The Yellow Monkey has its roots in 1988, formed by Kazuya Yoshii when his previous band Urgh Police disbanded.

When fellow heavy metal band Murbas disbanded, Yoshii switched from bass to guitar and recruited their bassist Youichi Hirose because he liked his personality and playing style.

After vocalist Kenichi Matsuo (ex-Shock) left due to musical differences, they recruited Eiji's older brother Hideaki (also formerly of Killer May) as lead guitarist.

[5] Yoshii was temporarily providing vocals while they looked for a new singer, but when they received an offer to make a record, he permanently became frontman of the band.

[5] The Yellow Monkey started to play in the underground circuit, being well known for not only their latent songwriting quality, but also because of their live performances, which would soon become the main characteristics of the group.

It was an independently released album with raw sonority, with many influences from hard rock, and containing well-shaped but peculiar lyrics (all of them written by Yoshii).

The work was very well received by the public, opening the doors for their major label debut album, The Night Snails and Plastic Boogie, of 1992 on Triad/Nippon Columbia.

It tells the saga of Jaguar, a World War II soldier who died in combat and comes back to life in the present day and tries to find his love, Mary.

Despite the thundering success of the record, The Yellow Monkey continued being a cult band, since their lyrics and live performances remained consistent.

The band continued to sporadically use the Mekara Uroko (メカラ ウロコ) name for special concerts and events, which were usually held on December 28.

Bringing more complex and mature songs, Sicks, was an amazing critical success and repeated the sales of the previous album.

[9] They also did a small, two-date tour of the United Kingdom in July 1998, and held Mekara Uroko 9 at the Nippon Budokan on December 28, 1998.

[7] After completing the extensive Punch Drunkard tour in March 1999, the group took the rest of the year off; performing only two more concerts.

This included Mekara Uroko 10 at the Nippon Budokan on December 28, which featured guest musicians and celebrated their tenth anniversary.

The members released many solo albums, with Kazuya continuing to have success and adopting the stage name of Yoshii Lovinson, which he abandoned some years later.

Annie teamed up with Anchang (Sex Machineguns) and Natchin (Siam Shade) to form the trio Big Bites.

[12] In 2004, the band released a large compilation Mother of All the Best, which included three discs with some singles, all b-sides, some demo-version songs and live performances.

[13] However, the four members got together one last time for the final day of The Exhibition and Video Festival of The Yellow Monkey Mekara Uroko 15 held at the Tokyo Dome on December 26, 2004, and performed "Jam".

[18] Rumors began circulating about the band reforming after the appearance of a mysterious website with a picture of a cocoon and a timer counting down to January 8, 2016.

Various clues on the page led to the notion of the band reuniting, including GPS coordinates of the venue where they held their first concert.

It was confirmed on January 8 that The Yellow Monkey would reform for a twenty-date arena tour, beginning with their first concert in fifteen years on May 11 at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium.

[36] On August 6, the band performed a surprise concert at Shibuya La Mama, where they played their first gig almost 30 years earlier, limited to 250 people.

Four additional anniversary dome concerts were held between November 3 and December 28, and were released on home video in March 2021.

[41] All four members of The Yellow Monkey contributed to the March 2023 single "Bye-Bye Show" by the idol group Bish.

[1] Rockin'On's Tomoki Takahashi noted that while all four members originated in the 1980s' Japanese metal scene, their sound blends elements of David Bowie, T. Rex, Lou Reed, and the New York Dolls.

[46] However, Aoki wrote that, despite this Western influence, The Yellow Monkey consciously uses uniquely Japanese expressions via melody, lyrics, and themes.