36?

The Ship was packed for 36?’s hometown show between legs of their extensive, ongoing American tours. Featuring the full band and a room full of friends, 36? ripped through their set with their trademark manic intensity, swirling and dancing on stage like broken reflections in a funhouse mirror. Frontman Taylor Cochrane, clad in a spectacular silver jacket, held the crowd in his hands as he mangled the microphone stand between dance moves, leading both band and room through a frenzied list of 36?’s best songs. It was a breathless show that, once again, cemented 36? as one of Calgary’s finest bands.

Relative newcomers to the scene, Aruba, were direct support as the super group of super friends, featuring familiar faces from bands like All Hands on Jane, 36?, The Tontos and The Rumble, turned the party up with their Jimmy Buffet-meets-drunken-yacht-garage-rock antics. The band is pure fun no matter how you look at it, just a feel good hit for the summer that was perfect on such a sticky, hot night.

Opening the night was Laura Hickli, who brought her emotive and powerful dark pop into the open. With songs about hardship and trauma, Hickli’s voice kept the gathering crowd spellbound in her trance. - Beatroute

Following a string of recent song drops, Calgary's 36? are gearing up for a fast-approaching new album. Titled Milk Mountain, the full-length arrives on May 10 via File Under: Music. And while that release date is a few days out, you can stream the entire album now.

For the unfamiliar, 36? comes at the hands of project mastermind Taylor Cochrane, who teamed up with producer/engineer Graham Lessard (Stars, Kevin Drew, Timber Timbre) to create Milk Mountain at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity.

A press release describes the album like this:

The resulting take on Cochrane's experimental indie/alt/art rock and pop range from post-heartbreak odes to MGMT-esque radio rockers forged from a sonic palette that includes guitars, synths, and a couple of power tools. What could have been chaos is instead a precision piece trying to capture the truest version of the complex feelings Cochrane has experienced through his struggles with mental health and self realization. 



Down below, you can hear how that actually all plays out for yourself.



To go along with the new album, 36? have lined up a North American tour, which just kicked off over the weekend. You can see all the upcoming dates below.

You can pre-order, Milk Mountain over here or here.

Tour dates:


05/08 Vancouver, BC - Red Gate

05/09 Bellingham, WA - Firefly Lounge

05/10 Guemes Island, WA - Guemes Island General Store

05/11 Seattle, WA - TBA

05/15 Corvallis, OR - House Show - Clown College

05/16 Portland, OR - High Water Mark

05/17 Eugene, OR - The Wandering Goat

05/18 Bend, OR - The Capitol

05/22 San Francisco, CA - The Brick and Mortar

05/23 Oakland, CA - TBA

05/24 Cupertino, CA - Homestead Bowl & The X Bar

05/25 Los Angeles CA - TBA

05/29 Fullerton, CA - Riff Mountain

05/30 San Diego, CA - TBA

05/31 Santa Ana, CA - FTG Warehouse

06/01 Phoenix, AZ - Trunk Space

06/05 Tucson, AZ - House Show

06/06 Albuquerque, NM - The Wagon Wheel

06/07 Las Vegas, NV - The Skillet

06/12 Provo, UT - The Rad Shack

06/13 Billings, MT - Kirk's Grocery

06/14 Fernie, BC - The Royal - Exclaim!

In an age where relationships are measured in milliseconds with swipes right and digitized hearts littering our notifications, 36?’s newest album, Milk Mountain, comes across as the soundtrack for figuring yourself out amidst all the noise and chaos. It’s a complex record, one that takes frontman-songwriter Taylor Cochrane’s precocious talent for putting together (and pulling apart) undeniable hooks and elevates it all with intensely personal songwriting that comes from a position of self-realization, acceptance and love.

Although it’s the band’s most ambitious and most polished effort to date, their signature sound, a free-spirited collision between art and pop, remains intact. There’s a more complete confidence driving it forward, catching the attention of the taste-making Vancouver label, File Under: Music, who will release Milk Mountain this month supported by a tour through the States.

