2009 Year in Review Pictorial

Now that 2009 is coming to a close, i decided to find some pictures of most of the shows we played this year and post them on here considering i never actually post any pictures. Enjoy, and be sure to come out to the NYE show with Gift Eaters tomorrow night!

Click the images to make them bigger. I also added some brief notes and info at the bottom of each portion of photos. This is the last post of 2009, see you in 2010.
-Durell



The Hydeaway. February 27th. Photos by Kelsey Huget.
This was our first show of 2009, and our first show with then newcomers Maus and Goose. Maus and Goose killed it that night, we sucked. What are you going to do? It was a fun night regardless.



Ritchie Hall. March 20th. Photo by Chelsea Kempinski
This was the first time we would play Ritchie Hall in 2009. Withdrawal from Winnipeg and High Jinks also played this show, making it one of the best of 2009.






Love is Still Love Benefit. Circles. April 9th. Photos by Andrea Janzen
The unholy trinity of destruction was formed that night. Wolfgoat. Cope. Gift Eaters. Anyone who was at this show saw all three bands absolutely destroy anything and everything that was in their path. This was also the show of the infamous ceiling incident. All i initially intended to do was pass around some of my cymbals at the end of our set so that random kids in the crowd could play them while Matt ended with some drone stuff. Well, needless to say, this didn't happen. As soon as i saw one of my drums go flying across the floor, i just figured "aw, fuck it!", and smashed my ride into my bass drum. Kev then sat inside my bass drum, who then got lifted up by the crowd while still in the bass drum, who then climbed up into the ceiling, and then finally who fell through the ceiling. Goddammit...





Ghost Throats Fest. Ritchie Hall. May 16th. Photos by Andrea Janzen
This was one of the best shows of the year. I mean, look at those pictures! How could it not have been with a bunch of crazy kids flying around everywhere? We are still incredible appreciative to have been a part of this fest, and to CJ and everyone else who helped make it happen.




Ritchie Hall. June 19th. Photos by Chelsea Kempinski
This was a ridiculous show since Hominid and Begrime Exemious also played. It was great to finally play a show with Hominid again. We use to play with them all the time the previous year but didn't in 2009 until this show happened. This was also the first time we played with Begrime Exemious, the band of original Cope drummer Derek Orthner.



Avonmore Hall. July 12th. Photo by Matthew Cuthbert
This was our last show before setting out on our 2009 tour with GSTS!. This was also Red Hot Daggers last show, which was a bummer, but it made for good times. We also filmed our set for the Edmonton local hardcore DVD that night, so hopefully sometime in the future we'll have live video/audio from this show.



Cope hanging out before playing our first show of the 2009 tour in Abbotsford, BC. Photo by Drew Reikman



Fun House. Abbotsford, BC. July 17th. Photo by Andrea Janzen
This was our first show on tour with GSTS!, and their hometown show. That being said, kids came out and the show was pretty fucking nuts. A bunch of kids crammed into a tiny basement made this the perfect way to start off tour.




The Anti-Poverty Committee. Vancouver, BC. July 18th. Photos by Andrea Janzen
This wasn't our best show, but fun none the less. I remember us having some guitar gear malfunctions during our set, which sucks, but whatever. We got to play with Damages and hang out with some Vancouver friends that night, so that made up for our set.



Cope and GSTS! hanging out in the woods of BC. July 19th. Photo by Todd Skitsko




Ymir Hall. Ymir, BC. July 20th. Photos by Taylor Geddes
This was the weirdest show on tour. We showed up to this middle of no where town with children and dogs running around the hall we were suppose to play in. But as it turned out, this was one of the funnest shows on tour. We had a band-off with GSTS!, setting up our gear all at once and taking turns playing songs, which was really fun. We also got to see The Kettle Black play that night, which is an incredible one man band. We stayed that night at the Taberfucks cabin, who also played that night, so a big thanks is due to them.



Cope and GSTS! hanging out with some locals on a beach near Regina, SK. July 24th. Photo by Todd Skitsko





War On Music Record Shop. Winnipeg, MB. July 25th. Photos by David Van Den Bossche
This was another weird tour show, only because we didn't actually play until well past midnight. But regardless, the promoter was a rad guy, the kids that did come were cool, and playing in a record shop right next door to an amazing vegan restaurant was a plus.



Cope and GSTS! hanging out in Ontario. July 26th. Photo by Todd Skitsko




Black Pirates Pub. Thunder Bay, ON. July 27th. Photos by Taylor Geddes
This was the farthest east we played on our tour with GSTS!. Not a big turn out, but it was fun. I remember talking to Kev about how weird it was that we were playing a show in Ontario that night and being so far from home.



