Cobra Verde: Glamorous Snakes in the Lakefront Grass

I first heard the rollicking “glam” that is Cobra Verde in the Spring of 2002. The quintet was opening for the Breeders on that band’s ‘comeback tour,’ and they were playing Chicago’s Abbey Pub—the kind of bar venue that is a perfect setting for rock bands, with a sweet little stage and drawback curtains and plenty of ceiling space for the cigarette smoke to coalesce upon, like clouds gathering above the heads of existential saints and gods. Cobra Verde made their way to the stage much more gracefully than the Breeders later entrance, when darling Kim Deal had to be nearly poured onto deck to perform. I remember CV’s set because I recognized singer John Petkovic from a much earlier Eighties incarnation—a band called Death of Samantha. I was struck by his stage theatrics—particularly the use of a tambourine in a Jagger-esque manner I couldn’t imagine a lot of dudes these days would even have the chutzpah to attempt.

My next encounter with the band was in the Spring of 2005, as the Cleveland boys opened for the legendary proto-punk Glam idols themselves, the New York Dolls, at Cleveland’s House of Blues. Again, there was Petkovic with that tambourine action, and the band plowed through some way-cool cover songs from what turned out to be their latest release, Copycat Killers—a cover song disc of some reputation.

It turns out Cobra Verde has been making a name for themselves with a lot of hard work. Not only have they opened for the above-named bands, but also such juggernauts-of-cool as Cheap Trick and Dinosaur Jr., to name but a few. They have had the privilege of being the very first group to play the Cleveland House of Blues. CV has received surprising media coverage, from favorable reviews in Playboy, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice and Blender magazines to airplay rotation on former Sex Pistol Steve Jones’ radio show as well as Little Steven’s “Underground Garage” program. In a neat coup de grace, the band’s cover of Pink’s “Get This Party Started” even aired on the WB’s “The OC” primetime high school melodrama in September.

So where does a band go from there, and does it matter anyways? I got to ask singer, journalist, and genuine nice guy John Petkovic (He gave me a Cobra Verde guitar pick) all that and more, and learned of his interest in Sanford and Son along the way. Now you can as well.

Cool Cleveland: Okay, so who is Cobra Verde anyways? Who are the members of the band and what instruments do they play?

John Petkovic: Cobra Verde is a quintet, which means we can field a basketball team when we aren't on stage. In the studio, we all do a little of everything. But here's the starting line-up: Mark Klein (drums), Tim Parnin (guitar), Frank Vazzano (guitar), Ed Angel Sotelo (bass) and John Petkovic (vocals).

CC: Is there significance to the band's name--"Green Snake" is the translation in English I think but maybe it's the sound more than the meaning that's important here?

JP: No significance. Basically, the band started as a one-off recording project. And the disc and everything was all done....just that I didn't have a name for it. Werner Herzog suggested Cobra Verde, in honor of Klaus Kinski. "Cobra Verde" was the last film they made together; it starred Kinski, whom I've always considered the first punk rocker, as a crazy nut.

CC: How long have you guys been playing together?

JP: Like I said, the band started as a studio project. It really became a living, functioning, playing, touring band at the turn of the century. Mark, Frank and I have been playing together since then.

CC: You sang in Death of Samantha in the Eighties. Who was Samantha anyways and how did she die?

JP: I have no idea. It's just that I have a bad habit of not coming up with band names until it's way too late. DoS had a show "booked" at a Ground Round restaurant I used to work at. It was one of those joints where guys with acoustic guitars would plug in and sing some lame Eagles song. Or, even worse, a rendition of Neil Young's "Heart of Stone." Anyway, one day my boss went on vacation and I told whoever had taken his place that I had a band booked to play there and that, yes, we even play "Heart of Stone." Anyway, a day before the "show," DoS drummer Steve-o comes up with the name Death of Samantha, after a Yoko Ono song. He's obsessed with the Beatles and Elvis so it probably meant something deep and special. It probably meant something to Yoko One, also, since she kept on talking about how we were inspired by her to play rock 'n' roll. I had no idea what Steve-o or Yoko kept talking about....All I know is that the folks at the Ground Round needed a name for the marquee, right next to the sign for the food specials, and it seemed like "Live: Death of Samantha" would be pretty funny, right next to "Chicken Fingers, $3.99." We got kicked out after playing 5 songs and I got fired -- and the restaurant manager sent a busboy right out to take our name of the marquee. But I guess it stuck anyway.

CC: Let's see--the band has opened for the Breeders, the New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, Dinosaur Jr, and toured with those great Seventies/ early Eighties pop-punks the Undertones. Former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones plays your songs on his radio program. Plus, I know that one of your videos featured George Wendt from the television show Cheers, post-punk bassist Mike Watt from the Minute Men, and underground Blaxploitation film star Rudy May Moore, as well as Danielle, "the internationally-renowned Egyptian belly dancer." Who else should I be name-dropping as involved in the mythos that is Cobra Verde at this point?

