Cobra Starship
Cobra Starship |
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Cobra Starship is an American pop/synthpop band created by former Midtown bassist and lead vocalist Gabe Saporta in 2005 in New York City, New York. Other members are guitarist Ryland Blackinton, bassist Alex Suarez, drummer Nate Novarro, and keytarist Victoria Asher, all of whom provide backing vocals. The group released their debut album, While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets in 2006, which they followed with ¡Viva la Cobra! in 2007. They most recently released Hot Mess in 2009. The group is currently perhaps best known for their hit singles "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" and "Good Girls Go Bad".[1]
History
While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets (2006-2007)
Their first album, While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets, was released October 10, 2006. It featured the single "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", of which a video had been featured during the closing credits of the film Snakes on a Plane earlier that summer.
¡Viva La Cobra! (2007-2008)
Cobra Starship released their second album, ¡Viva La Cobra!, on October 23, 2007. It was produced by Patrick Stump, who was also credited as singing some backup vocals.[2]
The album has been toured heavily worldwide. Cobra headlined the Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking Tour with guests Metro Station, The Cab, and We The Kings from January to March, 2008. They also played on Warped Tour 2008 and headlined the SassyBack tour, which toured from October 7 through November 30, 2008, with guests Forever the Sickest Kids, Hit the Lights, and Sing it Loud!.
The album art for the ¡Viva La Cobra! album was used to promote the fourth generation Apple iPod nano in purple.
Hot Mess (2009-2010)
Following the success of Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl", Cobra Starship recorded their own cover version, "I Kissed a Boy", in summer 2008. The song was released on August 25, 2008, on Fall Out Boy's Citizens For Our Betterment mixtape Welcome To The New Administration. Cobra Starship is one of 9 artists who participated in thetruth.com’s Remix Project, where they remixed the Sunny Side song "Magical Amount".
Cobra Starship also began the "Believers Never Die (Part Deux)" tour in the beginning of April, opening for Fall Out Boy, with other bands All Time Low, Metro Station, and Hey Monday. They spent time performing many shows in the US mostly all in April and the beginning of May, however they also played a few shows in the UK at the end of May 2009, supported by Sing It Loud, Cash Cash, and UK band Mimi Soya.
In 2009, the band went to a cabin in Pennsylvania, in an attempt to produce new material. They broadcasted live throughout their stay on the live camera feed site Stickam, thus creating the Shelf Kids. After their stay, a new album was announced with a tentative release in the summer. The band worked with Kara DioGuardi, Kevin Rudolf, KarateE! Mouse, S*A*M, Sluggo, and song-writers Benny Blanco and Patrick Stump on Hot Mess.[3] Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester is featured on the song "Good Girls Go Bad", which is produced by Kevin Rudolf and co-written by Rudolf and Kara DioGuardi.[4] The song is the album's first single, and was added on iTunes on May 11 and available to listen to on the band's official MySpace page. Other songs include "Pete Wentz Is the Only Reason We're Famous", which has been released on their YouTube channel[5] and Bebo page. On May 8, the album title was confirmed as Hot Mess, with a release date of August 11. Guitarist Ryland Blackinton said of Hot Mess, "We just wanted to make music that was fun and kinda make people just forget about whatever shitty problem they might be having during the week."[6]
The band began its tour to promote the new album on August 3. The tour, called Hot Mess Across The US Tour, has 21 stops and features guests such as Friday Night Boys and DJ Skeet Skeet. After Plasticines dropped off the tour, Cobra Starship listed a number of candidate bands for the fans to vote for online in a blog; The Audition won.[7] On their official video podcast (CobraCam.tv), the band released humorous tentative titles for the album (which parodies several other notable albums) "Griller", "Tha Ryland III", and variations of their ¡Viva La Cobra! album.
They made a stop on the Warped Tour in 2009, playing in Salt Lake City, on August 8, 2009. In Fall 2009, they were signed on to Boys Like Girls' "Love Drunk Tour" along with The Maine and A Rocket to the Moon.
Cobra Starship played[8] at a September 11, 2009 MTV Video Music Awards weekend competition and pre-party at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. The competition was for The MTV "VMA Best Breakout New York City Artist Award", and took place before MTV Video Music Awards performers and in between performances from MTV Video Music Awards artists.[9]
On October 13, 2009, the band performed on the Jimmy Kimmel's outdoor stage.
Cobra Starship appeared at "Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2009" along with Mexican star Paulina Rubio performing Good Girls Go Bad and Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes. Cobra Starship and Paulina won an MTV Award for "Best Performance", for Good Girls Go Bad and Ni Rosas Ni Juguetes at the Los Premios MTV Latinoamérica 2009, voted by the public, beating other artist such as Shakira, Nelly Furtado, and Wisin y Yandel.
