Tag Archives: TV & Radio

Feature

Yesterday in Japan, Koshi Inaba and Stevie Salas appeared on the J-WAVE radio program 「SAPPORO BEER OTOAJITO」 for a live interview on LINE LIVE. The event, hosted by Japanese-American radio personality Chris Peppler, was facilitated in English and Japanese and can be viewed in archive form here. Keep in mind this is for the pre-show segment, which does not include the usual live audience.

The stream began with the below commercial for the album that featured two new songs: 「AISHI-AISARE」 and 「OVERDRIVE」. Notably, the program closes with an alternate version that swaps the order (also included).

Peppler kicked off the segment with introductions prior to asking the two whether they felt this was a “project” or a “band”. Salas jokingly interjected to add that, “I don’t know if you know this, but he has a pretty big, famous band already.” He continued by responding to an inquiry about the origin of the project, saying, “Sometimes as musicians you want to get together between your regular work to get re-inspired.” The source of the album’s title was described by Salas as something that has a groove that’s “chubby”. Stevie compared the etymology of the phrase with “that’s phat“. The idea of depicting a pig on the cover came from the Nashville, Tennessee recording sessions where the studio owner’s pet pig chased Koshi around at one point.

Stevie also humorously recounted the time when he and Koshi first hung out over twenty-five years ago: “Many, many, many years ago [in the early 90s], he came to my house with Tak, in the Hollywood Hills. Tak and I used to go out and do a lot of drinking. Koshi doesn’t drink so much, but he was drinking with us this time. Me and Tak were talking, talking, talking and next time I look over, Koshi is asleep—in the night club. So I carried Koshi, on my shoulders, while he was asleep, all the way out and up the hill to my house. I laid him on my couch on a pillow and gave him a blanket.” Koshi laughed and clarified, “But, no blanket.”

“Koshi is one of the greatest rock singers in the world and I’ve worked with the biggest rock singers in history, if you think about it,” and went on to mention some of those he’s worked with in the past, including Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, and Justin Timberlake. “Koshi is one of those greats that mostly only people in Japan know about because he sings in Japanese. But, if you really are an artist, then you know he is one of those top, top guys.”

The new INABA/SALAS collaborative album CHUBBY GROOVE is due for release on January 18, 2016. You can pre-order the album at the usual places: [YesAsia] [CDJapan] and [Amazon Japan]. Their joint tour “CHUBBY GROOVE TOUR 2017” kicks off January 25 and runs through a showing at Diamond Hall in Nagoya on February 20.

Koshi Inaba News

Koshi Inaba and Stevie Salas will be guests at the public recording of the J-WAVE program 「SAPPORO BEER OTOAJITO」 in celebration of its 401th rendition. Fans can apply via J-WAVE’s website for a chance to be part of the audience. 300 winners will be chosen at random.

「SAPPORO BEER OTOAJITO」 is a weekly music program hosted by radio personality Chris Peppler every Saturday at 6PM. It’s unclear when the recording will be broadcast on the radio, but one can assume it’ll be on the Saturday following the recording date. Therefore, it should be December 17th.

Tak Matsumoto News

TV Asahi’s music program 「Music Station」 celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. On that occasion, a special edition of the show is being held on September 19th, dubbed 「Music Station Ultra Fes」. Tak Matsumoto is set to appear on the show and will possibly perform a rendition of 「#1090 ~Million Dreams~」, an updated version of the very same song, that has been used as the theme song for Music Station for years.

Tak will not be in the studio in Japan, but will be performing live from Los Angeles. Possibly because he is currently at work on the next B’z record.

Tak Matsumoto News

During last week’s Music Station 3 hour special, it was revealed that Tak Matsumoto’s 「#1090 ~Thousand Dreams~」 will be replaced by his reworked version 「#1090 ~Million Dreams~」as the show’s theme. The latter song is also included in Tak’s upcoming album 「enigma」 as a bonus track.

While Tak’s new version of #1090 was played for the first time, a written comment by Tak himself was also read out. The comment read “I’m thankful and at the same time proud as a musician, that this track has served as the theme song for such a long time. This song was known for ‘Music Station’, and I believe a lot of people don’t know that this song has been made by me. 「#1090 ~Million Dreams~」 is a newly reworked version of this very song. Working on a track that the me from 24 years ago wrote was a very fun experience. I think it’s a great mix of a young person’s vigor and an adult’s laid-back kind of atmosphere. Sound-wise, the track has also improved quite a lot, which prompted me to rename the track from “~Thousand Dreams~” to “~Million Dreams~”. I am very satisfied with the result. I would be very delighted if my track was used as the show’s theme in the future as well.“

Tak Matsumoto News

The TV commercial for Tak’s upcoming solo album 「enigma」 has started airing from today. 「enigma」 is due for an April 6th release, with Tak’s solo tour 「Tak Matsumoto Tour 2016 -The Voyage-」 kicking off a week later, on April 16th. The commercial seen above features the songs 「Ups and Downs」 as well as a reworked version of one of Tak’s classics called 「#1090 ~Million Dreams~」.

Koshi Inaba News

Koshi Inaba has just announced that he will be guest on NTV’s morning news program 「ZIP!」 on March 4th, 2016. He will most likely talk about his current live tour and about the recently announced live streaming of his tour finale through Hulu.

Via: B’z Official Website