Site News

This long-overdue redux of the site was built from the ground up as a central hub of B’z information. We wanted to re-purpose the site to more resemble what we felt would be the ultimate B’z resource, and in combination with our continued efforts on the B’z Wiki, we hope you will agree! The all-new OFF THE LOCK intends to bring you more features, more videos, more translations, and more up-to-date, original B’z content than ever before. To begin, we would like to introduce you to a core feature on this new version of the site: Daily B’z.

Introducing Daily B’z

Daily B’z utilizes our repository of B’z information, photographs, translations, and more in order to provide new curated content every day from here on—in fact, you can see the first entry for May 24th, 2017, live on the sidebar right now! You may also rest assured that no combination of content will ever be repeated for Daily B’z. Not only will we be constantly adding new Daily Photos, Lyrics of the Day, Today’s Featured B’z Wiki Articles, and of course any releases and happenings in the B’z world to This Day in B’z History, we have already arranged thousands of entries that will cycle through independently each and every day from here on. That means, of course, that May 24th this year won’t in any way resemble May 24th of 2018, and never again will any of the current Daily Photo, Lyrics of the Day, This Day in B’z History, or Today’s Featured B’z Wiki Article share the same space again.

Daily B’z will automatically update every day at 12:00 noon CET for Europeans and 6 AM EST for the Eastern U.S. so be sure to check what all we have in store!

Navigation & Features

Foremost, you will see that we have greatly streamlined the general navigation of the site. The top-bar will now direct you to relevant pages on the B’z Wiki and we have plans to offer various media in a dedicated section in the future. Additionally, we have now added a specially-chosen Featured Article that will change roughly every week.

We have also overhauled our categorization and tagging systems. The entire past decade of reporting, articles, videos, and translations have all been re-organized to make navigating the archive of B’z news simpler and more efficient. You will see on the home page’s News Archive section that these are all now navigable by year and topic, which we hope is an improvement over past efforts. Likewise, you will see that we have added External Links to outside B’z sources and a Where To Buy section for the common question as to where B’z items may be purchased. This also includes an up-to-date listing of all the B’z and solo output available digitally worldwide on iTunes with direct links to each.

You will see that we have specially-designed icons for our different categories as well to help differentiate each:

Mobile Version & Optimization

Snapshot of OTL Mobile currently in development

One feature we have often neglected in the past is a mobile version of OFF THE LOCK. Mobile browsing has become increasingly important in the near-decade since the site was launched, and we have decided to make it a focus to create a mobile-centric version in the near future. You can view a preview to the right of its current state. We expect OTL Mobile to be available in the near future and will be sure to post an update when it is nearing completion. Similarly, we are still working on optimizing the current design for multiple browsers and setups. We of course welcome any feedback you may have already!

In addition to the many other changes and us migrating to a newer, faster server, we have also revitalized our back catalogue of uploaded content. Virtually every video we have translated for the site over the years has been restored in its original quality and for those few that are missing, we are aiming to have them back where they belong in a matter of days. We likewise will be enabling comments on all articles from 2008 to now as we once did, instead of closing them after a set time. This policy was originally adopted as an anti-spam measure, but if you now have thoughts on older posts or videos that you come across whilst exploring the archive, feel free to chime in as you see fit.

We are hopeful that this new version of OFF THE LOCK will be a valuable resource for B’z fans and one that you believe best exemplifies what you want from B’z coverage as a fellow fan. If you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, let us know in the comments! Stay tuned for further updates!

Site News

The B’z Wiki, the most complete English resource for B’z online, now has its own domain at www.bzwiki.com! We are constantly adding new content, articles, translations, interviews, and transcriptions to the wiki and will always attempt to keep it as up to date as possible. If you are a fellow fan and wish to help out, send an e-mail to offthelock.com -at- gmail.com to sign up for an account.

For some of the articles you may have missed, check out some of the ones below that are available for viewing right now:

• B’z Unreleased Works — A complete list of all unreleased songs, demos, alternate versions, and live shows that never received proper releases
• B’z Songs by LIVE-GYM — An exhaustive list of every B’z song ever performed live, along with the total amount of performances for each song and during exactly which tours each performance took place
• B’z Home Videos — Listing of all B’z home videos as well as their contents, including every setlist and in every format each was ever issued
• B’z Television Appearances — A comprehensive list of B’z appearances on television dating all the way back to their first in 1989
• B’z Sales Records — List of all sales totals for B’z albums, singles, and home videos, along with various accolades and achievements scored by the band

Site News

Have you ever been reading the B’z Wiki and wanted to hear the song you were reading about? Maybe as a reminder or as your first exposure, or even just to hear an old favorite one more time? Well, now you can! After a great deal of work and experimentation, you can now sample each and every B’z song on all of their works! Check out the Track Listing section on any page to test it out. For some quick links, give it a chance on any of the pages below:

English Album

New Horizon

Shoudou

Site News

Hello B’z fans!

We are currently working on restructuring the site and, of course, want to offer you more content. As B’z 25th anniversary is coming up and tour dates are going to be announced soon, we want to ensure that you’ll be able to grab tickets to one of those shows if you can afford it. Yes, that means we’ll show you how to sign up for the fanclub – B’z Party! Additionally, to ensure that you’ll show up dressed as a B’z fan, we’ll show you how to order merchandise from B’z the Store!

But that is not all… we’re going to provide more interview translations and backstage reports in the near future. And subtitled videos as well! We will also be looking for dedicated B’z fans who can help us extend the wiki and help with translations. Look forward to that, too.

To kick off our celebrations for the 25th anniversary… I’m sure you’ve already checked out the picture of the new 2013 calendar… Awesome, right? Head to the Wallpaper section which can be found under Media of this site to grab it in high quality!

Keep on rockin’

–Tobias

Site News

Just in time for the new year, I have received the new B’z calendar 2013 from B’z Party! As with previous editions of the calendar, there are two versions of it: a monthly one and a weekly one. The monthly one is the larger version which is hung on a wall. I ordered the monthly version just like the past years. But this time, they spiced up the calendar! Compared to the previous edition, the 2013 is much larger in size. Unfortunately, that means it won’t fit into my scanner anymore and thus have to resort to taking pictures of it.

The cover of the 2013 calendar

The pictures for the 2013 calendar were shot in California during their 2012 North American tour. Also, for the first time, Shane and Barry have joined Tak and Koshi for the photoshoot. The four are on just one picture, though. Look forward to seeing it! I won’t tell you which month. 😉

Size comparison: 2012 calendar vs. 2013 calendar

You can now take a look at the picture for January. We are starting out with a very cool picture! Enjoy!

Site News

A couple of readers have been wondering what happened to B’z Net Party ‒ the forum for B’z fans. We’ve been monitoring the activity on B’z Net Party for several months and have come to the conclusion that the forum isn’t really being frequented anymore. Therefore, we decided to shut it off as maintaining it meant a lot of work. For the time being, if you would like to talk to fellow B’z fans, your best option is to participate in our community on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/187620267966425/

We would like to express our gratitude to Keen, who has been running a formidable B’z fansite as well as the original B’z Net Party. Without her, the international B’z community wouldn’t be what it is today. And we believe that a lot of people wouldn’t even know that much about B’z without her site.