It’s also an album that represents a major evolution for Cochrane as a songwriter. Since he first started writing music as a teen, Cochrane has always considered himself “a medium for the art to speak through,” rather than mining his own personal experiences to transmute into song. But on Milk Mountain, for the first time, he offers up a direct conduit to his innermost feelings.

“It took me a really long time to think that way. To really think that the way I felt about things was actually worth hearing about. I’ve always had a lot of confidence in my ability to create melody and soundscapes, but it’s always been a struggle for me to write directly from experience. I’ve always kind of felt like the art isn’t mine, that I’m just this beacon that it contacts and comes through. It’s never really felt like my own actual life experiences were really worthy.”

What makes Milk Mountain so powerful as a record is that it offers a glimpse into an identity in flux — Cochrane in transition not only as a songwriter, but a person who is learning to accept who he is and what he is looking for in his personal, romantic relationships. Placing himself as an artist into the songs front and center, rather than writing through fictionalized characters, Taylor came to terms with who he is in his own life. On the song “Jealous,” he straddles his changing sense of self in order to explore his emerging identity as a polyamorous person.

“With that song, I don’t understand jealousy at all, but through the music, I’m trying to explore what that it feels like, based on trying to get into the mindset of the other side of a situation that I was a part of.”

That particular situation was realizing that his monogamous relationship at the time wasn’t necessarily who he really was, and that he was being unfair to himself and his partner by erasing his identity as a polyamorous person. With the track “But I Don’t Know Myself (Suddenly),” Cochrane continues his exploration, bridging the chasm between his old identities and his newfound confidence — a “catalyst,” as he puts it, for his self-realization.

“I wrote the first half while still in that [monogamous] relationship. I came home from Montreal knowing that I couldn’t stay with this person because I knew they wouldn’t be okay with a polyamorous relationship. And that I couldn’t be myself without some serious self-hate staying in a monogamous relationship… She was at work and I recorded the first half of the song. She came home later that night and we broke up, and I ended up recording the second half of the song. And that’s the only song that I used the original vocals from the demo, because there’s a moment that’s captured in there, the realness of the situation.”

Embracing his polyamorous self and understanding that his “feelings are valid, even if they’re not the norm,” Milk Mountain is driven by the massive changes in who Cochrane is and being willing to accept himself for that.

“The album is almost like the beginning stages of me figuring out who I actually am. I guess it’s an exciting time, for that reason. I feel like I’m on the cusp of actually believing in myself.” - Beatroute

36? — Where Do We Go From Here: A delightfully barmy, musically schizophrenic, jaw-droppingly unfettered journey through the songwriting genius/weirdness of frontman Taylor Cochrane. It’s all over the place, yet holds together remarkably as a complete post-rock statement, akin to, say, Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted. Part pop, part art-rock, part psych-jazz, it’s accessible while still being somewhat insane. And it isn’t just the best Calgary album of the year, it’s the album of the year, period. - Mike Bell, The Calgary Herald

There is something so refreshing about Calgarian band 36? and their eclectic new album where do we go from here?. Like Broken Social Scene before them, the band seamlessly strings together tracks that share very little in common with exception of their undeniable creative energy. And like Broken Social Scene, instead of art house pretentiousness, the songs marry their quirky nature with completely accessible and uplifting song structures. Listening to these seventeen songs, you will be reminded of the bizarre, but positive and inviting nature of bands like Royal Canoe and Menomena (occasionally even Vampire Weekend). But don’t let the comparisons fool you, this is very much a unique offering. I can safely say I have never heard songs quite like this before (and I have definitely never heard a collection of songs like these before).

Also, don’t let the adjectives “accessible” or “uplifting” allow you to believe 36? writes trivial pop music. Despite being hidden in happy instrumentals, the subject matter of Taylor Cochrane’s songwriting is far from happy-go-lucky. kthxbye may be immersed in sunny guitar picking and peppy synth notes, but it in fact deals with the effects of over-medication on mental health. Cloud Chasers may have some beautiful male/female harmonies (Cochrane matched up with Kimberly Ilott), but it is actually depicting the recent failures the band has endured. And the raucous fun of Cpt ? (Caption Hook) may have some fist-pumping drum work (courtesy of Ryan Kusz), but it is surprisingly about a serial killer who turns people into marionettes (you know, that ol’ chestnut).

And that may be what impresses me so much about 36?: it is more than what it initially seems. Every new experience of this adventure of sound (and it is an adventure) will let you see new levels of talent. At first listen you will think “wow, these guys are fun”. Second listen – “wow, these guys are fantastic musicians”. Third listen – “wow, these guys are great song writers”. With each additional listen making you think “36? may just be incredible”.

That is the strength of where do we go from here?. It is an album that wields universal appeal but proudly displays a unique personality. It has radio ready singles and droning avant-garde pieces. It has a grounding weight with an elating lightness. It is scatterbrained and cohesive. It is an impressive display of song-crafting talent disguised as a space odyssey clusterfuck. And it is one of the most impressive this city has ever released. Be prepared to hear a lot more of 36?. - IMVERYAPE.com

Sometimes when you use clinical terms as descriptors it can come across as callous, as not being sensitive to those whom the terms and words have actual meaning.

Such it is with Calgary band 36? and their splendidly eclectic sound, one that recalls such uncategorical rock acts such as Ween, The Mink Lungs, Mercury Rev or a host of other modern oddities that start from a straight song centre and expand to the outer and every reaches.

Bouncing bravely, brilliantly and effortlessly from the psych of the Flaming Lips to the bearded folk of The Avett Brothers to the quirk pop of Pavement to the lo-fi of Sebadoh to the new glam of The Killers to the space rock of Hawkwind to the alt choral exultations of The Polyphonic Spree to the dirty, sexy, dream funk of Prince to the Canadiana feel of The Rheostatics, the quartet’s newest release Where Do We Go From Here? is an aural experience that is as mind-boggling as it is breathtakingly masterful. And it’s one of the best alt rock records you will hear all year from this or any other city — a modest masterpiece that should have a long, illustrious life.

In another time and another era one might dub it and 36? as a schizophrenic listen. Or, perhaps, a little more softened, as being manic or an ADD experience.

On that last one, Taylor Cochrane, the main creative force behind the band may just cut you some slack.

“My journey writing this was based around my growing psychotic brain in my high school years,” says the young songwriter, sitting in Cafe Beano with bandmate Scott White. “And a lot of my learning on how to write music happened then. I never slept so I was really crazy and emotional, but at the same time I was on ADD medication so I could concentrate really well.”

He laughs. “So it made for really easy to access emotions for songwriting and then really productive (periods).”

“You told me you were addicted to recording,” says White. “You had to do it, it was like a compulsion.”

Cochrane nods his head. “Yeah, yeah, totally. I would basically spend all of my time in my parents’ basement recording.”

It took some time, he says, to be coaxed out of that basement and bring his music above ground for the rest of us to enjoy, despite having produced three albums and an EP’s worth of material on his own under the 36? moniker as well as a couple more under his name.

“I’ve finally learned to share it,” the 25-year-old Cochrane says. “But it’s something I’m still working on.”

That, thankfully, happened two years ago when he emerged and assembled a band around him — initially a six-piece — to help bring his songs to life, give them a little more heft with actual instrumentation rather than the synths or whatever else the songwriter had around him.

White, who’d previously been in the local funk act Kronic Groove Band with Cochrane, was more than happy to get involved, even considering the songwriter’s rather obsessive and perfectionist vision when it comes to his material.

White laughs. “I guess he can be a difficult guy at times but these songs are really cool ... and it’s a lot of fun to get to play them and express my guitar playing,” he says. “It’s a lot of fun, I feel pretty blessed to know this guy because his creative outlet is insane.”

And, both he and Cochrane are quick to note that 36? is a band — rounded out by Eric Svilpis and Ryan Kusz — with each of the musicians sticking to the blueprint set out for them, but adding their own parts to serve what White rightly calls these “great songs.”

The 17 uniformly fantastic tracks — including a whacked-out ambient, noise work in three movements titled saturdayafternoon/thedevenish — are a mixture of new songs and those culled from some of the earlier releases, rethought out, re-recorded and made that much better by two years spent reworking them.

