Cobra Starship

Initial impulses suggest that pop-punk supergroup Cobra Starship started as a joke. The first indicator is the NYC band's name; second is its music video appearance under the closing credits of Snakes on a Plane (a movie which itself started as a joke). But after two albums, two soundtrack appearances (Snakes and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and several mega-tours into their career, the members of Cobra Starship — from bands Midtown, Gym Class Heroes, The Academy Is... and the Sounds — may be laughing the hardest. This reptilian space vessel of a band crafts polished pop-rock tunes with danceable beats, placing it comfortably next to Decaydance labelmates Fall Out Boy and Panic at the Disco. Luckily, Cobra Starship's easygoing spirit spares it from the failed attempts at sincerity of which its peers are oh so guilty.