Yogee New Waves -- DOWNTOWN/Night Sliders

 

From looking through the discography page on their website, I don't think that the band Yogee New Waves have put their cover of "Downtown" into an actual recording, but their take on the classic so resembles Sugar Babe's original that I just had to put them onto the blog. That galloping rhythm, the flirtatious guitar and the delivery by everybody certainly had me wondering if Yogee New Waves was a clone band for Tatsuro Yamashita（山下達郎）and Taeko Ohnuki's（大貫妙子）old group. Incidentally, the above video was supposedly of a late 2018 live performance at Zepp Diver City Tokyo right by the bay which is how I will label the year.

Yogee New Waves began in 2013 as a duo consisting of guitarist/vocalist Kengo Kakudate（角舘健悟）and bassist Naoki Yazawa（矢澤直紀）who were childhood friends since elementary school and later became involved with a funk band as high school students. Drummer Tetsushi Kasuya（粕谷哲司）joined later on and there were a few other lineup changes including Yazawa's departure in early 2017 to be replaced by guitarist Fumiya Takemura（竹村郁哉）. The current lineup has Kakudate, Kasuya and Takemura. J-Wiki has listed the band as one delving into rock and City Pop.

Up to now, Yogee New Waves has released four albums, four EPs and six singles. The fourth and latest album is "Windorgan" from October 2021 which managed to reach No. 27 on Oricon. One of the tracks from that release is "Night Sliders" written and composed by Kakudate. It's undeniably a YNW tune but I think that it may have also inhaled the spirit of not only Sugar Babe but 1990s Original Love as well. If either of those great bands had decided to release a tune these days, "Night Sliders" could have been the result.

The music video may have really wanted to focus on the flora of what I assume is Tokyo, but the lyrics seem to be about a night owl in the pandemic era trying to get that feeling of excitement, perhaps with that special someone. Maybe the two just want to feel alive again outside while no longer having to be cooped up in the apartment.