paris match -- Saturday

Back in the days when I was teaching at my second school during my years in Tokyo, a couple of students and I talked about our choices in music. When I mentioned that I liked bossa nova, one of the two immediately chirped up and recommended a band by the name of paris match. I'd actually heard the name before but never tried out their stuff, but the young lady heartily endorsed their material which apparently ran the gamut from bossa nova to jazz to Shibuya-kei. She also stated that paris match was also an ideal representative of another Japanese sub-genre: Cafe Pop.

It wasn't too long that I followed my student's advice and picked up one of the band's albums, "Type III" (their 3rd) from June 2002. The first track was also their 5th single from the same month and year, "Saturday". And boy, did it groove. Visions of George Benson on his guitar entered my mind as things started off. Yup, it was definitely one of those songs that was not only Shibuya-friendly but also Omotesando-friendly, Harajuku-friendly and Aoyama-friendly.

As you can see from the official music video above, "Saturday" makes for fine driving music as well as a tribute to graphic designers and foot fetishists. I'm not sure when that car was driving on the Tokyo highways (perhaps a Saturday) but I believe a lot of daily commuters were probably looking on with extreme envy. I certainly wouldn't mind a drive like that.

paris match launched from 1998 as a musical trio consisting of leader and composer Yosuke Sugiyama（杉山洋介）, lyricist Tai Furusawa（古澤辰勲）and vocalist Mari Mizuno（ミズノマリ）. According to their history on J-Wiki, the name of the group derived from a song, "The Paris Match", by British band, The Style Council, whom I love for "My Ever Changing Moods". And y'know, I think there was a bit of musical inspiration as well by them on paris match.

Ebisu Garden Place
It was an October Saturday.