YONA YONA WEEKENDERS -- Yoru no groovin'（夜のgroovin'）

 

My observation has been that certain types of Japanese pop music from the past have been getting their renovations in this century. Aidoru music has been getting injections of indies and hard rock, and even City Pop of the 1970s and 1980s has been popping up here and there with some new flavours. For example, I wrote about Natsu Summer earlier this morning with her blend of City Pop and reggae.

I'm uncertain whether the band YONA YONA WEEKENDERS has actually mixed Neo-City Pop and punk into any of their music since I've only heard the one song so far. However, their J-Wiki profile lists them as covering the wide range of City Pop, regular J-Pop and then punk. Would love to hear that sort of blend if possible.

YONA YONA WEEKENDERS has been around since 2016 and they hail from Naka-Meguro, Tokyo. Consisting of vocalist/guitarist Isono-kun（磯野くん）, guitarist Kiichi（キイチ）, bassist Shingo Suzuki（スズキシンゴ）and drummer Takeshi/Takefumi "Beatsoldier" Kohara（小原“Beatsoldier”壮史）, J-Wiki has described the band as a group coming from mellowcore punk sensibilities with "snack-worthy good music". Well, I do love my Pringles and Kaki-P. As for the origin of the band's name, it comes from the fact that all of the members have been working as company employees by day and then musicians at night and on the weekends (the expression "yona yona" means "night after night").

In their indies period with the label para de casa before 2021, YONA YONA WEEKENDERS already released a few singles and EPs with their first of the latter being "Yoru to Album"（夜とアルバム...Night and the Album） which came out in November 2019. "Yoru no groovin'" (Night Groovin'), written and composed by Isono-kun, is indeed a grooving and gliding guitar-driven nighttime tune which does have a city vibe albeit not of the major centres such as Ginza and Akasaka. It actually seems to reflect more of the nocturnal side of the smaller hubs including the band's native Naka-Meguro or even the neighbourhood of Jiyugaoka whose fuzzy photo is up at the top. Nope, no sign of punk in there. I think that even the cover for "Yoru to Album" kinda reflects that inner city feeling.