When he wasn't too happy where his current band, Midtown, was heading, lead singer Gabe Saporta decided to create a side project entitled Cobra Starship. Saporta worked along with William Beckett of The Academy Is..., Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes and Maja Iverson of The Sounds on a song for the movie Snakes on a Plane called Bring It (Snakes on a Plane). It was featured on the Snakes on a Plane Soundtrack released in April 2006.
Gabe decided to continue with the project and record a full-length album. The band was signed to Decaydance and went on a fall tour with Gym Class Heroes. Cobra Starship's debut album While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets was released in October 2006. Gabe continued to tour with new bandmates: Nate Navarro on drums, Eliza Schwartz on keytar, This Is Ivy League's Alex Suarez and Ryland Blackinton on bass and guitar respectively. Schwartz was kicked out of the band in 2007 for stalking Saporta and was replaced by Victoria Asher.
Their second album was released in October 2007 entitiled Viva La Cobra. This album was produced by Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, who also was creditited on the lyrics.
For a week in January of 2009 while they were staying in a cabin in Pennsylvania to work on their third album they set up an infamous stickam account to allow their fans to be in touch with them (and watch them) on a daily basis. Fans who were online for what seemed like 24 hour spans of time watching the band were affectionately named 'shelf kids', because of the cameras location on the shelf of a bookcase. But this sort of intimacy with fans is nothing new for Cobra Starship. They always make an effort to be as accesible as possible.
Their third album, Hot Mess was released on August 11, 2009. It featured the single "Good Girls Go Bad w/Leighton Meester" which has gotten plenty of radio airtime. The video for the song also led to the band's first VMA nomination.