It's been scarcely two months since the release of their major label debut, Waste of Mind, and Zebrahead have already earned more comparisons to Rage Against the Machine than the total number of zebras on the Dark Continent. Less bombastic than Rage, and a lot less cranky, Zebrahead -- at this point, anyway -- are actually happy to be compared to anyone.

"There's been no shortage of Rage comparisons, but we've got no problem with that," says co-frontman Justin Mauriello ("Goldtoof" to his friends). "They've called us 'Rage crossed with the Offspring,' too. But we love all those bands, so it's okay. They could be saying a lot worse."

Based in Orange County, Calif., breeding ground for everyone from Agent Orange to Bad Religion, the members of Zebrahead were each playing in different bands when they first jammed together. Band member Ben Osmundson suggested bringing in Ali Tabatabaee, a high school friend whose rapping soon transformed Zebrahead from a nascent junior version of the Offspring to the funky, hard-edged hip-hop outfit they are today.

"Orange County is so saturated with pop-punk bands, and that's what all of our bands at the time were," Mauriello says. "We just wanted something different; you know, with rapping, with singing, with funk. Pretty soon we left our old bands and stuck with this one. It went really smooth, actually. We feel like we kind of have our niche now."

Soon after, Zebrahead struck a deal with small Orange County indie Dr. Dream that led to a self-titled release earlier this year and, eventually, a deal with Columbia Records. Their first single, "Get Back," and a brief stint on the Warped Tour have helped catapult Zebrahead into the modern rock radio Top 40. "In the last couple months it's been amazing," Mauriello says. "We'd go to cities where there were, like, two people who'd heard of us, and that was through the Internet or something, and now we [come back through town] and everyone's there, and they're singing along."

Besides making an appearance in the movie Clubland, the upcoming directorial debut from Alanis Morissette producer Glen Ballard, Zebrahead, who have been on the road since last May, will be touring at least through the end of 1999. The band will play supporting dates for Everlast, Goldfinger and Reel Big Fish before launching a planned headlining tour later next year. Their hard-to-pigeonhole, hard-rock-meets-alternative sound has enabled the band to open up for everyone from Sevendust to Cypress Hill to Harvey Danger over the past few months, something Mauriello says he still can't believe.

"When we started this band, we never expected to have anything like this happen," he says. "Just to hear our song on the radio is still amazing to us."

ALLISON STEWART
(December 18, 1998)