Joe Wong and The Nite Creatures
I found this tune at SRR. When I started looking for information on Joe Wong, I really went down the rabbit hole!
From Joe’s official website, I learned:
Born in Milwaukee, WI, Joe studied several instruments as a child and began touring and recording with punk and indie bands at age 14. Joe earned a scholarship to Berklee School of Music, where he studied jazz performance and music production, before leaving it all behind to live in isolation at a farm and work on music up to 16 hours a day. After re-connecting with civilization, Joe worked as a drummer—primarily with jazz, latin, and African artists. Later, he moved to NY and reconnected with his rock roots with acclaimed artists: Parts & Labor, Marnie Stern, Aa, Man Forever, and Mary Timony. As a concert musician, Joe has performed with NY-based New Music collective, Wordless Music.
I also learned that, “Waiting” is from Joe Wong’s newest album, “Mere Survival” with his band, The Nite Creatures. But from discogs, I also learned that Joe has three prior albums. His first album, “Nite Creatures,” was released in 2020. The other two albums are soundtracks for TV series that he did, one also from 2020, for the Netflix series, “The Midnight Gospel” and the other in 2022 for Seasons 1 & 2 of “Russian Doll,” another Netflix series (that I have seen and loved, at least S1 of it.) My younger son and his wife both recommended The Midnight Gospel, but the animation was a little too bright and psychedelic for me. Talking with them about the series, they said the animation and what’s being said are independent of each other and I think the dialogue has been taken from Joe’s podcast. (don’t quote me on that.)
Not only does Joe have these 4 albums and *lots* of other musical scoring for series and films under his belt, he also has a podcast, called “The Trap Set of Joe Wong.”
Taken from Northern Transmissions: The Last Independent Music Site:
The Nite Creatures band features Mary Timony (Helium, Ex Hex,) Crisanta Baker (Lo Moon,) Matt Cameron (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden,) Mary Lattimore, Chad Molter (Faraquet, Medications,) Mark Cisneros (Hammered Hulls, Kid Congo, The Makeup,) Ryan Burns, along with a 12-piece orchestra and special guests.
I would highly recommend you follow the Northern Transmissions link to get some excellent information about the new album. “Mere Survival” is set to be released TODAY!
This music is not rock and roll by any means, and that’s OK. It’s good to change things up once in awhile. It is lush and full of raw emotion, which works for me.
I looked out there for lyrics and couldn’t find them.
Tao-Talk 
that is a lovely song Lisa :-)
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I think so also, Carol Anne. So happy you like it.
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I like the track. I’ll check out Joe Wong’ other releases.
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Glad you like it. I was surprised to learn he did soundtracks on Russian Doll and The Midnight Gospel.
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His singing reminds me of the Beatles.
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Jim, I can hear that also, both in his singing and in the music with the arrangements and ensemble playing. I am geeked to learn Matt Cameron plays drums on the album (you may or may not know that Soundgarden and Pearl Jam are 2 of my favorite bands.)
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Russian Doll was fabulous as was the music. Good stuff this Joe Wong!
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Uh huh!
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😊
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I think I did know that about you at one time.
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Mary Timony has been playing around New York for awhile. I hear the Beatles echo also. Nice. (K)
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Kerfe, I wondered if any of the names in the NY music collective would be familiar to you.
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The harpist, Mary Lattimore, has also been around awhile. She plays with a lot of different people too.
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It has some Pink Floyd and some bright 60s…he combined a lot of sounds on this including trippy. I really like it. The production is super.
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I like what you hear in it. It’s something different for sure.
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It surprised me to hear it in this day and time. It’s retro and modern at the same time.
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I agree wholeheartedly with what Max said…this is retro and cutting-edge at the same time. Once that orchestra kicked in, I was all in. Great find, Lisa!
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Bruce, listening to the weekly playlist is like panning for gold. Every so often I find a nugget like this one :) Glad you like it and hear what you hear in it.
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“Waiting” by Joe Wong is one of the songs featured in my weekly new music review tomorrow. It wasn’t in my Release Radar, but I found it independently. I had never heard of Wong before. It’s a great sounding song. I’m not always a fan of heavy orchestration, but I really like the result in this case. I wonder whether the orchestration may have been inspired by his film score compositions.
Between composing film scores, playing drums with other band, recording his own solo music and hosting a radio/podcast show, Wong has an impressive resume. One also wonders whether he has time to sleep! :-)
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Happy you also found him, Christian. From what I read at the one site he and the band will be touring with the full orchestra, but it may just be local, near where he’s at in CA.
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