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Cobra Starship Stream New Album “Night Shades”

August 24, 2011 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Cobra Starship

Cobra StarshipCobra Starship are streaming their new album, Night Shades, on their Facebook page. The album is due out this Tuesday, August 29th. Special pre-order packages for Night Shades are available on the bands webstore.

Cobra Starship’s single “[itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/middle-finger-feat.-mac-miller/id455863620?uo=4″ title=”Cobra Starship-Middle Finger” text=”Middle Finger”]” is available on iTunes now. The band has also released an [itunes link=”http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hot-mess-itunes-session/id456470385?uo=4″ title=”Cobra Starship-iTunes Session – EP” text=”iTunes Session EP”] this week as well.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship – Hot Mess

September 3, 2009 By Max Specht 2 Comments

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Artist: Cobra Starship
Album: Hot Mess
Label: Decaydance Records
Purchase: Amazon
Release Date: August 11th, 2009

Overall: 7
Music: 7
Lyrics: 5.5
Production: 8

Cobra Starship have been on their way to becoming what they are for a while now, so it should come to no one as a surprise that their third album titled Hot Mess is a melting pot of electronically layered pop-punk with lots of attitude and neon. While this album will garner so much hate it is unprecedented by any other band in the scene with such a career, it is still an album that has its moments and shines through at just the right times.

Unfortunately there’s no excuse to make a song like “Nice Guys Finish Last” passable as a legitimate Cobra Starship tune (especially the opener), it leads the album off on a bad foot as it sounds like a rejected Britney Spears song (Blackout, not Circus…). Already one might be contemplating their purchase of the album.

The aforementioned track is probably the only one that really brings Hot Mess down to any bad level. The rest of the tracks are either great, good, or just kind of a letdown. Nothing else really screams terrible or bad. Songs like “Pete Wentz Is The Only Reason We’re Famous” and “Move Like Your Gonna Die” pay tribute to the sounds of their debut and sophomore album (more guitar and fast pacing) that make them shine on an album filled with electronic beats.

But the songs that do rock with a more mechanical song are also good. The falsetto led chorus of “Living In The Sky With Diamonds” feels good and dances along at a nice pace (also with probably the best lyrics on the album), and “Hot Mess” is anthemic in nature and really calls for some hardcore chanting at the chorus (don’t pay attention to the use of the word “boo” though).

It seems that Cobra Starship are genuinely happy with where they are at in music. And it just so happens that they are reaping the benefits with the lead single “Good Girls Go Bad” being played on radio stations nation wide. It’s good to see Gabe Saporta finally getting the attention he deserves, he’s come this far and the mainstream is his to call home now. While the lyrics aren’t really up to snuff most of the time, and the music can be overly obnoxious, it’s a fun record with catchy songs and a good time to be had.

Filed Under: Album, Reviews Tagged With: atlantic-records, Cobra Starship, Decaydance, Fueled By Ramen, Gabe-Saporta, hot-mess

Cobora Starship Post “Good Girls Go Bad” Video

June 29, 2009 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Cobra Starship are streaming their new video for “Good Girls Go Bad” which you can check out below. The song comes from the bands new album, Hot Mess, due out August 11th.

Filed Under: News, Videos Tagged With: Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship Post New Song

May 10, 2009 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Cobra Starship’s new song “Good Girls Go Bad” can be heard here. The song is off the bands new album, Hot Mess,  due out August 11th.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Cobra Starship

New Cobra Starship Single Hits Radio

May 7, 2009 By Max Specht Leave a Comment

According to Decaydance’s twitter, Ryan Seacrest will be premiering Cobra Starship’s newest single “Good Girls Go Bad (featuring Leighton Meester)” tomorow morning on his radio show. For listings on where to hear the show click here.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Cobra Starship, Decaydance

Sing It Loud, Cobra Starship, & Forever The Sickest Kids Photos

November 24, 2008 By Tamlyn Koga 1 Comment

Sing It Loud

Photos of Sing It Loud, Cobra Starship, and Forever The Sickest Kids can now be seen in Driven Far Off’s photos section. These photos were taken at the Fillmore, San Francisco on October 29, 2008. Also be sure to take a look at new photos from the All Time Low, Mayday Parade, The Maine, and Every Avenue concert here.