Cope and GSTS! on the last night of tour. Saskatoon, SK. July 30th. Photo by Todd Skitsko






New Black Center. Clagary, AB. October 17th. Photos by Trista Croft
This was our first show with Nathan playing guitar and it was fucking nuts. Calgary always goes crazy, especially since Kali, Maus, and Creeper were on this bill. What a good night.



Cope's current line up after playing in Calgary on October 17th. Photo by Mark Arsenault.
From left to right: Durell, Nathan, Kev, Todd

GSTSSTTSSSTSTSSTS

GSTS!, probably some of the best musicians i've ever spent a lot of time with, have a video of themselves playing live. Check it out.



-Durell

Ending 2009 With A Broken Cymbal Stand

We're playing a new years eve show with Gift Eaters and Wolfgoat. Here is the poster, additional information can be found on our myspace page. Show up on time to catch us. Stay for the onslaught of Edmonton hardcore.



-Durell

Smash Out The Old, Smash In The New

The monthly update of band updates.

First things first. Writing has been going incredibly well. We're getting a bunch of new material ready and its sounding so good. Here is a demo of one of the new songs we wrote with the new line up. It's super dirty sounding, but you get a good taste of things to come.

Second. We're planning on playing a Edmonton show sometime soon in December. This one will cause so much destruction and chaos, you'd be kicking yourself in the ass if you missed it. More info on that as soon as i get it.

Third. Plans for the summer 2010 tours is underway. One tour will bring us to western Canada with a stop over the border. The other will bring us far more east into Canada than last year, again with a stop over the border. As soon as i have confirmation from the rest of Cope, i'll post the dates.

Fourth. I don't know where our 10" is. Pressing plants and their constant failing at replying to inquiries frustrates me, but it'll be here eventually. Show some love for Nathan at xTRUEx and check out the 7"split he just released in the meantime.

Fifth. Here are some pictures of the above mentioned new lineup from our show with Creeper and Maus in Calgary last month. (click to enlarge)






That's it for now.

-Durell

First Show With New Lineup - Calgary

Finally. Fucking finally. Playing a show. This Saturday, the 17th of October. We couldn't be more stoked. This will be our first show with Nathan playing guitar. We'll be playing some new songs as well as some from the EP that have been fined tuned. Others playing are Creeper, from Toronto, and our friends Kali and Maus. Creeper will also be playing a Edmonton show the night before. Here's all the info for Saturday's show.

Saturday October 17th

Creeper
Maus
Cope
Kali

CALGARY
New Black Center

#200, 919 9 ave SE

$7
5:30pm

People have asked why we are not playing any Edmonton shows. The answer is that we're still taking a break from shows, with the exception of the show mentioned above. We've been wanting to play with Creeper since Gift Eaters met them on their summer tour and had nothing but good things to say. When the Edmonton show was booked up, we decided to get on the Calgary bill. Edmonton has heard our songs over and over again. We want to play a show at home when we have new songs to wreck everything to. We've only played Calgary a couple times so they haven't heard our old songs to death. THOUGH, some new songs will definitely be played. This Saturday could be considered a preview of things to come.

Here's a poster for the show.




That's it.

-Durell

Anyone That Thinks Thunderstruck is a Monumental Achievement In Musical History Deserves to Die

This is what we've been up to...




Other than mountains of nachos, we are very pleased to announce that Nathan Levasseur has officially joined Cope. We've already started jamming and writing with him, and so far everything has been sounding just as good, if not better than before. Hopefully we'll start playing shows towards the end of the fall, but for now, we're in write mode. The next time Cope plays a show, we'll have a whole new bag o' songs ready to insinuate destruction. Heavier. Faster. Louder. Fuck i can't wait.

Other than all that, if you reside in the Edmonton area, you should really check out Maus' first show back with their new line up. All info can be found here.

To finish off, here's the best picture of Nathan i could find.



-Durell

Line up changes, new bands, records, oh my!

I actually have stuff to talk about, resulting in me actually updating this thing more than once a month.

Cope and Matthew Lecky have parted ways, amicably. Sometimes life just goes on and you find yourself with limited time, in other words, going to school. Everyone is on the same page and though this may not be the most positive of events for us, everyone remains good friends. We wish Matt luck on all his future endeavors.

