News

The latest issue of the Japanese music magazine PLAYER(http://www.player.jp/index.html) features a retrospect on the year 2009, and what readers of the magazine liked the most.
Here’s how B’z, Shane Gaalaas and Masuda Takanobu were ranked:

Category “Best Artist”: B’z ranked 3rd

Category “Best Live Performance in Japan”: B’z ranked 4th

Catagory “Best Vocalist”: Koshi Inaba ranked 1st

Category “Best Guitarist”: Tak Matsumoto ranked 3rd

Category “Best Drummer”: Shane Gaalaas ranked 9th

Category “Miscellaneous Player”: Masuda Takanobu ranked 6th

News

I know this is a little late, but I’ve been a little busy and I was not able to finish the video I wanted to put into this post.

As usual, B’z has also released their new year greetings to B’z fans on B’z PARTY. My undercover agent who infiltrated B’z PARTY was able to get the video for me 😉

Site News

Apparently there are some problems with the host server, which is why OFF THE LOCK or BNP are sometimes not reachable due to reboots or maintenance of the host system.

I find this annoying as much as you do, but there’s nothing I can do since it’s provider related.

Cheers,

Tobias

Tak Matsumoto News

Japan’s most famous guitarist, and beloved guitarist of B’z, Tak Matsumoto, has finished creating just another new guitar(after introducing the new Gibson Tak Matsumoto DC Custom models), but this time it’s for Epiphone, which is part of Gibson, just that Epiphone’s guitars aim for customers with lower budgets.

The “Epiphone Tak Matsumoto DC Custom” will go on sale exclusively in Japan on December 25th, 2009 and will be priced at 122,850 Yen (about $1100).

Taken from Epiphone’s Website:

Epiphone Announces the Release of the New Epiphone “Tak Matsumoto Signature DC Custom”Coming Out On Christmas Day Exclusively in Japan

Tokyo, Japan-December 18, 2009. Leading guitar maker Epiphone announces the release of the new “Epiphone Tak Matsumoto Signature DC Custom” available exclusively in Japan on December 25th 2009. Tak Matsumoto is one of the Japan’s leading guitarists and a member of the popular rock band B’z.

[…]

Site News

Hey guys,

you might have noticed some strange things happening to OTL or BNP in particular as I was moving the data from one server to another.

The reason for this is that I have upgraded my server once again. The monthly fee won’t change at all, but now I have 1GB memory, 25GB harddisk space and 5 TB traffic at my disposal. I hope I didn’t mess anything up, and there will be more updates (website/forum related) in the future. Finally I have the time at hand, to fix all the problems that have been around for so long. A good example would be the messed up smiley set on the forums.
On a related note, I have upgraded WordPress to version 2.9, which came out today.

Also, I want to use the chance and announce a project that Jd- and me have been pursuing for some time now: The B’z Wiki

I know, we came up with an idea of building up a huge database about B’z but it didn’t work out in the end because the whole project was just too huge for the two of us to handle. A few months later, I thought that perhaps we could use the MediaWiki software to get the job done, dropped the idea later though because I didn’t have spare time to work on it seriously. Now, that I have some free time, I’d like to introduce you to it, and it’s not completely done yet — not by a long shot. To complete this task, we need your help!
I’ll announce details in a few days, so stay tuned.

Cheers,
Art

Koshi Inaba News

The positive reception to SAHARA may lead to another edition. As per Slash’s Twitter account:

Hey, thanks for all the compliments on “Sahara,” we might have an english version on the album.

Slash’s solo album isn’t set for release until next year, but he had previously noted that SAHARA would be a Japan exclusive. The potential English version may not feature vocals by Koshi, however–we’ll keep you posted as it develops. Fingers crossed!