Filed Under: News, Photos Tagged With: Cobra Starship, Forever The Sickest Kids, Sing It Loud

Fall Out Boy Announce New Album Release Date

August 26, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Fall Out Boy have announced their upcoming album, Folie A Deux, will be released on November 4th, 2008. The band has posted a new mixtape available for free download on friendsorenemies.com/falloutboy featuring brand new songs from Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is…, The Cab, Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship, Panic At The Disco, The Hush Sound and A Rocket To The Moon.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: A Rocket To The Moon, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Panic! At The Disco, The Academy Is..., The-Cab, The-Hush-Sound

Cobra Starship Interview – June 13th, 2008

June 16, 2008 By Chloe 1 Comment


After braving a flood and grid-lock traffic that caused them to arrive two hours late to their concert, Cobra Starship still found time to conduct an interview with Driven Far Off. I was lucky enough to sit down with the genial and articulate guitar and keyboard player, Ryland Blackinton (far left in picture), at the Picador in Iowa City, IA, and ask him a few questions.

A huge thanks goes out to Kelly McWilliam of Atlantic Records, Dan Lipski, and Ryland Blackinton for making this interview happen.

– How did you and the others get involved in the band?

R: Alex and I went to high school together in Florida, and we had our own band together that Gabe came to see a couple of times on a recommendation from his old drummer Rob Hitt, who lives downstairs from Alex, and he asked us to join.

– Did you always aspire to be in a band, or when did it become a goal?

R: It just happened by accident. I’ve always been a musician, but I never wanted to be in a band professionally. I never really thought it was very practical or realistic-I still don’t-but somehow it worked out. So I’m just very fortunate and I feel very thankful that it has worked out for me thus far. I always wanted to be an actor; I wanted to do movies.

– You guys released your most recent album, ¡Viva La Cobra!, at the end of last year. How does that album differ from the previous one?

R: The record before was one that Gabe did by himself with some producers, and even though there were some really good songs on that one, he was working under a deadline and had to do it very quickly. We, however, were able to spend a lot of time on tour as a band writing ¡Viva La Cobra!, and I think the songs are little bit more diverse, and there’s a wider spectrum on the album in terms of the sound of the songs, which sounds different to me.

– What is the process for writing the lyrics and melodies?

R: Gabe does the lyrics for the most part and melodies, and we split up the duties for the music amongst us.

– Who or where do you draw your inspiration from?

R: Other music inspires me. I like Ratatat a lot, and for writing and stuff as well we’re really influenced by Chromeo and Justice and Cassius; bands like that. We’re big fans of that kind of music so that’s usually a reference point for us.

– What is the main theme running throughout your music?

R: Well, we like to have a lot of fun when we play, so we try to make songs that will be fun for us to play on stage, so I guess fun would be the theme. We take into consideration what it’s going to be like to play songs live when we write them, and that’s a big part of our edict in terms of song writing.

– Your music reaches out to a wide audience; do you ever have any fans that surprise you in terms of their demographics?

R: Yeah, absolutely. Last night a 46 year old couple wanted an autograph on a t-shirt, and I thought that was really cool. I think it’s interesting the way that obviously young kids like it, but also their moms like to like, work out to it and be like, “I was on the treadmill for two hours listening to your record, and I loved it!” If our music helps you lose a few pounds, I think that’s pretty cool too; stay in shape. That’s what we do.

– What emotions do you hope the band’s music evokes in fans?

R: A sort of frivolity; we hope that they feel like it’s not too serious, because we don’t take it too seriously. So hopefully if someone’s having a really emotionally heavy, serious week, they can listen to something really fluffy and lighthearted like our music and it will maybe give them new perspective. Maybe they will forget their problems for a little while, hopefully. That’s ambitious, but maybe.

– Are you working on any side projects currently?

R:  Yeah, Alex and I are in a band called This is Ivy League.

– Do you find it difficult to divide the time between both bands?

R: Yeah, it can be tough, but we’ve already been able to have two releases; we just released a record in April. The only thing that we’re not able to do, unfortunately, is tour as extensively with Ivy League as we do with Cobra, but it hasn’t been a hindrance thus far. We know that eventually we will have an opportunity to tour, and when we do, we will.

– Who came up with the Cobra fangs up gang sign?

R: It was Gabe. Gabe had the bright idea of having some sort of a gang sign that lets everybody know that they are a member. It catches on because it’s good to have a signal, I think. It’s like Jay-Z’s “throw your diamonds up” type of thing, except not that gangsta, sorry. That’s where the idea came from though.

– Music-wise, what do you hope to accomplish within the next few years.

