Ah, Cobra Starship. Synth-pop, alternative-ish stuff, for those who don't know who they are. I love them. A lot. Cobra were one of the first bands I started listening to when I really started getting in to music of a more alternative nature. My sister recommended them and I just about fell in love as soon as I heard their cover of I Kissed A Girl (renamed to I Kissed A Boy).
There's something wonderful about Cobra Starship. They make music with alternative leanings, but it's still pop enough to appeal to the mainstream. It's music that makes you smile and makes you get up and move. They're not afraid to be silly, either. All in all, it's just wonderfully danceable music.
But, up until early last year, they could still couldn't be counted as mainstream. Pop-influenced, yes, but the mainstream hadn't really got hold of them. That changed with the release of their latest album, Hot Mess, and its lead single, Good Girls Go Bad. I can but presume that some of this sudden jump into the mainstream was due to the fact that Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl fame provided guest vocals on Good Girls Go Bad. Gossip Girl appears to be quite ridiculously popular, so I'm guessing a load of fans of the show decided to check the song out. Obviously, I'm not sure, but I think it's a reasonable assumption. What I do know is that all of a sudden, people knew who Cobra were. A friend of mine who'd never shown any interest in the band before asked me if I had the single. I told him no, because I was waiting for the album and asked him what he knew of the band. He told me he'd only heard Good Girls Go Bad because it was on Radio 1. I asked if he'd heard any of their other tracks and he said no. Now, it might just be me, but if I hear a track by a band or artist and I like it, I check out some of their other work, on the basis that if I do, I'll buy an album instead because it's better value. Very rarely do I just buy a single track. Anyway, getting side-tracked.
My friend's request should really have alerted me to what was going to happen when Cobra hit the mainstream. Oh yes. Suddenly, Cobra are popular. Cobra are cool. Therefore, it makes you cool to like Cobra. The dreaded scenies. I will clarify, because I know scenies means different things to different people. To me, scenies are those people who like a band/artist simply because they're cool/popular/their friends like them. It is possible for scenies to like a band because the band is awesome, but in my definition, this tends to come as an after-effect.
Now, I have no problem with bands that I like becoming popular. Good on them. It's great that Cobra Starship are enjoying more success. I dislike that in this case, I suspect that the success is due less to the fact that they're an amazing band and more to the fact that they had a popular actress do guest vocals on the single. I love Hot Mess, the most recent album, but in my opinion it wasn't as good as the first two. This is unusual for me - normally I can see the progression in band's album and either rate them better or at least equal to previous efforts. I can't help but think that this is because, to me, the album seems to be aimed at the mainstream. Aside from Leighton Meester's appearance on Good Girls Go Bad, there's also B.o.B's appearance on The World Will Never Do and Flo Rida on a remix of GGGB. The whole thing seems geared to a wider, chart-loving audience. The music itself is good, still very obviously Cobra Starship, but it seems to be lacking something from the first two albums.
I finally got the chance to see them live in February this year. I took my friend Claire as a Christmas/birthday present for her and we loved it. Amazing gig. So much energy, from the band and from the crowd and a set with a good proportion of older tracks. And that caused something that really made me smirk. They played The Church Of Hot Addiction and I swear a huge portion of the crowd simply stopped singing along. A little in the voice in the back of my head started chanting "Scenie scenie scenie". I was so...amused, let's say. Not happy, because it upsets me that people don't check out bands' older album material. But amused covers it nicely.
We got to see them afterwards too. It was Claire's first gig and she wanted her shirt signing, so we toddled round to wait for them to come out. I was tired, my feet were in pain from my Doc Martens and I had an early train to catch the next day, so I really wasn't too keen on hanging around for ages. Plus, I have a phobia of crowds. I can cope with gigs because I get lost in the music, but just hanging around in a small crowd waiting for the band to emerge was really pushing it. So when the band finally came out, Claire turns to me, asks if I'm OK, to which I reply no and she says, I know what'll make it better - look, there's Ryland. That made me smile. What really made me smile though, was when Gabe Saporta, the vocalist, turned up. There he is, going round, signing stuff, hugging people, taking photos, telling people he's drinking man beer when in fact it's some sort of lager. I'm trying to get out of the mass of people because I'm pretty close to having some sort of panic attack at this point and Gabe sees me and says "I'm sorry, did I miss you?". Oh, how my inner fangirl reacted to that. Half my brain managed to form the lovely coherent sentence of "No, I'm fine thanks" and the other half started screaming "OHMYGODGABESAPORTASPOKETOME". The result of this was that instead of actually saying "No, I'm fine thanks" it came out as a sort of strangled squeak. Embarrassment at the time, hilarious afterwards.
Anyways, moving on. I love Cobra Starship. They make me smile, they cheer me up when I'm down and they make me dance. For those wonderful feelings, I can put up with the scenies. So, check 'em out, let me know what you think and pass it on.
Assorted Cobra Starship links:
Official Site
MySpace
Last.FM
Recommended tracks (album):
The Church Of Hot Addiction, Pop-Punk Is Sooooo '05, You Can't Be Missed If You Never Go Away (from While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets)
Guilty Pleasure, One Day Robots Will Cry, The World Has Its Shine, Smile For The Paparazzi, Prostitution Is The World's Oldest Profession (And I, Dear Madame, Am A Professional) (from Viva La Cobra)
Nice Guys Finish Last, Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We're Famous, Hot Mess, New Edition (b-side), The Scene Is Dead - Long Live The Scene (from Hot Mess)
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