Which brings me to my next point, our replacement for Matt. Nathan Levasseur of Goose fame will be jamming with us for a bit, and if everyone's feeling it, will join Cope. We're really excited about this as Nathan is a fantastic guitar player and can bring a whole new level of playing/writing to the table. Though his position as a permanent member remains up in the air, everyone seems optimistic and is eager to get this thing rolling again. Who knows... maybe a Cope/Goose summer tour to go along with a Goose/Cope split 7" (yeah, it's still happening). But one thing is for sure, we're not letting this be the downfall of Cope. We're not breaking up. If anything, this is really a step in the right direction and we can only progress from here.

That being said, Kev, Todd, and myself have other bands aside from Cope on the go...

Kev is now playing drums in a band featuring members of Snic, Gift Eaters, Red Hot Daggers, and Maus. Last i heard, they were calling themselves Book of Caverns and have a really rough demo of a song. From what i heard of the demo, it's sounding pretty rad and fans of Envy-esque stuff will more than likely dig this. But i mean, with that line up, how could you not produce good music?
Todd has been talking about starting up or joining another band. I hope it's a really good post metal band. Bug him to start/join a really good post metal band.
I play in a doom metal band called Cygnus with the Orthner brothers, Derek and Gary, who also play in Begrime Exemious and Hominid, respectively. It's really fucking heavy and really groovy. I love it. Anyone who likes Electric Wizard, Sleep, Pentagram, or other traditional doom metal bands would more than likely dig Cygnus. We already have a near complete set written, so expect to see us play shows by the end of October or beginning of November (hopefully).

So, the 10" is still in the mail. When it's here, you'll hear about it. All our other planned recordings (collab with St.Gilles and Split with Goose) are still going down, regardless of member changes. We had a number of songs completed for these projects, but with Matt's departure goes some of those songs. But, i'm sure writing with a new guitarist will help produce some good new tunes.

There you have it. We're sorry we couldn't play the August 19th show. We'll be back soon enough. In the meantime, go check out Goose and Maus when they start playing shows again. And for all the Edmonton kids who might be reading this, go start new bands. There's nothing that your favorite locals bands do that you're not fully capable of doing yourself. It's a lot of fun, trust me.

-Durell

Sweet Dudes and Dog Dad Tattoos

If you are reading this, that means that i actually survived tour. Tour was fun, GSTS! is fucking insane and is made up of some of the raddest, craziest, oddest dudes i've ever met, shit got wrecked, there will be a ton of photos soon.

Speaking of GSTS!, everyone in Edmonton and area should go check them out when they are back in town on August 7th playing this show.

Other than that, there is a bunch of new band material popping up where ever i look. Maybe it's old news, but i haven't been on the internet in weeks so it's new news to me. Check out these bands and their new tunes

Goose
Brain Fever
Owen Hart (they are not local, but i don't care, these guys fucking rule).

There are so many stories from tour, both good and bad, that i could share. Honestly, it'd be such a task to transcribe to this blog, so you'll probably just have to hear them from us personally. That, and i like to keep them to memory. I do have to say thank you to every band we played with, every promoter that put on a show, every and anyone who let us sleep at their place and sometimes fill our stomachs, and to every single person who came out and watched us play.

That is it, Electro Quarterstaff on the 19th with Goose. Be there!

-Durell

Ps. An explanation for the title of this post. Reuban from GSTS! saw the post called "Cross Canada Dog Day Shit Show" (look below) and actually got "CCDDSS 09" stick and poked on his arm. Ridiculous. Mike from GSTS! also got a Cope tattoo. Absolutely ridiculous.

Our Flying Burrito Brothers

Last night, we got to say farewell to one of Edmonton's best bands, Gift Eaters. This band was truly one of a kind and i will miss them. On that same note, Red Hot Daggers kicked the bucket that very night. Though we didn't get to play with them as often as Gift Eaters, they will be missed as well.

Here are some posters for our upcoming tour and shows. There is information regarding the tour in the post below. Come wreck some shit!






-Durell

The Cross Canada Dog Dad Shit Show

The following are our tour dates with GSTS!. If you live in these cities, or are close enough to drive out, come hang out and help us kick out the jams.

July 17th|Squamish, BC @ House Show
July 18th|Vancouver, BC @ The Anti Poverty Committee
July 20th|Erie(Salmo), BC @ Erie House
July 21st|Calgary, AB @ The New Black Center
July 23rd|Regina, SK @ The Buffalo Lounge
July 25th|Winnipeg, MB @ War On Music Record Shop
July 27th|Thunder Bay, ON @ The Black Pirates Pub (ALL AGES)
July 29th|Dauphin, MB @ The Old Fire Hall
July 30th|Saskatoon, SK @ TBA (just waiting on venue confirmation)
July 31st|Edmonton, AB @ Allendale Hall
All additional information can easily be found on our myspace page, under our shows section.

