Midtown

Years before Gabe Saporta formed disco-rockers Cobra Starship, he served as lead vocalist for New Brunswick, New Jersey's own Midtown, a late-1990s band that could sling power chords with the best of them, but often made unexpected melodic or rhythmic choices that lifted them out of the pop-punk/emo hole. The Rutgers University lads negotiated label deals on their own terms, upholding the DIY credo, while garnering enough buzz to lure major labels into distributing their self-released records. Their final album, produced by Butch Walker, was released on Columbia, but the band split up soon after to pursue solo projects.