Cobra bites music industry

Starship may have built this city on rock and roll,
but it’s Cobra Starship’s rattle that rules the streets.

by Joshua Maloni
Grand Island Dispatch, November 3, 2006
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, November 4, 2006

Cobra Starship

Everybody needs a muse; someone or something to draw inspiration from. For some people, revelation comes from beauty, or through art; for others, it’s found in music, or nature – something to ignite the creative spark.

For Cobra Starship’s commander, Gabe Saporta, it was an alien snake from the future that subdued him and then nursed him back to health.

True story. Well, sort of.

It was in the Arizona desert a few years back that Saporta was bitten by a cobra and crawled into a catatonic state. A week later, he says he awoke to find the snake patting his forehead and lecturing him on the state of music. It was at that moment that an idea hatched in Saporta’s slightly swollen, venom-filled head: Rock music should be stylish; it should slither and shake with the poise of a snake. It shouldn’t be shoe gazing.

So, Saporta returned to his life, formed Cobra Starship and took off on a quest to make the world a better place and slap whiny emo bands in the face.

“The people who get it, get it. And then some people are just like ‘What are you talking about?’ and say I say ‘That’s the story, man,’ ” Saporta said. “People understand it’s about having fun and they understand the mythology too, you know. Like any great thing, it had its mythology.”

What makes this story unbelievable is not its antagonist, a musically apt talking reptile. No, it’s that Saporta was actually still for a moment. The former Midtown frontman is a fast talker, faster singer and high-speed worker. In an interview this week, Saporta offered an hour’s worth of tape while talking for just 15 minutes about his band’s debut album “While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets,” a collection of material he put together in three weeks.

Cobra Starship’s brand of music has been described as “Wentzrock,” referring to Fall Out Boy bassist Pete Wentz, the founder of Decaydance, the label that signed Saporta. The sound is comprised of ultra-catchy dance hooks and hard rocking guitars. The style is sort of self-deprecating, poking fun at the music industry while crafting clever lyrics and applying funny song titles.

The thing is, clever can be a cover for creative. As Joan Jett says, a rock star is born, not formed. However, with Fall Out Boy first, and now Cobra Starship, clever taglines are simply an added bonus; the cherry that tops the mound of creamy vocals and rich guitar licks. In short, these bands make music that’s fun to listen to. “While the City Sleeps” sticks its fangs in you and, like some sort of hallucinogen, it compels outbreaks of singing and dancing.

“I just wanted to do something that had a lot of variety, and elements of other genres and a lot of pop culture references that somehow blended in together to become a new thing,” Saporta said.

Ironically, Cobra Starship received a lift from last summer’s campy cult movie classic “Snakes on a Plane.” Saporta was afforded the opportunity to fashion the film’s standout single, “Snakes on a Plane (Bring It),” and shoot a video with star Samuel L. Jackson. Saporta, who teamed with Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy and The Sounds singer Maja Ivarsson on the track, can be seen in the song’s music video, which just so happens to run over the film’s end credits.

The film’s success spurred Saporta to release the album sooner than later. That strategy worked: When “While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets” was released earlier this month, it debuted at No. 1 on the SoundScan Top New Artists chart, No. 1 on the Alternative New Artist chart and No. 7 on the Independent Artist chart.

“The movie was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” Saporta said. “It was an amazing launch pad.”

“The movie’s done well, and it’s put together well, but it’s like a bad movie,” he said. “It’s like self-conscious, in a way, because it’s making fun of that genre of movies. In that same way, Cobra Starship has the same kind of self-awareness, and self-deprecating sense of humor. But, at the same time, it’s like, it’s good music and it’s fun.”

“While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets” is in stores now. Visit www.cobrastarship.com.