Groovy is my name

Pizzicato Five were not only Tokyo's coolest combo, but one of the more elegant and style-conscious pop acts anywhere. Their image and music mixed a retro jet-age lounge aesthetic with elements of 1960s French spy-chic, pop art, and a playful tongue-in-cheek wit. The title of this blog is lifted from a Pizzicato Five album - themselves great borrowers of shiny things - and so they're a fitting topic for the first proper entry. But all this carefree style was underpinned by consistently great songs. Their song titles, usually only a loose translation, conveyed a real sense of the spirit of P5.

• Groovy Is My Name
• Let's Be Adult
• Tokyo, Mon Amour
• The Night Is Still Young
• Sophisticated Catchy
• The Audrey Hepburn Complex
• Twiggy vs. James Bond
• Non-Stop to Tokyo

After a string of great albums, such as Bossanova 2001 (1993) and Happy End of the World (1997), Pizzicato Five jetted off into the sunset. But they're certainly not forgotten by the legions of Pizzicato-maniacs. P5, I raise my glass of warmed sake to you.