R: Just to continue to make music and continue to tour is really a blessing to me and to the rest of us as well. I don’t think we have any real solid goals; we’re not trying to take over the world. We’re just trying to continue to write music that is fun and people can dance to and it’s catching on. We’ve been openers for a lot of other bands, and to see their fans come and become our fans is a really cool thing. So hopefully just to continue to make fans and to continue to tour.

– What do you find the most challenging aspect of being on tour?

R: I like to shower a lot; I love hygiene. I like to smell nice; not be too greasy. So that’s a problem because we don’t have opportunities to shower very often, and sometimes we play a show and it’s hot, and you’re sweating, and you just have to deal with it. It’s really gross. I also bore pretty easily. There’s a lot of downtime, and sometimes I just get really anxious. So that’s the only tough thing for me, but I just got some gear and a new computer-my new Mac-and that’s keeping me pretty occupied.

– Is it difficult being in small living quarters with the same people everyday?

R: It’s not difficult; it can get dicey sometimes. You can put two of the best friends ever in a room for three months without giving them the chance to go anywhere else, and there’s probably going to be some menial conflicts, nothing too serious, but every once in a while we just need to do our own thing. We all get along really well; we’ve never had any big fights.

– Is there anything else you would like to add?

R: I was going to give a shout out for all the people that got flooded today. On the way in we got to see all of the devastation and how bad the flooding really was, we’d heard about it on the news but we didn’t really get the scope of it until we were stuck in traffic. I just want to say that everyone that had property damage, and people at the venue here that had to go and help their parents bail water out, my family is from New Orleans and they had to go do stuff like that, so my heart goes out to them. I hope that everything is reconstructed quickly and everything is cleaned up. We might get stuck here tonight, so we may be getting on our water boots, get some floaties, and helping people out.

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Cobra Starship, Ryland-Blackinton, This is Ivy League, Viva La Cobra

All Time Low Co-Headlines Tour

April 17, 2008 By A. Renteria Leave a Comment

All Time Low has just announced an upcoming UK co-headlining tour with Cobra Starship. In addition, the band has released their run on this summer’s Vans Warped Tour. All Time Low is currently co-headlining the Rockstar/Alternative Press tour alongside The Rocket Summer, with Sonny, The Matches and Forever The Sickest Kids.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: All Time Low, Cobra Starship

Cobra Starship Appologies For Conan Performance

April 8, 2008 By Bryce Jacobson Leave a Comment

Cobra Starship has apologized for their recent performance on Conan O’Brian for being a bit lackluster. Check out a message from Gabe below.

 i dont always suck at singing

…only when i’m on national TV.

i felt much better about myself after watching this vid from when we dropped by the purevolume studios earlier this year.

but seriously, conan was a blast. nerve-wrackin, but a blast.
my dad was in the audience and kept calling me that day to tell me how amazing it was.
then he called me the next day after watching tv and said (insert thick Uruguayan accent), “you know, gabriel, i not know what eet ees–maybe is beecause dee sound does not come right thru thee television, but the show deed no do justice to how grait it reely was meng. ”

i told my dad that it’s cool because every band sounds like shit on conan. but the truth is that i was nervous as shit. and ryland’s amp broke right at the end of soundcheck. they got us a new amp during taping, and told us we could have a few minutes to check it during commerical. but then, we got on stage and they’re like “you’re on in 5, 4, 3, – GO!” As if we weren’t nervous enough! what fucked me the most is that Ryland usually gives me the first chord before the song starts so i can hear the pitch. but we didn’t get to do that and i came in blind and went sharp. on top of that , playing conan isnt like playing Kimmel, where you have a real audience standing just a few feet from you. here the cameras were all in front of us and there were people sitting in the studio like 200 hundred feet away. just sitting. not moving. so surreal. felt like we were in a fish tank. … if it sounded like i was screaming a lot, its because i was. that just happens sometimes i’m nervous. some people poop their pants; i get really loud.

i could go on, but these are all things that i’ve thought of after the fact, and really just to make myself feel better about doing a shitty job singing.

the truth is, i was just so psyched to finally play on conan and to just be there that i didn’t give a shit about anything but rockin out. which is why we looked so damn good… which at the end of the day is WAYYY more important than singing 😉

thanks to anyone who got our backs on the boards. every band is allowed to blow it from time to time. at least when we blow it, we still look sweet.

speaking of looking sweet, i gotta get some beauty rest–i got prom tomorrow!
xoxox
gabe

Filed Under: News, Videos Tagged With: Cobra Starship

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