JP: Ashlee Simpson and Pink are big fans of the band, so is Dennis Leary (who used a CV song in this TV show of his, "Rescue Me"). People are always popping up who seem to dig the CV action. I have no explanation, other than there they are.

CC: I never saw the film Dolemite with Moore, but I've heard lots about it. What were you guys hoping for by having him in the video for “Riot Industry,” and what was it like working with him?

JP: Dolemite is pretty hot. But my favorite Rudy Ray flick is "Petey Wheatstraw: The Devil's Son-in-Law." In it, Dolemite strikes a deal with the devil only to have the devil come back to get him to marry his daughter--the ugliest woman in the world. I think Fred Sanford would've preferred Aunt Ester to this ugly-ass woman. Anyway, Rudy digs the band a lot. He says we're not bad for white dudes, which is, I guess, a compliment.

CC: And then there's this touring gig with the Undertones that happened recently. Did you get much of a chance to hang with their vocalist, Feargal Sharkey? I remember that quivering thing he did when he sang, especially on "Love Before Romance.” Quite the crooner!

JP: Actually, they had some other dude with them who sounded like FS. We didn't hang with them much.

CC: Since you covered that classic of theirs, "Teenage Kicks," for your latest release, I'm curious as to whether you performed it at the gigs with them and if so, what they thought about your rendition?

JP: No, we figured they might get scared and not come out to play.

CC: Speaking of what folks seem to think about you guys-you've garnered some really high praise from all sorts of other bands and industry publications. I'll skip everybody from Queens of the Stone Age to Abercrombie & Fitch and just replay what Time Out New York had to say about Cobra Verde: "So literate in the language of rock, it borders on telepathy (rock telepathy, that is)." Um, first off, do you even know what they mean by that pronouncement? And then secondly, how do you keep your heads from inflating past functional size when you're hearing those kinds of things from Blender and the Los Angeles Times?

JP: I try to avoid reading stuff about us. When I do its cause I want to find something so we can add it to www.cobraverde.com. But I really don't read that stuff. I'd rather do something to get the next person interested than finding out what the last person said or wrote. Plus, I just find reading stuff creepy, I guess. I can't even explain why I feel that way.

CC: John, you occasionally write for the Plain Dealer about music, amongst other topics I believe. Do you feel that high praise from "the critics" has its place--kind of like a sign in the road that you're going in the right direction? Or is it mainly to be disavowed or ignored because the bottom line is, tonight you may have to perform before a bunch of kids who have never heard of you before and they're waiting to see and hear the act coming on after Cobra Verde, and you've got to entertain them?

JP: I think the media is usually like [someone] driving by looking in the rear-view mirror. It looks at what's already happened. You make a good point about " a bunch of kids who have never heard you before." Actually, that's my favorite audience, more than even playing to people who are really into the band. I find that kids who see us for the first time spend like 3-4 songs trying to figure out what we're all about...and then just give up on that and get into what we're doing (or just walk away). I find that people who haven't been exposed to us usually come up with the most interesting things to say when they come up to us after the show....You make an interesting point contrasting that with 'critics' -- either in the media or the self-styled variety. Both are more interested in context: “What genre?” “Where does this fit in?” “Where do I fit in?” “Should I like these guys?” People with a sense of context are far more liberated, and far more liberating to talk with.

CC: I've got to tell you man, I've seen you on stage several times at this point and you really put yourself out on the line there. I mean, the posturing, the tambourine, the dancing and jumping around…and you're doing it without having that 'shield' of a musical instrument to stand behind and draw strength from. It takes a lot of balls to do what you do! You're informed by modern rock but you pull some of those classic rock stylings along for the ride, and then off-stage you're very approachable and kind, downright humble in my opinion. Is that YOU up on stage, or a portion of you, or a character you release, rather like Iggy Pop when he performs?

JP: I really can't think straight when we're playing. Sometimes before a show, I'll think of something to say. But by the time we start, my brain is just somewhere else. I wish it were just a role, cause I could go to sleep after we're done. Most nights after a show, I can't sleep at all. It drives my crazy.

CC: Let's talk a bit about the band's latest album-your fourth release-Copy Cat Killers. It's essentially a covers album, but on the CV web site it's claimed to be much more than that--basically a bunch of songs-as-guinea pigs that you got to experiment on with newer recording techniques. I did notice a lot of little effects going on in the background of the tracks, particularly Pink's "Get the Party Started" (!) and "Yesterday's Numbers" by the Flamin' Groovies. But then there are some tracks that just seem out of place, like "The Dice Man," which I don't even recognize. I'm curious as to how the band selected the tracks for the cd? Were there any knock down, drag out fights over whether to include a V.U. track or something by the Clash?

