Tak Matsumoto News

Tak Matsumoto’s very own label, House Of Strings, has announced that Tak Matsumoto’s latest album Strings Of My Soul is going to be released on June 20th, 2012. Tak’s new album gives off a feeling that it is a best-of compilation as quite a few tracks have already been released on Tak’s previous works.

A huge part of the album is made up of tracks from Tak’s self-described solo magnum opus, Hana (2002). Tracks such as “Koi-Uta”, “#1090 Sen Mu Ichiya”, “Hana”, “BLUE” (“Misudouji BLUE”) and “Romeo & Juliet” are all from Hana, leaving it to account for five of the thirteen tracks from Strings Of My Soul.

While this may the vibe of a best-of compilation, all of the tracks on the album have been remixed and remastered. In addition, Grammy Award winner Paul Brown has been involved as producer, engineer, and mixer on a couple of tracks such as Tak’s new song “Live Life”. Tak’s old friend Larry Carlton also makes an appearance on the track “SUKIYAKI” where the two play a cover together.

The album comes in two flavors: a CD-only edition and a limited CD+DVD version. The CD version will set you back 3,059 Yen while the CD+DVD version will cost you 3,780 Yen.

Pre-order:

CDJapan: [Regular Version] [CD+DVD Version]
Amazon(JP): [Regular Version] [CD+DVD Version]
HMV: [Regular Version] [CD+DVD Version]

See the track listing as well as the CD+DVD version content after the break.

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News

May 1st’s morning papers are reporting a very interesting bit of news: K-Pop singer Kim Hyun-joong is going to collaborate with B’z on his new single “HEAT”. Said single is going to be released on July 4th, 2012. Kim Hyun-joong became known as leader of the Korean boyband SS501 and has started a career as a solo artist last year, releasing his debut solo mini album Break Down on June 8, 2011.

As for the song itself, Tak provided the guitar work for the piece and Koshi provided the lyrics for the song. The two can even be heard on the track itself: Tak is supporting on guitar and Koshi is doing the vocals for the chorus!

This news has angered a considerable amount of Japanese B’z fans as they are disappointed by the band. If B’z was collaborate with another band, it should be a high profile one. B’z has played with Aerosmith, Linkin Park and Steve Vai in the past. Now a K-Pop singer? We’ll see what else this year has in store for us!

Stay tuned!

UPDATE 5/1:
Apparently I have made a huge mistake here. I didn’t think there would be a Kim Hyun-joong and a Kim Hyung Jun in the same boyband. And that there would be a difference. haha I apologize for the confusion this has caused.

News

More than a year has passed since a very strong earthquake hit Japan. The resulting Tsunamis that hit the east coast of Japan caused the deaths of more than 10,000 people. But that is not all, the Tsunami that hit the coast of Japan destroyed the cooling systems of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which led to the most disastrous nuclear power incident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The situation has still not been resolved although it’s not that often on the news anymore.

B’z has been hard at work, trying to support the efforts to rebuild destroyed homes and provide supplies by donating 50 million yen in March 2011. Furthermore, during their tour in support of their latest album C’mon, fans in attendance were able to buy so-called “charity merchandise items” where 100% of the proceedings would go to charity. The band has announced on April 9, 2012 that they raised about 64,301,000 Yen which will be donated to Save the Children JAPAN as well as ChildFund JAPAN.

The band has also collaborated with Linkin Park on their Music for Relief project and decided to do a charity concert together in LA. Together, they were able to raise $357,000 for the people in Japan.

Check out the video after the break. Mike also explains how he got to know B’z.

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News

This hasn’t been posted on B’z Official Website yet, so this news is currently exclusive to B’z Party members. Good thing that I recently became one. B’z tour in support of their album C’mon entitled B’z LIVE-GYM 2011 -C’mon- will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 30th. Both editions will be priced at 6,300 Yen and will feature no additional content such as backstage footage. Runtime is approx. 150 minutes.

You can find the set list of the concert after the break.

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Feature

The special 50th B’z single, GO FOR IT, BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku-, is now out, and what better way to celebrate than to watch the music video complete with English translation!

B’z – GO FOR IT, BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku-

1. GO FOR IT, BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku- (PEPSI NEX commercial theme song)
English: GO FOR IT, BABY -Mountains of Memories-

2. Honoka naru Hi (仄かなる火)
English: Vague Fire

3. Ryuusei Mask (流星マスク)
English: Shooting Star Mask

Price (limited edition w/ DVD): 1,785 yen
Price (regular edition): 1,260 yen

Release date: 2012.04.04

The limited edition of the single features the “GO FOR IT, BABY -Kioku no Sanmyaku-” music video as well as three performances from the PEPSI NEX presents B’z 1 DAY LIVE at Shibuya AX from last year:

1. Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo
2. Ichibu to Zenbu
3. Liar! Liar!

Special campaign: Input the code included in the package for the single to win one of 2,000 B’z x PEPSI NEX special T-shirts! You have until April 30th to enter.