It’s somewhat amazing that in their collective reworkings, the album, as an entity, is given a certain amount of cohesion despite the fact that Cochrane admits his influences from the good five or so years they were conceived amounts to “everything.”

“When I’m writing a song, my influences are different every single time, it just depends what I’m listening to at the time,” he says.

“It’s very, very, very seldom that I find an artist that I can completely can’t find any good part about. Some things are not the best, but I can still find the good elements in it and enjoy it.”

Perhaps it can be explained by the fact that one of the influences he points to — not necessarily stylistically — is the somewhat unheralded 2004 “rock opera” by American band Say Anything titled ... Is A Real Boy.

Cochrane says that album inspired him to instil in Where Do We Go From Here?, which they’ll release with a Saturday show at the Palomino, a sense of theatricality, and even a thematic thrust, albeit one that is, in keeping with his aforementioned inspiration, darker and a little murkier than most.

That hasn’t necessarily made the album one that doesn’t have broad appeal, as one of the tracks helped them make it into the Top 10 of local radio station X92.9’s Xposure contest, and the band will make their way across Canada for their first tour later this spring that will land them in Toronto for Canadian Music Week.

And they’re certainly not ready to rest on their still blooming laurels, not content to sit still, with two new albums ready to go, including a “reprise” version of Where Do We Go?, using household objects as percussion and acoustic instruments to make more experimental versions of the songs, and to make the 70-minute record clock in at shorter 36 minutes, 36 seconds.

Obviously, that’s intentional, as is the fact the current version of the record closes with a 36-second song, and that before the album’s sonic triptych there’s 36 seconds of silence.

36?

“When I was under the influence of all of the ADD medication I was very paranoid and I would see patterns in almost everything and think everything had some sort of divine significance,” Cochrane explains.

“And the number 36 would just appear everywhere and once I thought that it was something that appeared everywhere then it did seem like it appeared everywhere. I guess I’m my own worst enemy with that.”

“I think it’s a similar thing with obsession,” White says. “Obsessions and compulsions. That’s maybe a theme we all share, we all have obsessions and compulsions that we don’t understand.”

Taylor laughs. “I think that the number is good because people will see that everywhere and remind them of the band.”

36? release their new album Where Do We Go from Here? with a show Saturday night at the Palomino. - Mike Bell, The Calgary Herald

It is early yet, but an album like where do we go from here? begs the question: could Calgary’s 36? have created the best album of the year?

It is an exciting idea, isn’t it? That a local band, a group of underdogs that have nowhere near reached the celebrity of fellow Calgarians VanGaalen and Tegan and Sara could produce a Funeral-like debut worthy of the number one spot on international year-end lists. That Taylor Cochrane, Scott White, Ryan Kusz, and Eric Svilpis could stand triumphant beside the likes of Mark Kozelek, Beck, and whatever other giant artist makes a mark on 2014.

It is an exciting idea created by an even more exciting album. Deserving of all the praise bestowed upon it, where do we go from here? is brimming with a stunning creative energy that we haven’t heard since the aforementioned Funeral was released in 2004 (Cochrane was only fifteen then). Even in a song as understatedly beautiful as Beauty/Strong, the imaginative minds of 36? have used a bouzouki, coffee grinder, drill, and a homemade guitar found in a trashcan whose pickups they used to record vocals. And just like Funeral, their creativity is matched only by their hopeful passion. When Cochrane cries out “close your eyes, it won’t be long. Watch your breath, we’re almost done” in the final moments of Man at the Door, or when he is backed by a tidal wave of background singers chanting “lift us up now!” at this is where I draw the line’s elating crescendo, you understand the album is more than just good music. where do we go from here? has a giant beating heart that will make every spin an uplifting and moving musical experience.

So although it is still early, and I have a difficult time condoning its thirteen minutes of Revolution 9-style droning, the album has made a deep impression on me. It has all but guaranteed a spot on IMVERYAPE’s top ten albums of the year, and perhaps, if no great surprises drop from the heavens, we have found our number one. - IMVERYAPE.com