JP: Initially, we were gonna go in to record an originals disc. But the response to "Easy Listening" was so good -- so much so that we kept playing those songs, and didn't want to drop playing them, since we still liked them a lot--that I was worried we'd repeat ourselves with our next disc. Anyway, I figured we could go in and do some covers, to try different things--and then apply those ideas to our next album. Anyway, we were so happy with how it all came out that we figured, why not put this out? The songs were chosen with this in mind--and reflect what might be coming down the road. A lot of the stuff has an expansive feel to it; has more flow and maybe less hustle to it than previous stuff.

CC: Serious kudos to you for Leonard Cohen's "So Long, Marianne"--which has so much history to it in terms of living up to the vocal chores, which sound stellar, by the way. And then there's perhaps the iconic "Stairway to Heaven" of the Disco era, Donna Summer's "I Feel Love," which the band almost completely retrofits with those spaghetti-western guitars harkening back to Ennio Moricone, and the sweet bass lines. It's pretty amazing. Have you considered releasing that as a dance-mix anytime soon?

JP: Thanks for the kind words. "So Long, Marianne" was really an experiment in changing sounds. I wanted to do it because it had 7 verses, and would allow us to treat each differently. There's something added and sometimes something subtracted to each. I thought it would put us in a different frame of mind to approach a song in that manner, as opposed to playing it straight from beginning to end. "I Feel Love" is a free-flowing hypnosis, with the occasional disruptive element to prevent you from falling asleep. At least that's why I had in mind with that one. I really like how both of those came out. I'm glad you did, also...thanks!

CC: Okay, a question about the final track, Mott the Hoople's "Rock and Roll Queen." If my memory serves me correctly, you juxtaposed some lyrics in the song--from "You're just a rock and roll queen, you know what I mean, and I'm just a rock and roll star," to "I'm just a rock and roll queen, you know what I mean, and you're just a rock and roll star." Are you trying to tell us something?

JP: I think the roles have been reversed in rock and roll. Bands are so desperate to make it that it's they who are the groupies. It's just that they don't know it, or even know what they're chasing.

CC: Wow, insightful! No Bowie or Dylan or Zeppelin or Stooges on the disc? Could you tell us a few of the songs that were considered for Copy Cat Killers, but didn't make the grade for one reason or another?

JP: We could probably have done 10 covers discs. Frank wanted to do a Prince song, but decided against it. I wish there would've been more of stuff like "I Feel Love," I guess.

CC: What about royalties to the original songwriters? How does that all play-out in terms of making a few bucks off the release, and is your record company that excited about shelling out the dough for non-original material?

JP: I've never been good at organizing stuff. So please: Don't tell New Order that we recorded "Temptation"! Actually, our version of Pink's "Get the Party Started" was used on "The OC" ...anyway, the show had to get the approval of Pink and Linda Perry (who wrote the song). They were worried that they'd see our version as disrespectful....obviously, they were wrong!

CC: Just a few more questions. You've been performing and making music in various bands for a long time now. You've got your own pulpit of sorts in the Scam City website; you get to travel to many places and meet lots of interesting, non-traditionally-employed people; you even live part of the year in Serbia-Montenegro and are involved in political issues there. Not the typical rock and roll life, to be sure, but not the typical life either. You're enjoying what you're doing, I take it, or you wouldn't be doing it. Who would you like to play John Petkovic in the movie version of your life, and what does he do after he stops making Rock & Roll music?

JP: He would have to be a real hot chick magnet -- you know, the image and all. Actually, I'd rather have us transported in time to play in Fred Sanford's junkyard, on an episode of "Sanford and Son." Then I wouldn't have to worry about a sequel to any of this. I could just walk into Fred's house and watch "Gork Eats New York and Gets a Thank You Note From President Ford" -- with Fred, Grady, Bubba and the whole CV team.

CC: In your travels and gigs, you see lots of other towns and cities. What does Cleveland have going for it that residents here probably aren't aware of? The folks of the city DO tend to look down upon themselves it seems, oftentimes.

JP: For some weird reason, people in Cleveland need validation from outsiders. That's part of the reason we have developed what we call the ‘Cleveland Nasty.’ Basically, it's about people proud of the things others are ashamed of. Or, maybe more accurately, it works around our credo: "Why live up to the Joneses, when you can bring them down to your level."

CC: How would you say the music scene has changed here in Cleveland over the past twenty years or so? Has it changed for the better, or for the worse?

JP: It's always the same -- not just here, but everywhere. Things just happen over and over and over again....it's just that the names and years change. That's why it's always best to do what you want to do and not worry about what everyone else is doing. Yeah, you might not be "successful" doing it that way. But you're probably not going to be successful the other way, either.

That’s some sagacious wisdom, Mr. Petkovic, and spoken from an accomplished veteran so I hope folks will take it to heart. Thanks for your time, and keep shaking that tambourine with style and verve. Readers, please check out the Cobra Verde website to learn of their latest gigs and plots to dominate the world. Rock on.

Interview by Daiv Whaley
Images by Walter Novak

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