Take It Easy

Gabe Saporta Doesn't Take Cobra Starship Seriously - Why Should You?

originally published March 21, 2007

With every ending comes a new beginning - when one band breaks up, another one forms. Fortunately, it didn’t take the break-up of once pop-punk torchbearer Midtown to spawn the creation of frontman Gabe Saporta’s side project Cobra Starship. With Midtown still officially a band, just one that’s on an indefinite hiatus, all it took was a trip out West.

“After the last Midtown tour, I kind of wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” says Saporta. “I wasn’t even sure if I still wanted to play music. So, I went out on this spiritual retreat in the desert, and I would meditate every night and go into these deep trances. One night, I was meditating, like staring up at the sky, and I had this epiphany about the universe and our connection to it. And in the middle of me staring up at the sky, I saw these lights and all of a sudden this cobra bites me right in the fucking neck.”

“Then I’m out in the desert for another week,” he continues, “basically hallucinating and on the brink of death from this venomous bite. When I wake up, the cobra is still there and he starts talking to me and he tells me that he’s a cobra sent from the future to find me and teach me how to dance. He taught me everything that I need to know out in the desert. He told me to go back home and start Cobra Starship.” One can easily see why many people don’t quite know what to make of Saporta. All they know is they dig the kid’s music. With Midtown, Saporta and company transitioned from pop-punk to genuine rock music, and with Cobra Starship, Saporta has made the leap to ridiculous electronic dance-pop. Driven by the desire to make music fun, he first started out with “Hollaback Boy,” a humorous rebuttal to Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl,” which initially received a polite reception from Stefani, but once Cobra Starship started getting some attention, was quickly met with a cease and desist order. Hesitantly obliging, Saporta removed the song from his MySpace page - “I don’t want to fight Gwen Stefani, dude”- but he no longer needed that song as his gimmick. By that time, Snakes on a Plane had already landed in his lap.

Joined by friends Travis McCoy (Gym Class Heroes), William Beckett (The Academy Is...) and Maja Ivarsson (The Sounds) on the track, Saporta penned “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)” which became the theme song for the movie. Even though the film was rather subpar - according to some - it’s essentially what put Cobra Starship on the map.

“[The movie] was ridiculous,” says Saporta. “But I think there couldn’t have been a better movie for us to get involved in, because the movie, from a cinematography point of view, is really well done. It looks great. And it’s funny. It really does scare you during certain points, but it’s completely ridiculous. It knows it’s ridiculous. It’s really over the top in a way and it kind of makes you feel like that if you get it, you’re in on a joke that other people don’t get. And if you don’t get it, you’re like, ‘What the fuck is this shit?’It’s the same thing with Cobra Starship. We’re over the top, we’re a lot of fun and we’re obnoxious and sassy, but at the same time, we’re laughing at ourselves. If you don’t understand that, you might think we’re assholes. But if you get that, you think it’s the funniest joke in the world.”

Anyone who has grown up with Midtown or who has heard Cobra Starship’s While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets should be totally accustomed to Saporta’s antics by now. After all, he describes his new band as a “sass attack” and poses with stuffed Gizmos (as in the film Gremlins ) for the liner notes of the new record. But push beyond the ridiculous arrogance and what lies beneath is a talented songwriter who has put together a collection of 11 fun, dancy tracks. While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets hits its high points energy-wise with the bubble gum pop track “Send My Love to the Dancefloor I’ll See You In Hell (Hey Mister DJ),” the electronic rock of “It’s Amateur Night at the Apollo Creed!” and the ode to his pop-punk days, “Pop-Punk Is Sooooo ‘05.”

Saporta’s pursuit of a good time has served Cobra Starship and its music well, resulting in light-hearted music that refuses to take itself seriously - and that no one else should take seriously, for that matter. It’s also been beneficial for Saporta’s soul. “With Cobra Starship, I get the feeling I used to get during the early days of Midtown,” he says. “When we first started Midtown, it was fun and lighthearted. We didn’t have to think about anything else except playing music and hanging out, having an adventure.”

Leah Weinberg

WHO: Cartel, Cobra Starship, Boys Like Girls, New Atlantic
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, March 23, 7 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $15