Line #29 Music/CobraStarship


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cobrastarship_group.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:From left to right: Nate Navarro, Ryland Blackinton, Gabe Saporta, Alex Suarez, and Victoria Asher.]]
3	->''I came here to make you dance tonight''\
4	''I don't care about my guilty pleasure for you''\
5	-- "Guilty Pleasure"
6
7	Originally created in 2006 by Gabe Saporta (vocalist/writer), formerly of the band Midtown, under the Decaydance label owned by [[Music/FallOutBoy Pete Wentz]], this is a band that featured Travis [=McCoy=] of Music/GymClassHeroes, William Beckett of Music/TheAcademyIs, and Maja Ivarsson of The Sounds for the band's first song, "Snakes on a Plane" for the movie...''Film/SnakesOnAPlane''.
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9	The film's title, in fact, is the source of the band's name: "Cobra Starship" is a play on '''''Snakes''''' ''on a'' '''''Plane'''''.
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11	Former members include Gabe Saporta (vocals), Ryland Blackington (guitar), Alex Suarez (bass), Nate Novarro (drums), and Victoria Asher (keytar). In 2014, Alex and Ryland left the band and were replaced by Andy Barr (guitar) and Eric "Halvo" Halvorsen (bass). Only a year later, on November 10th, 2015, the band announced their official break-up. They had four albums:
12	* ''While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets'' (2006)
13	* ''¡Viva La Cobra!'' (2007)
14	* ''Hot Mess'' (2009)
15	* '' Night Shades'' (2011)
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17	Hits included the aforementioned "Snakes on a Plane", "Guilty Pleasure", "Good Girls Go Bad", and "You Make Me Feel...". Notable for their music essentially being sarcasm set to a dance beat, and for being ridiculously tall[[note]]Gabe, Alex, and Ryland are all above 6' (6'4", 6'2", and 6'6", respectively,) and Victoria (5'10") and Nate (slightly shorter than Victoria) aren't that far behind. Compare this to the aforementioned Pete Wentz, who comes in at about 5'6", which is also just about the average height of Decaydance musicians.[[/note]]. They were often grouped as part of the "Fueled By Five" (five bands from their label, Creator/FueledByRamen), which also includes Music/FallOutBoy, Music/PanicAtTheDisco, Music/TheAcademyIs, and Music/GymClassHeroes.
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19	Nothing to do with TheSeventies arena rock band Music/JeffersonStarship or their pop rock successor from TheEighties Music/{{Starship}}.
20
21	----
22	!!Tropes applying to the band:
23	* CatchPhrase: Fangs up! Also, "Let's get wasted!" in Cobra Cam.tv, to the point where it became kind of a running gag.
24	* CunningLinguist: Alex, who managed to pick up the basics of the Indonesian language in three days, though his earlier attempts to tweet in it were [[MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels rather unsuccessful]].
25	* FauxYay: Loads of it. Gabe tends to be touchy-feely with his male label mates. [[http://i27.tinypic.com/a2w0na.png Or any male from another band, really.]] Also has plenty of stage gay with said [[http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l5phnbw6X71qcf6i2o1_400.jpg label boss]], to the delight of fans, and tons with William Beckett of The Academy Is... Alex and Nate tend to be rather affectionate towards each other as well.
26	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Gabe
27	* KubrickStare: Gabe has become famed for leveling [[http://imogenics.livejournal.com/135560.html "The Psycho Stare"]] at any camera in his vicinity. This has done nothing to quell the rumors about his basement of unspecified horrors.
28	* MultipleChoicePast: Did Gabe start a satirical dancepop band as a temper tantrum after Midtown's breakup, or did he really see an intergalactic cobra? The world may never know.
29	* OnlySaneMan: Alex, who spends an awful lot of time mouthing WTF on [=CobraCam.TV=]
30	* StealthParody: It's debatable that Cobra Starship is a stealth parody of commercial pop and dance music, since their lyrics almost directly poke fun at rich, post-fratboy life styles. They don't take themselves too seriously.
31	* ThoseTwoGuys: Alex and Ryland. They also have their own two-person indie folk band, This Is Ivy League.
32	* WildHair: Nate grows a beard after going mad while living in a cabin with the band in one episode of Cobra Cam.tv.
33	----
34	!!Tropes applying to their music and videos:
35	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: "Nice Guys Finish Last" and "Good Girls Go Bad".
