Koshi Inaba News

Amidst high demand for tickets for Koshi Inaba’s and Stevie Salas’ collaborative tour 「CHUBBY GROOVE TOUR 2017」, seven additional dates have been added to the tour schedule. The dates added to the tour schedule are marked in bold. In other news, the tour logo as well as the support members for the upcoming tour have been revealed.

Koshi Inaba and Stevie Salas are releasing their collaborative album 「CHUBBY GROOVE」 on January 18th, 2017.

[Support Members]

Drums: Matt Sherrod
Bass: Stuart Zender
Keyboards: Amp Fiddler

INABA / SALAS “CHUBBY GROOVE TOUR 2017”

January 25 – Zepp Nagoya (Aichi)
January 26 – Zepp Namba (Osaka)
January 27 – Zepp Namba (Osaka)
January 30 – Zepp Sapporo (Hokkaido)
February 1 – Team Smile Sendai PIT (Sendai) *Additional Date
February 3 – DRUM LOGOS (Fukuoka)
February 4 – Kumamoto B.9 V1 (Kumamoto) *Additional Date
February 6 – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 7 – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 8 – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 13 – Namba Hatch (Osaka) *Additional Date
February 14 – BLUE LIVE HIROSHIMA (Hiroshima) *Additional Date
February 15 – Okayama CRAZYMAMA KINGDOM (Okayama) *Additional Date
February 17 – Takamatsu Festhalle (Takamatsu) *Additional Date
February 20 – Diamond Hall (Nagoya) *Additional Date

Koshi Inaba News

The cat is finally out of the bag! Koshi Inaba’s and Stevie Salas’ highly anticipated collaborative album has finally been announced. Their album titled 「CHUBBY GROOVE」 will release in Japan on January 18, 2017 contrary to previous rumors, which indicated that the album is going to be released in December. 「CHUBBY GROOVE」 features twelve tracks, with various famed musicians such as Ricky Peterson, Bernard Fowler (The Rolling Stones) and Taylor Hawkins (Foo Fighters) participating on the record. The album was mixed by Tim Palmer, who mixed albums for U2 and David Bowie in the past. It comes in a CD-only as well as a CD+DVD version, with the DVD version containing music videos to the tracks 「SAYONARA RIVER」「OVERDRIVE」and「AISHI-AISARE」(*whisper* they will probably be posted on YouTube anyway *whisper*). Unfortunately, the release does not feature a documentary video containing the excerpts shown in the 「SAYONARA RIVER」 music video, nor is a Blu-ray version available.

The album was recorded over the course of several months since May, and took place in different locations such as Tokyo, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Austin, Nashville and Toronto.

You can pre-order the album at the usual places: [YesAsia] [CDJapan] and [Amazon Japan].

Price (CD Only): 2,800 Yen
Price (CD+DVD): 3,700 Yen

「CHUBBY GROOVE」

[Tracklist]
01. SAYONARA RIVER
02. OVERDRIVE
03. WABISABI
04. AISHI-AISARE (Love-Be Loved)
05. shirase (The News / シラセ)
06. ERROR MESSAGE
07. NISHI-HIGASHI (EAST-WEST)
08. kunou no hate no sore mo kotae no hitotsu (The Thing at the End of Agony is also an Answer / 苦悩の果てのそれも答えのひとつ)
09. MARIE
10. BLINK
11. MY HEART YOUR HEART
12. TROPHY

Koshi Inaba News

Today we get a first glimpse at Koshi Inaba’s and Stevie Salas’ collaborative project. A possible song from their yet-to-be-announced upcoming album was uploaded to the “Chubby Groove Official Channel” on YouTube. The track 「SAYONARA RIVER」 features a groovy tune, with Stevie Salas no doubt rocking the guitar. In the video, we can see Koshi and Stevie travel various parts in the U.S. (and possibly Japan) as they work on their record. Check it out below!

Feature

Those of us at OFF THE LOCK have long intended to produce additional content that explores facets of the B’z catalogue in ways we have not before. And, with that in mind, we now bring you our very own countdown of the Top 50 B’z Guitar Solos! The order found here is the result of speculation and discussions from throughout the international B’z community over the years. We hope that it will, if nothing else, provide an overview of the vast variety of guitar work and how integral Tak’s solos are to the B’z sound.

In addition to excerpts of each song for the purposes of this countdown, we have also provided information on each guitar used to play each song with the information at our disposal. We cannot guarantee complete accuracy for many reasons, including the fact that Tak often employs several different guitars on each track, but hope it may prove informative nonetheless!

If you hear a song you aren’t quite familiar with or you’re reminded of one you’ve long wanted to own, consider picking up a physical copy of its album or single from CDJapan or YesAsia!

News

With this weekends’s release of the Shippuu Rondo film for which it serves as a theme, there is no better time for the band to release 「Fukiarenasai」 (フキアレナサイ, Blow Violently) to the masses—and they’ve done just that! The song, envisioned as a winter version of “ultra soul” as requested by the film’s producers, was announced in September and previewed in a trailer for the film, but with the band’s impending solo activities, fans were unsure when it would see a proper release. After the comparatively late release of 「Sekai wa Anata no Iro ni Naru」 when it came to digital form last month, it was unknown if B’z would be experimenting with further digital releases in the future. With today’s release of  「Fukiarenasai」 on iTunes Japan and all digital music platforms in the country, we now have our answer.

News

Koshi Inaba has this week announced his plans for a 2017 tour with Stevie Salas dubbed 「INABA / SALAS “CHUBBY GROOVE TOUR 2017”」. The tour will include mostly small club venues, with a capacity of about 2000 people each, and will be in support of Koshi’s and Stevie Salas’ yet to be announced collaboration album. The album is scheduled for a December release, pending an official announcement in the coming weeks.

While we already knew Koshi was working with Stevie Salas on a new record, with a tour planned for early 2017, Tak’s solo project was largely unknown. Tak will be touring with Hawaiian multi-instrumentalist Daniel Ho. Just like with Koshi’s tour, the tour will include small club venues by the likes of the BLUE NOTE.

Given that both Tak and Koshi now embark on another solo project, we probably won’t see any new B’z activities until at least March/April 2017. But most definitely in 2018 for their 30th anniversary Pleasure tour.

Here are the tour dates at a glance:

INABA / SALAS “CHUBBY GROOVE TOUR 2017”

January 25 – Zepp Nagoya (Aichi)
January 26 – Zepp Namba (Osaka)
January 27 – Zepp Namba (Osaka)
January 30 – Zepp Sapporo (Hokkaido)
February 3 – DRUM LOGOS (Fukuoka)
February 6 – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 7 – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 8 – Zepp Tokyo (Tokyo)

Tak Matsumoto & Daniel Ho Live! 2017 -Electric Island, Acoustic Sea-

February 25 – Blue Note Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 26 – Blue Note Tokyo (Tokyo)
February 28 – Nagoya Blue Note (Aichi)
March 1 – Nagoya Blue Note (Aichi)
March 2 – Nagoya Blue Note (Aichi)
March 4 – Billboard Live OSAKA (Osaka)
March 5 – Billboard Live OSAKA (Osaka)
March 6 – Billboard Live OSAKA (Osaka)
March 10 – Blue Note Tokyo (Tokyo)
March 11 – Blue Note Tokyo (Tokyo)
March 12 – Blue Note Tokyo (Tokyo)