On February 4, 2010, Cobra Starship embarked on their first ever European tour named 'Hot Mess Across The EU-Niverse', which included the UK, Ireland, Germany, France and the Netherlands. When the tour ended on February 21, the band then travelled to Japan for a few shows, then onto Australia and New Zealand for the 'Wet Hot Australian Summer' Tour.
On February 5, 2010 it was announced that Cobra Starship and 3OH!3 would be embarking on a co-headlining tour called The Too Fast For Love Tour, opening acts were Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes's side project Travie McCoy and The Lazarus Project and I Fight Dragons. The tour ran from April 28 in Milwaukee, WI, until June 13 in Asbury Park, NJ.
In November 2010, Cobra Starship played in Argentina (November 20th) and São Paulo, Brazil (November 21st). The latter as a part of the Yes! Rock Fest, which also promotes a variety Brazilian bands.
Along 2010 the band collaborated with the UK singer Alexandra Burke in one of the songs of her debut album's Deluxe Edition, Overcome. The song is called What Happens On The Dancefloor, and keeps the vibe of their previous single Good Girls Go Bad.
Discography
Studio albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Indie | US Heat | CAN | AUS | NZ | ||
| 2006 | While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets
|
125 | 7 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 2007 | ¡Viva La Cobra!
|
80 | 19 | — | — | — | — |
| 2009 | Hot Mess
|
4 | — | — | 14 | 51 | 18 |
Singles
| Year | Single | Peak chart positions[10][11][12][13] | Album | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US Pop | US Alt. |
CAN | NZ | AUS | UK | |||
| 2006 | "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" (with William Beckett, Travis McCoy and Maja Ivarsson) |
— | — | 32 | — | — | — | — | While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets |
| "The Church of the Hot Addiction" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2007 | "Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You In Hell (Hey Mister DJ)" |
— | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "The City Is at War" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ¡Viva La Cobra! | |
| "Guilty Pleasure" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2008 | "Kiss My Sass" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
| 2009 | "Good Girls Go Bad" (with Leighton Meester) | 7 | 5 | — | 7 | 2 | 5 | 17 | Hot Mess |
| "Hot Mess" | 64 | 39 | — | 58 | 40 | — | 198 | ||
| 2010 | "Living in the Sky with Diamonds" | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |
Album appearances
References
- ^ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p822303/biography
- ^ Backstage Videos from the Honda Civic Tour 2007 Official Community
- ^ Montgomery, James (2009-04-15). "'American Idol' Judge Kara DioGuardi Working With Cobra Starship". MTV. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ Montgomery, James (2009-04-17). "Cobra Starship, Leighton Meester Collaborating On New Song". MTV. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ "cobra starship - pete wentz is the only reason we're famous". YouTube. 2009-04-01. Retrieved 2009-04-26.
- ^ nthWORD Magazine, Fall 2009
- ^ Buzznet.com
- ^ http://tickets.livenation.com/cgi-bin/tickets.htm?fun=tdetailb&doc=detailb&key=1592$8799&eid=412693&oid=463F7A3F5473F3F2C3F3F423F383E3618407E3F&fun=tdetailb&id=EC2_NO_SESSION&doc=detailb&key=1592$8799&affiliate=EC2&referer_info=412693
- ^ "About the Show". MTV. Retrieved 2007-08-29.
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=379&cfgn=Singles&cfn=The+Billboard+Hot+100&ci=3108611&cdi=10207852&cid=05%2F30%2F2009
- ^ http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/retrieve_chart_history.do?model.vnuArtistId=771248&model.vnuAlbumId=1203159
- ^ New Zealand Top 40 Singles Chart
- ^ [1]
External links
 | This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. (May 2010) |
- Official Website
- UK Street Team
- VivaLaCobra.org | The #1 Source For Everything Cobra Starship (FanSite)
- Spanish website
- Spanish forum
- ¡Viva La Cobra! - Brazilian fan site
- Cobra Starship at TuneArea
- Interview with Ryland Blackinton at SaintRockNRoll.com
- Ryland Blackinton's Interview at Armed&Ready
- Interview with PopZap
- Burning Stars Interview with Ryland - 2007
- Photos: Cobra Starship at the Pomona Glass House on 02/15/2008, part of The Really Really Ridiculously Good Looking Tour
- Single Review of: 'Good Girls Go Bad' - By SCORPIO PR & REVIEW
- Interview with nthWORD Magazine
- Cobra Starship Live at the Ayala Malls