36	* AudienceParticipationSong: In most live performances of "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", Gabe will bring an audience member up on stage to do Travie [=McCoy=]'s rap.
37	* BalladOfX: "Big Poppa and Diamond Girl"
38	* BrickJoke: The description for the "Guilty Pleasure" home video says that the label gave them $650,000 to make the video, which they blew on a sports car. Afterwards, the official video for "Guilty Pleasure" was released, and we get to see that the car the band blew all that money on was a [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture [=DeLorean=].]]
39	* CallAndResponseSong: The band is really fond of these between a guy and girl, including:
40	** "Good Girls Go Bad" with [[Series/GossipGirl Leighton Meester]]
41	** "New Edition" with Victoria getting in a few lines, leading up to...
42	** "Disaster Boy", where Victoria is featured as the lead singer, with Gabe as the responder
43	** "What Happens on the Dancefloor", an Music/AlexandraBurke song featuring Gabe Saporta
44	** "Nice Guys Finish Last" does this during the bridge.
45	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: While Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" is about LesYay, Cobra Starship's "I Kissed A Boy" is about a guy and his friends trying to get [[YaoiFangirl Yaoi fangirls]] by invoking HoYay, and starting a fight for fun in the process.
46	** Ditto for "Hollaback Boy", their cover of Music/GwenStefani's "Hollaback Girl". While the original features Gwen Stefani challenging the people gossiping about her, Cobra Starship's cover [[CallAndResponseSong acts as a biting response]] calling out Gwen, directly replying to some of her lyrics.
47	* EdibleAmmunition: The pies in the music video for "The City is At War".
48	* [[EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench Everything Sounds Sexier in Spanish]]: Gabe's bilingual, as heard in "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl", the beginning of "Smile For the Paparazzi", and "Placer Culpable", the Spanish version of "Guilty Pleasure".
49	* FightFurYourRightToParty: The video for "The Church of Hot Addiction" has Gabe falling in love with the dude (well, girl) in a rabbit suit. They eventually get married and have little bunnies.
50	* FlippingTheBird: "Middle Finger" obviously. The music video comes with everyone sticking their middle fingers at least once.
51	* LyricalColdOpen: "The City is at War" and "Guilty Pleasure".
52	* MeleeATrois: The entire band does one of these with hidden pies around a table piled with cash in the music video for "The City Is at War". This doesn't really constitute a pie fight, however, as they're meant to be [[EdibleAmmunition basically gun/knife stand-ins]], with being pied in the face being a cause of death.
53	* NiceGuysFinishLast: The eponymous song.
54	* ObsessionSong: "It's Warmer In The Basement". in which the stalker has already kidnapped the object of their affections. In Gabe's words, "This is a song about when you love someone so much you have to tie them up in your basement".
55	* OneWomanSong: "Angie".
56	* PieInTheFace: The video for "The City Is At War".
57	* ReligionOfEvil: "The Church of Hot Addiction"
58	* ShoutOut: Mostly through song titles, and quite a few are from TheEighties popular culture:
59	** The [=DeLorean=] from ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' shows up in the "Guilty Pleasure" video.
60	** The title of "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl" is a reference to [[Music/TheNotoriousBIG Biggie]] and Music/LilKim.
61	** The entirety of "Living in the Sky with Diamonds" is a reference to [[Music/TheBeatles "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"]].
62	** "It's Amateur Night at the Apollo Creed!"'s title is partly a reference to the eponymous ''[[Film/{{Rocky}} Rocky]]'' character and the Apollo Theater, which was known for hosting an "Amateur Night".
63	** "The Kids Are All Fucked Up" is a play on Music/TheWho's "The Kids Are All Right".
64	** "Being From Jersey Means Never Having To Say You're Sorry" is a play on the quote, "Love means never having to say you're sorry" from ''Film/LoveStory''.
65	** "Wet, Hot American Summer" and the [[Film/WetHotAmericanSummer eponymous film]].
66	* SmallNameBigEgo: A common persona for Gabe in their songs, sometimes crossing over with TheCasanova.
67	* StalkerWithACrush: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICrbTuO3frw It's Warmer in the Basement]]"- ''You can't escape now/I've got you locked inside this room/You know I tip good/and soon, you will love me too''. These lines launched Gabe's image as a MemeticMolester.

Context Music / CobraStarship