By Leann Ray
Staff Writer

Morgantown had better watch out, because COBRA is about to strike.

COBRA is the newest project of Dallas Campbell, Rosie Campbell, Mikey Iafrate and Dave Klug, the brains behind other local favorites The Minus Tide and Drown Culture.

“Anyone who has kind of been familiar with us as musicians knows that we always mess around with different projects and ideas, and one day we were all sitting around and said, ‘Why don’t we try this?’ and there it was,” Iafrate said in an e-mail. “[It ] just sort of happened.”

There’s no need to worry about COBRA sounding like the group’s other two bands.

“The only thing COBRA has in common with Drown Culture is the band’s lineup,” Iafrate said.

“In comparison to The Minus Tide, the music is more straightforward rock, less complex than The Minus Tide. A little more listener-friendly, no screaming. Lyrically, this band is very different. In some ways, the lyrics in particular, COBRA is probably a bit weirder than The Minus Tide. We’re just tapping into a different thing altogether,” he said.

The band’s music is influenced by loud and heavy ’70s rock like Deep Purple, Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath, but “sort of reinterpreting it a bit for today,” Iafrate explained.

With so many musical projects, it may be hard to concentrate on them all at once. Iafrate said that the members are different people than they were five years ago when they started The Minus Tide, “and so the music changes right along with that, I guess.”

“The Minus Tide is more or less over. I’m not going to say The Minus Tide will never play live shows again, but for the time being we are just letting that thing rest for a while,” Iafrate said.

“I don’t know if that means COBRA is ‘replacing’ The Minus Tide. It’s just a different band all together. But COBRA will be the band we kind of focus on for the time being.”

Future plans for COBRA include recording a full-length album for its first release and playing as many shows as possible, on the road and locally.

“We just want to play the songs for people, hopefully causing some sensation of enjoyment to happen on their part,” Iafrate said.

COBRA, along with Treasurecat, Dead Sea and Hovel, will play tomorrow night at 123 Pleasant St. starting at 10 p.m. The show is 18 and up and the cost is $6 at the door.

[Originally appeared in the Daily Athanaeum 10/07/05]