But a couple days before that goes down, we're playing a show with Gift Eaters, Wolfgoat, and Red Hot Daggers. Our set, among others, will be filmed as part of a Edmonton Hardcore DVD compilation. Come out and go fucking ape shit. Here is the poster.



That's it for now.

-Durell

Coming this fall on fox: "Dog Dad"

Ok, so two things to ramble on about.

First, our friends in Maus have put some songs up from their upcoming demo. This band absolutely kills it. Hear for yourself here and then go see them at this show. The show is absolutely free and a bunch of great local Edmonton bands are breaking up after this show. Definitely worth your while and the price is right.

Second, we're playing a show with Begrime Exemious and Hominid on June 19th. Here is the poster. This show is going to be ridiculously heavy. Come check it out!



That is all for now.

-Durell

Matt IS the tetris master

So, i've been really lazy with updating this thing.

Last night, we played a show with Goose that most of the bands dropped off, but it was so much fun. A room with good people, two bands facing each other taking turns playing, it was a blast. The result of this Cope/Goose show is a Goose/Cope 7" split to be released on xTRUEx eventually. We're still working on the collab, but i'm sure we can get two or so songs together to make this happen. So, look out for that and look out for the Goose demo, which to my understanding is near complete. Those dudes are way too good!

Nate at xTRUEx has informed us that the test press versions of the 10" are to be expected within the week (hopefully). So, expect those to be available by mid to end of June.

Not really related to Cope, but i've been jamming with a new doom band called Cygnus featuring Derek (Begrime Exemious) and Gary Orthner (Hominid). People who like doom metal as the likes of Goatsnake, Electric Wizard, and St. Vitus would probably really dig this. Its loud and its groovy. Hopefully Cygnus will be able to play some shows by the end of June, beginning of July. I'll post updates about that band on here too.

That's all i can really think of right now.

-Durell

The Summer is Upon Us

It's May. It's sunny and practically summer now. Saves The Day is on. I am excited for the upcoming months.



-Durell

I Need More Magic In My Life

First off, i just wanted to say that i'm listening to Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution by Burnt by the Sun. Holy fuck, listen to this album if you haven't before! That aside, here is what we have been up to.

Writing for the collaboration 10" is complete. All we have to do is get the new songs down to the point of being able to play them comfortably enough to record and play live. Maybe there will be a new song added to the set for Ghost Throats, we'll see. The new songs are much faster and technical than the ep, but still heavy. The way i see it, the ep songs are the first ones we wrote as a band. Hell, some of the songs were even written when Orphy was playing drums. Throughout that writing process of the ep, we were still figuring out what we sounded like and what each member can bring to the table. Now that the ep is out and the 10" is on the way, and we've been playing those songs for a year now, i think its fair to say we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do other than trying to figure out what we want to do through trial and error song writing. Coming into the writing of the collab was refreshing and the shit we managed to write, i am genuinely excited about and even more excited to be able to play the songs live. So, i guess thats my little insight on new material that could very well be played as soon as our shows in May.

So with records and cd's and all that shit, we thought it'd be a good idea to get some shirts made. We've had a couple friends make some really good designs and now we just have to pick what we would like to use. So, as soon as i know what design(s) we're going to use, i'll post it on here.

The booking of tour continues to continue. I just posted all the dates we plan on playing on our myspace, and i'll post them here as well. If you or anyone you know can help us out with a show in any of these cities, please contact me via the Cope myspace or at burnceciliburn@hotmail.com.

Fri 07/17 - Squamish, BC
Sat 07/18 - Vancouver, BC
Sun 07/19 - *day off*
Mon 07/20 - Nelson, BC
Tue 07/21 - Calgary, AB
Wed 07/22 - *day off*
Thu 07/23 - Regina, SK
Fri 07/24 - Brandon, MB
Sat 07/25 - Winnipeg, MB
Sun 07/26 - *day off*
Mon 07/27 - Thunder Bay, ON
Tue 07/28 - *day off*
Wed 07/29 - Dauphin, MB
Thu 07/30 - Saskatoon, MB
Fri 07/31 - Edmonton, AB

That's it for now.

-Durell

Ghost Throats Fest '09

Well fuck, if you're able to make it to this show, but don't, you'll be kicking yourself in the ass all summer long.

GHOST THROATS FEST '09


BE THERE!

-Durell