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William Christopher Cobb (born 15 December 1998), better known as "Billy" Cobb on the internet, is an American musician, YouTuber, and multi-instrumentalist, known for his works creating SpongeBob SquarePants cover songs songs in the style of Punk rock music, and his work in creating a Weezer Pinkerton style of ep by the name of Zerwee, ^[1] which Cobb released in 2019, and then followed up in 2020 with a sequel. With influences from many musicians and artists, Cobb has many apparent styles and sounds which stand out. Punk rock, some Grunge, Popular music, and Post-punk make their apparent influences on Cobb's wide assortment of extended plays, long plays, and singles.

Career

Cobb's musical beginnings began with a cover of Gerard Way's "Don't Try" ^{[2] [3]} in 2015, which followed with various other covers and originals from his first recorded album, Abstract, which released in 2016. Following, in 2016, Cobb released a Halloween ep. A release of a Halloween extended play would follow every year subsequently since 2016, becoming a tradition. ^[4] Following the Halloween extended play release, and the release of his self-titled ep, Cobb released his breakthrough "Gary Come Home" punk cover. ^[5] After the popularity of the cover, Cobb began uploading SpongeBob covers every-so-often until the apparent popularity had fallen, eventually moving to different assorted covers such as the Drake and Josh theme song, and non-punk oriented songs/covers. After releasing ep's Pretty Songs For Ugly People, Valentine's Day, and Cool People Music, Cobb put his punk influence into a project called Songs To Drive Off A Cliff To In C-Major, with heavy punk and post-punk influence. "Things To Do On A Friday Night When Most People Are Cooler Than You 101" is the spark of gloom and angst in Cobb's personal music. With the timbre and skill for writing such music, "Surf" (which would later appear on 2019's The Boro, rerecorded), The Void, and Too Rad To Be Sad subsequently all had either punk themes or genre details. Cobb's music grew heavier and more well produced, and shortly after the release of the second installment into the Halloween series, Cobb had a breakthrough with a cover of The Killers' Mr. Brightside, but with Google auto-fill search results instead of the original lyrical contents. ^[6] After this notoriety within Weezer's community, as well as his ground in Alternative rock, Cobb began to express his admiration for the band in greater consistency. Covering Rivers Cuomo's "Cardigan Disaster", covering Weezer's self-titled and Pinkerton on melodica (an instrument Cobb would become notorious for using in works, and eventually used in Zerwee.)^{[ citation needed]} Shortly before the release of the melodica cover of Pinkerton, Cobb released Strokes of Incarceration. Strokes of Incarceration featured a wide array of narrative on the proceedings of university life, romance, and minuscule amounts of political commentary. Strokes, as it's sometimes referred to, eventually got a remix in 2020. ^[7] It was apparent after Strokes of Incarceration that the quality of writing, detail, care, and production were under a sharp increase and were a signal of creative expansionism in his style. In early 2019, Cobb released two ep's, Trash and Zerwee. The irony of Zerwee's release is that the month before the release, Cobb uploaded a video where he ranked his own music. ^[8] Zerwee would become Cobb's best-known work, and "The Shell Shack" would be the first song of Cobb's to reach one-million streams on Spotify.

Following the traction of Zerwee, fans of Weezer, and Cobb, expected more full-length projects, and greater detailed work. Throughout 2019 and 2020, Cobb kept releasing singles, and albums every-so-often. Through several releases, Cobb explored various experimentations, with meme culture and modernist sound. "I Want To Kick Baby Yoda In The Ribs" and "Shit Sex Mad Stress No Boo No Ex Small Cock Bottom Text (Eat Trash Be Free)" were remote pockets of success with modern attitudes and approaches. Eat Trash Be Free was a heavy departure with Grime and Rap metal influences, as well as the flagship single having been named for a popular copypasta. 2020 was also marked by Cobb signing a contract with Needlejuice Records, ^[9] giving them processing rights to start printing physical copies of Zerwee and Zerwee 2 which released in July 2020. ^[10] Following the end of 2020, Cobb released his self-titled album on the fifteenth of January in 2021. Seeing a softer, rather than punk, side of Cobb's music, The Bear Album as it would come to be known for its cover art, had yet another short and well received, by fans, release. Exemplifying more influence from various genre elements, the album was a more lighthearted and easier listening experience than Strokes of Incarceration. The well received reception and popularity of sea shanties in niche internet communities inspired Cobb to release another album just four months after his self-titled album. The S.S. Krill was released in May and was proclaimed by Cobb to be a "gay pirate opera." Since the release of The S.S. Krill, Cobb has confirmed to have been recording larger products, and grandeur pieces of musical works. The release dates for these works are still unknown.

Influences and Style

Cobb has stated a great deal of love for alternative music and alternative rocks. In various uploads, Cobb has shown praise for Weezer, My Chemical Romance, Ween, and Radiohead primarily. Covers of Cobb's range everywhere from Today by The Smashing Pumpkins ^[11] to Hips Don't Lie by Shakira. ^[12] Influences in style of playing come greatly from nineties' alternative music. Cobb is known to use various guitar tunings, uncommonly used instruments, and common song structure. In Zerwee, Cobb featured various guitar solos between songs.

References