Milwaukee’s concert scene has a lot going on, so we look at the shows coming up to find the ones you’ll look back on and be glad you went. Then we add them to our weekly Milwaukee Concert Picks sponsored by Educators Credit Union.
Portland, Oregon-based Graham Jonson (aka the psych-y, jazz-y project called quickly, quickly) grew up taking piano lessons as a toddler, got into J Dilla in grade school, and moved beyond by dipping into the process of writing and recording his own music bar by bar.
Deeply influenced by artists like Dilla and Madlib, quickly, quickly uses his Swiss Army Knife skills as a multi-instrumentalist to explore the sounds of jazz, psych, soul, hip-hop and R&B, swirling them together to create a layered but seamless flavor with a dash of humorous lyrics. His warm, jazz-fused bops are baked crispily with ‘60s psychedelic soul, evoking a bygone era when it was all about drum sounds and tape decay, which Jonson describes as “Easy Listening.”
Quickly, quickly’s biggest accolades have come from his debut full-length — The Long and Short of It — where snares snap and strings get woozy. That release on Ghostly International was described as “Technicolor Pop Bursts Beyond the Algorithm” by Pitchfork and (ahem) quickly kickstarted the formation of his six-piece live band.
In no time, quickly, quickly went from a budding artist’s bedroom project to a real-deal operation. Catch it here in Milwaukee, along with the soulfully deep *aya opening, at Cactus Club this Friday, Nov. 1.
Best concerts in Milwaukee this week
- Oct. 30: MX Lonely, Interlay, Human Antfarm, Obsess Tact @ X-Ray Arcade, 7 p.m.
- Oct. 30: Drive-By Truckers @ Pabst Theater, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 1: quickly, quickly; *aya @ Cactus Club, 8:30 p.m.
- Nov. 1: Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets @ Vivarium, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 1: Houndmouth w/Briscoe @ Pabst Theater, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 2: Altered Five Blues Band w/Gervis Myles, Robert Weiss @ Shank Hall, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 2: The Menzingers @ The Rave, 8 p.m.
- Nov. 2: Cassini Echoes (album release) w/Nineteen Thirteen, Exit Statements, J. Briozo @ Linneman’s, 7 p.m.
- Nov. 5: Grace Weber, Wave Chapelle @ X-Ray Arcade
