Tag Archives: Videos
B’z History Vignette: “1988”
News With the dawn of the band’s 30th anniversary year and the release of B’z COMPLETE SINGLE BOX looming, the official B’z website has changed its splash page to one that will support yearly vignettes for the band’s long history. The first, for their debut year of 1988, is now available via a YouTube embed and can be viewed below:
Tak’s Contribution to Shizuka Kudo Album Previewed
Tak Matsumoto News 
As we previously reported back in June, Tak Matsumoto has recently contributed all new music to the upcoming solo album Rin (凛, Cold) from Shizuka Kudo. The release is due out on August 30—the same day as B’z COMPLETE SINGLE BOX—and today further information has been announced.
The song written by Tak has been titled “Mitsu to Toge” (蜜と棘, Honey and Thorns). Arrangement was handled by Yukihide “YT” Takiyama, who was first credited on a B’z release as co-arranger with Tak and Koshi on “Seimei” earlier this year. The lyrics were penned by Shizuka Ijuin, a noted fiction writer and lyricist in Japan.
Below is a brief preview of the resulting song along with a comment by Kudo:
For more information on the times Tak and B’z have written songs for other artists, check out our featured article “The B’z Songs Written for Other Artists“.
B’z YouTube Channel Unlocked Internationally!Plus Two Trailers for B’z COMPLETE SINGLE BOX
News 
Since late 2015, the official B’z YouTube channel was blocked in several international markets thanks to the introduction of premium subscription service YouTube Red. The service offered new incentives and dividends for international uploaders in their local markets, which caused nearly all of the major Japanese music-based channels to be blocked in some countries (including the United States) given they were monetized for only their primary market.
Today, we are very pleased to report this is no longer the case! Whether this signals the band are gearing up for another international showing or not, it is great news for B’z fans that have wanted to get quick glimpses at all of their music videos but did not have their DVDs handy, as previews of all are available on the aforementioned channel. This is not an industry-wide return as the other affected artists at the time still remain blocked, though all Being channels appear to be unlocked alongside that of B’z such as Mai Kuraki.
To celebrate, let’s have a look at the latest two trailers for B’z COMPLETE SINGLE BOX in its two incarnations: the mass-market “Black Edition” and the special archivist “Trailer Edition” that is being built-to-order and won’t deliver until December. Full details on both packages and what they contain can be found in this post from the initial announcement.
B’z COMPLETE SINGLE BOX can be pre-ordered ahead of its August 30 release in its “Black Edition” from all the usual retailers including CDJapan, YesAsia, and Amazon Japan.
The B’z Songs Written for Other Artists
Feature 
With a career spanning three decades as of next year and nearly 350 of their own songs released to date, B’z have had a long career in music by any measure. Their long-term success has led to its vocalist Koshi Inaba and guitarist Tak Matsumoto to occasionally be propositioned to create songs for other artists—many of whom were beginning their careers.
Kodoku no Runaway
The first of these collaborations was “Kodoku no RUNAWAY” (Lonely Runaway, 孤独のRUNAWAY). The artist in question was female guitarist Ataka Miharu who would soon be best known as the guitarist of girl rock duo KIX-S. Although not explicitly advertised as much, this version of the song actually features B’z outright. For the sessions, Tak wrote all-new music and Koshi provides chorus vocals that are now familiar to any long-time B’z fan.
One year later, B’z would do a self-cover of the song and develop it into the one that would become an early live staple for the band: “Kodoku no Runaway” from their third mini album MARS. Many of the same guitar licks and vocal hooks are present, but it is expanded into a vocal showcase for Koshi. The most prominent showing for the song was in a featured slot for B’z LIVE-GYM Pleasure 2008 -GLORY DAYS-, when it was played more in its revised, hard rock “Mixture style” reversion from B’z The “Mixture”.
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B’z New Song “CHAMP” Commercial Preview
News As announced yesterday with news of the B’z COMPLETE SINGLE BOX, an all-new B’z song entitled “CHAMP” is now serving as the theme to a 7-Eleven Fair commercial. The commercial has been embedded below and gives our first taste of the upcoming 2017 album:
The song should take a similar path as did “Exit To The Sun” from EPIC DAY when it was used as a drama theme in November 2014 and was included on the eventual album in March 2015.
“Seimei/Still Alive” Now On Sale!
Plus UCC Black “Seimei” Commercial & UCC Creation Video Feature
Plus UCC Black “Seimei” Commercial & UCC Creation Video Feature
News 
The fifty-third B’z single “Seimei/Still Alive” is now officially on sale! It has debuted at the top of the Weekly Oricon Singles chart with pre-orders sales in excess of 61,000 physical copies already moved. If you still don’t have a copy on the way, you can obtain one via CDJapan, YesAsia, or Amazon Japan.
As is always the case, the band have chimed in with their release message to mark the occasion which we have translated for you below:
In addition, the UCC Black x B’z commercial featuring “Seimei” is now on air:
What’s more, a making-of video for the special B’z-branded cans of UCC Black that will be available to winners of the 10,000-draw lottery was also made available on YouTube. The tongue-in-cheek video features the beans used to create the coffees being exposed to “Seimei” before being packaged and serves as a solid preview of the song as well:
