I’m sure I wasn’t alone in originally thinking Cobra Starship was something of a joke band. There was the name, certainly. And the fact that this “supergroup” consisted of members of Midtown, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is…, Gym Class Heroes, and The Sounds. But what really made it all so tongue-in-cheek for me was that Cobra Starship had ultimately united to create a theme song for Snakes On A Plane. Not exactly a serious bid for artistic credibility.

After that somewhat inauspicious start (a one-off, really), lead singer (and ex-Midtowner) Gabe Saporta decided to continue piloting Cobra Starship without his cohorts. Keeping the name, he rounded up some new bandmates and signed with Pete Wentz’s label, Decaydance. Debut album, While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets, was released in October 2006.

I didn’t take note of post-Snakes Cobra Starship until I heard “The City Is At War,” the second single from the group’s second album, 2007’s ¡Viva La Cobra!. I loved the message and the attitude, but especially the sound coming through the speakers: controlled manic synthpop. Contradictory, yes, but Cobra Starship wasn’t joking around.

Now the band is set to release its third album, Hot Mess, on August 11. First single “Good Girls Go Bad” has been out for a few weeks, and it’s a major keeper. The song was co-written by Cobra Starship and Kara DioGuardi, a collaboration Saporta elaborated on in an MTV interview:

“We got offered to work with Kara right as she was becoming an American Idol judge,” Saporta explained. “We didn’t know who she was. She didn’t know who we were. We got hooked up with her. I’m like, ‘Who is this person?’ She’s like, ‘Who’s this annoying band?’ But we got in the room, and it was like magic, and we wrote the song in 15 minutes. It’s, like, the best song on our album.”

Doing her part to elevate “Good Girls Go Bad” to must-hear status is guest vocalist Leighton Meester, better known as Gossip Girl‘s Blair Waldorf. The video wisely makes good use of Meester; the plot has her and the members of Cobra Starship involved in a deli-fronted underground casino racket. My eyes, however, are transfixed on the fantastic white frames Saporta sports throughout the clip:

Cobra Starship continues to climb up the Billboard Hot 100 with “Good Girls Go Bad.” The single is currently in its fifth week on the chart, jumping eight spots to #58. Get ready to hear more soon from Leighton Meester, who’s readying her solo musical debut.

Purchase Cobra Starship feat. Leighton Meester – “Good Girls Go Bad” via iTunes, Amazon MP3.