CO-OP Featuring DASH COOPER Announce Album Release Party; ALICE COOPER Records Guest Vocals For "Old Scratch" Song
May 3, 2018, 6 years ago
Phoenix hard rockers Co-Op have released the video for their single “N.O.W”, from their forthcoming self-titled debut album in stores June 15th from EMP Label Group. The single hit the Top 10 on the Mediabase Classic Rock chart and continues to garner national airplay. Recorded at Phoenix’s Full Well Studios, the album is a fiery blast of modern hard rock, with a classic edge. You can view the video below.
Filmed and edited by Melody Myers (Escape The Fate, Asking Alexandria, Marc Rizzo, Combat Records), the video also features an intro and cameo from vocalist Dash Cooper’s father, legendary rock icon Alice Cooper, an actual song introduction from Cooper’s nationally syndicated radio show Nights With Alice Cooper, where the song is in full rotation as a “Future Classic”. Alice has also recorded guest vocals for the song “Old Scratch”, which will also be featured on Co-Op’s debut.
Says Alice, “One thing that Dash’s band has that I absolutely love, is dynamics. I told them one time early on, I said, 'guys, right now you have great parts, but everybody is playing at the same time. You have no dynamics, it’s one big solid line of blast, and I can barely hear the vocals.' The very next time I heard them play, they figured out how to make it dynamic, where they’d go down to one guitar, doing a chug, with the vocals going, and they would come right in with a B section, with everybody, and it was so powerful. And I said, 'guys, you have no idea how hard it is to do that.' But they did it on every song. And they still do it.”
He adds, “The single, it’s really great. Even on the radio show I said, 'I’m not just playing this because it’s my son’s band, it’s playing because I really like this.' I really like this music. It’s a band with some fire.”
The band has also announced the album release party for the LP, Saturday, June 16th at Club Red in Phoenix, AZ.
No strangers to performance, since forming in 2014, with a current lineup featuring Dash Cooper (Lead Vocals) Jeremy Tabor (Guitar), and Justin Swartzentruber (Bass), Co-Op quickly amassed a following in the local Phoenix scene. Despite just rounding the corner into their full-length studio debut, Co-Op are already seasoned rock veterans, having opened massive shows for the likes of Mötley Crüe, Hollywood Vampires, and KISS, and played backup band to the likes of Alex Lifeson from Rush, Don Felder of The Eagles, and of course Alice Cooper (in addition to frequently performing as Alice’s backup band, and Alice coming to jam at Co-Op shows, the band recently played halftime at the Phoenix Suns game where they performed Cooper classics “School’s Out” and “I’m Eighteen”, with co-vocals by Alice and Dash). Not bad for a band who hasn’t even released a record yet.
In 2017, the band signed to EMP Label Group, the label of David Ellefson of Megadeth, and released an EP while setting out to work on their full-length debut.
Says Ellefson, “Alice Cooper took Megadeth out on our first big tour, and we’ve always had a great relationship. Alice wrote the foreword to my book My Life With Deth. So it’s been really exciting to be able to bring that relationship full circle and work with Dash and Co-Op, who have grown into an incredible rock band.”
2017 also brought the band on their first tour with One Eyed Doll, and labelmates Doll Skin, and they spent the first half of 2018 doing a mix of headlining dates and support for Flaw.