''While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets'' is the debut studio album by

Cobra Starship Cobra Starship was an American dance-pop band founded in 2005 by Gabe Saporta (ex- Midtown), and headquartered in New York City. He recorded the first album as a solo project, ''While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets''. Saporta later enliste ...

. It was released on October 10, 2006 in the US, and on October 17, 2006 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. A rough clip of "Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You In Hell (Hey Mister DJ)", a finished version of "

Snakes on a Plane (Bring It) "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)", also referred to as "Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)", is the debut single by Cobra Starship, released in 2006 as the main single from the soundtrack to the film ''Snakes on a Plane''. In addition to Cobra Starship voc ...

", and "The Church of Hot Addiction" were uploaded onto Cobra Starship's

PureVolume PureVolume (formerly Unborn Media) was a website for uploading and streaming of music files, the first independently run of its type. PureVolume was created by Unborn Media, Inc; Mitchell Pavao; Brett Woitunski; and Nate Hudson, all from the Univer ...

site. "The Church of Hot Addiction" was also used as the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

for the

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

Great American Bash The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event currently produced by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. Created by Dusty Rhodes, the event was established in 1985 and was originally produced by the National ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

. It has sold more than 69,000 copies to date.

Background

Cobra Starship was formed in 2005 after Midtown bassist

Gabe Saporta Gabriel Eduardo Saporta (born October 11, 1979) is an Uruguayan-American musician and entrepreneur. From the years 2005 until 2015, he was the lead vocalist and founder of the electropop band Cobra Starship. On November 10, 2015, after nearly te ...

took a trip to the deserts of

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. During this time, Saporta went on a "vision quest", spending time with Native American tribes and smoking

peyote The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...

. He began to create his vision for a new band, a melodic style of music heavily influenced by

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...

and hip hop. Upon returning home, Saporta rented a house in the

Catskill Mountains The Catskill Mountains, also known as the Catskills, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains, located in southeastern New York. As a cultural and geographic region, the Catskills are generally defined as those areas c ...

and began writing what would become ''While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets''. He posted a parody response to

Gwen Stefani Gwen Renée Stefani (; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer and actress. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs ...

's " Hollaback Girl" titled "Hollaback Boy" on Myspace. The song gained Saporta notoriety on the internet and he eventually signed to

Fall Out Boy Fall Out Boy is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Wilmette, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, lead guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer A ...

bassist Pete Wentz's label,

Decaydance Records DCD2 Records, formerly known as Decaydance Records, is an independent record label owned by Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and partners, based in New York City. It was founded as an imprint of Fueled by Ramen. The first band Wentz s ...

stated that most of the songs from this recording particularly concern his personal life and career: "Being from Jersey Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry" centers on feelings of emptiness and hopelessness, regarding the area he was (partly) brought-up in, while "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl" concerns a quiet young girl he met at a disco in Los Angeles.

Music

On ''While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets'' Saporta abandons the "voice-quivering drama and super-intense rock" of Midtown in favor of "a more lighthearted, groove-oriented style". The album begins with an acoustic intro entitled "Being from Jersey Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry". The opening of "Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You in Hell (Hey Mister DJ)" has been compared to U2, while the Glenn Gamboa of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' likened the song's chorus to

Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...

's "

Music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

". The song features "'70s synth whistles and an '80s new wave bass line".

Track listing

References

External links

Cobra Starship's PureVolume page
{{Authority control 2006 debut albums Cobra Starship albums Albums produced by S*A*M and Sluggo Fueled by Ramen albums