germany's SPV on July 3 (after the band had toured the UK and Europe in June, after which the band spent the Summer touring on the Vans Warped tour in the States), and in North America the album finally saw the light of day in late October through new label Icon Mes. The guys then continued promoting the album in Europe and the US by touring on both continents during most of what remained of 2006. In March 2007 the band took two months off from their busy touring schedule to start the writing process of the current album, returning to Europe to tour (both as headliners in the UK and co-headlining with MxPx on the continent) in May. After completing a US tour with Bullets And Octane in support of Unwritten Law during June and July, the guys returned home to write some more material for the album (which originally had a release date planned for February 2008), but in October they were back on UK soil as part of the annual Get Happy Tour (which also featured Army Of Freshmen, Bowling For Soup, and The Bloodhound Gang). Zebrahead then returned home to continue their writing process, eventually laying down demos which got imput from Jason Freese of Green Day fame. Which means that it was March 2008 when the quintet finally stepped into the studio to do the actual recording of 18 songs for this album. Two of those (the bonus tracks for Japan) were recorded with Howard Benson, producer of their first two full-lengths, the rest with Cameron Webb (who became their steady producer from the third album on, including the material for the Japanese EPs). That same month, at the demand of the fans who were complaining about the band's long silence, the band started posting video clips to give an insight into the making of the new record. In the long wait towards the album's release, the band announced that the album's first single (for which a video was directed by Pandaworks' Elliott Dillman)would be Mental Health, the guys came back over to the UK and Europe for a headline tour (and play some festivals) during June (playing several songs from the upcoming album), and on July 8th a 3-track EP (including the track "Mental Health" and two non-album songs...hum, that actually makes 20 recorded songs for this session, doesn't it?) entitled Not The New Album was made available through iTunes in the USA (still only in the US, but news is that the EP would be made available in other formats for non-US residents some time in the future). Which...finally...brings me to the wonderfully lunatic music of these crazy Californians! Opening the album you'll find "HMP" goin' at high velocity like as if the guys were on amphetamines! Things start with truly catchy rhythm guitars, backed by a Rock solid rhythm section. On top of that, the other guitarist is constantly bringing heavenly leads and solos with a somewhat Progressive character (would have to be, with the aforementioned influences, right?) and over it all you'll find Matty and Ali bringing an equally wacky vocal soundscape which sees the guys changing vocal stylings like starlets change gloves. And, just like the gloves will fit the starlet at all occasions, so do the vocal style changes (from exhilerating clean or rapped leads with harmonizing backing to rapped with the one complementing/ completing the other's rap of singing) fit the boys! The "amphetamine" factor goes for the biggest part of the album, but there's also a cpouple of calmer, or rather: slower paced, moments, like the solo guitar passage in "Mental Health", and the Ska-influenced "Mike Dexter Is God, Mike Dexter Is A Role Model, Mike Dexter Is An A**hole" (and if you're wondering whom Mike Dexter might be, so did I...and so I looked it up: apparently he's a character, played by Peter Facinelli in the 1998 romantic teen comedy movie Can't Hardly Wait, which stars Jennifer Love Hewitt). For a moment there when I first heard the opening of the album's second song "Hell Yeah", I had a suspicion of the band possibly stealing that very awkward but-oh-so-catchy riff from another band...untill I realized that I'd most definitely probably heard the song on the radio alarm during my short vacation at the end of July/ beginning of August...I mean, that riff is só special, one would recognize it even after having heard it only once in the waking unconciousness I might've been in at the time, you know! You know something, rather than me trying to explain to you what this band sounds like (which is a semi-impossible task without using rather specific musical terms and without going into the material song-by-song), I prefer to direct you to myspace.com/zebrahead, where you can listen to no less than 5 different songs by the band (one comes in two versions), of which two even come from the new album (and let's not forget the new video that's posted as well as the other videos you'll be able to view thanks to a link)! If you're rather make your acquaintance with the band in live conditions, know that they've just come back from Japan in early August, and have started a US tour (on August 15) which will take 'em til Sept. 17 to finish. After that the guys return to Europe in Late November (Belgium, go to Ancienne Belgique on Nov. 3), and towards the end of November the're flying over to Japan for yet another extensive tour over there! That's it for now from me, except I still have to announce my adding of Phoenix into that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine 98/100 Tony. |