YMB -- city

 

Well, as it stands, the feared off-the-scales air quality deterioration apocalypse didn't quite happen, thankfully although Toronto remains quite hazy outside. I spoke with one of my relatives over in British Columbia and it's not too bad over there though they've also been affected by the smoke from the wildfires in that province. The alert will most likely remain in place for at least another day.

Life in the big city? Well, one aspect of it...and I know that this is something Los Angeles has been fighting for decades. But moving on, I was browsing through YouTube and noticed a video in my recommendations. Titled "city" by YMB, I found out that the band's name stands for Yoshinao Miyamoto Band led of course by vocalist and guitarist Yoshinao Miyamoto. His bandmates are (or were) vocalist and bassist Itocchi（いとっち）, drummer Hiroki Yamaguchi（ヤマグチヒロキ）and guitarist Ryohei Imai（今井涼平）.

"city", written and composed by Miyamoto, is a groovy laidback tune that seems to be the love child of City Pop and indies pop. It was released back in January 2019 as the title track for their debut (and possibly only) mini-album or EP, and it's all about a fellow who is at his wit's end with his life in the metropolis and feels that he needs to make that big change. Those chords running as the undercurrent for "city" feel like the ones that singing and songwriting YouTuber Sora Satoh (formerly Masa) taught us in one of his videos about the ingredients of his favourite genre of City Pop.

Under the official music video on YouTube, a number of links to the YMB members via Twitter and their website are listed but none of them are active anymore, although their Spotify account is apparently still alive. On one other site that I found via Yahoo.jp, there was a very tiny blurb describing YMB as being from Osaka delving into fresh but also nostalgic melodies. I don't know what has happened to them; maybe they broke up but if anyone can illuminate me on their situation, please let us know.