News

Word was out early this time, as we already knew that B’z new album was called “C’mon” and would be out in July, so we were just waiting for B’z Official Website to get updated today! I proudly present B’z new album 「C’mon」！ It’ll be out July 27th, and feature 13 tracks with Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo, Homebound, Don’t Wanna Lie and ultra soul 2011 among them. I’m hugely disappointed by the limited edition: The CD+DVD version will come with the music videos of Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo, Don’t Wanna Lie and the new track C’mon.

In other words, all the people who bought the CD+DVD version of B’z past two singles, will have nothing but the music video of C’mon as an extra. Who came up with such a crappy idea?
Limited as well as regular editions will include a card with which you can enter a lottery to win tickets for a special B’z live in September. (see below)

B’z new song C’mon, which is also the title of the new album, will be the new PEPSI NEX commercial song starting from July. B’z will likely also be featured in the commercial. In addition to that, PEPSI NEX’ summer campaign gives you the chance to win 2 tickets for a special B’z performance called “PEPSI NEX presents B’z 1DAY LIVE” at Shibuya AX on September 28th.

On to other news: the support members for the North American, as well as the Japanese tour have been announced! Also, the Japanese tour is called B’z LIVE-GYM 2011 -C’mon-.

Keyboards: Takanobu Masuda
Drums: Shane Gaalaas
Bass: Barry Sparks
Support Guitar: Yoshinobu Ohga

B’z – 「C’mon」

01. C’mon
02. Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo
03. Hito Shizuku no Anata
04. Homebound
05. Don’t Wanna Lie
06. DAREKA
07. Boss
08. Too Young
09. Pilgrim
10. The Meister
11. Dead End
12. Mei Mei
13. ultra soul 2011

Price(limited edition w/ DVD): 3780 Yen
Price(regular edition): 3059 Yen

Release date: 2011.07.27

Pre-order your copy now! (Thanks to Lebon14!)

Normal Edition: [YesAsia (Global)] [YesAsia (US)] [CDJapan.co.jp] [Amazon.co.jp] [HMV.co.jp]

Limited Edition: [YesAsia (Global)] [YesAsia (US)] [CDJapan.co.jp] [Amazon.co.jp] [HMV.co.jp]

News

B’z new single “Don’t Wanna Lie” officially goes on sale today and directly enters the Oricon Daily Single Charts at #1 with having sold 54,248 copies on its day before official release. Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo, on the other hand, only sold 50,335 copies on its first day in stores. Pop idol group AKB48’s sales have dropped to 21,178 taking 3rd place in the charts.

We’ll see if B’z will be able to enter the Weekly Single Charts at the pole position next wednesday. Especially, now that they’ve announced a new special campaign today (see below).

B’z “Don’t Wanna Lie” Special Bonus Campaign

Everyone, listen up! When you get your new single, read this first, before you throw away the seal that comes with the CD.

B’z has announced a special bonus campaign for Don’t Wanna Lie. People who bought the Limited Edition of the single, can send in the seal (see sample picture below) and get the chance to enter a prize drawing in which 100 people will get an autographed Don’t Wanna Lie flag by B’z! People who bought the Limited and the Regular Edition, can send in both seals and will get a special bonus CD which contains “Don’t Wanna Lie ~Ballad Version~”. Now, here’s the unfortunate thing: The deadline is June 5th June 12th. (stamp date counts)

Because of this, a lot of B’z fans in Japan are now rushing into stores to get their copy of Don’t Wanna Lie and get a shot at getting one of those precious flags and/or the special CD. This will definitely strengthen B’z sales. Was this simply a marketing move to fight off AKB48’s sales? We’ll never know.

You’re probably thinking “Damn, I won’t make it until June 5th!!”. That’s right, I won’t make it either, but, send it in anyway! Perhaps they’ll make an exception since it’s from overseas.

Send your seal to:

Vermillion Records
B’zスペシャル特典　係 (Try to write it in Japanese… else just write “B’z Special Bonus”)
P.O. Box 185
105-8691 (that’s the zip code)
Japan

and make sure you include:

– Your Name
– Zip
– Home address
– Age
– Gender
– Phone number
– E-Mail Address (Mobile or PC)

Good luck to everyone!

News

As usual, here we have the translation of the message from B’z about the release of their new single “Don’t Wanna Lie”! This time, the messages turned out to be a little… weird. But Tak’s message is the same as always. Short and in English. haha

Don’t Wanna Lie Don’t Wanna Lie ♪
Don’t Wanna Lie is finally on sale! Don’t just listen to it when watching Conan, but please also listen to it on the CD.
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu

☆ Inaba

I don’t wanna lie to you. I wanna be honest.
Feel free to listen to the song!

Tak

News

After it got a little quieter in the B’z news segment, it was only a matter of time until B’z news would come up again. As the release of B’z new single, “Don’t Wanna Lie”, draws closer, new information is beginning to be revealed! In fact, early birds can already get their copy of the single today in Japan.

So, this morning, it was revealed that B’z is providing the official theme song for the 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai. It’ll take place from July 16 to July 31 and will be broadcasted on TV Asahi. According to the newspaper, “ultra soul 2011” is a rearranged version of the original “ultra soul” released in 2001.

You can listen to it here, it’s a bit from the program “Morning Bird” on TV Asahi where they talk about Kitajima Kosuke, a Japanese swimmer. Can anybody make out a difference between ultra soul 2011 and the original ultra soul? It somehow sounds the same to me.

It is also worth noting that the original ultra soul was the theme song for the first ever FINA World Championships held in Asia in 2001. This year marks the 10th anniversary and for that occasion they chose ultra soul again. Very original…

Does this mean “ultra soul 2011” will be a 3rd track on another single? Or on the album? Or just for publicity? We’ll keep you updated!

News

With AKB48 having strong sales these days, B’z fans in Japan are concerned whether B’z will be able to keep up their series of consecutive number one singles, or not. AKB48 has recently released their new single “Everyday, kachuusha”, selling 942,475 copies of their single on the day before the official release.

This does sound fishy, right? How could AKB48 sell so many singles in one day? So I did some digging … look what I found on a Japanese blog:

There are in fact people buying a LOT of copies of the very same single. Looks like there’s a lot of Japanese Otaku who are buying 2200 copies of the single to show AKB48 how much they worship and love them. (see the picture below)

But will AKB48 be able to keep up the strong sales? Their daily sales have dropped to a “low” 54,000 per day, but it is no doubt that AKB48 will get the #1 spot in the weekly single chart this wednesday. However, with AKB48’s sales dropping per day, I don’t see any indication that B’z will not get the #1 spot on the day before the release of their new single “Don’t Wanna Lie”. But will B’z also be able to get the #1 spot on the weekly chart? Only time will tell.

Koshi Inaba News

Remember Rima Fujita? I introduced her a few posts ago. She drew an artistic portrait of Tak Matsumoto which was a present for Tak Matsumoto because he won the Grammy. Well, she has recently updated her blog about an art exhibition. And apparently Koshi Inaba happened to be in LA and attended her art exhibition. He also bought one of her pieces!

She writes on her blog:

[…] my long-time friend, Koshi Inaba who is one of the top rock stars in Japan happened to be in LA, and went to my exhibition… and purchased a piece of the snow leopard babies. Not only he is one of the biggest collectors of my work he’s been a strong supporter of my work and a dear friend.[…]

Check out her blog post here: http://rimafujita.blogspot.com/2011/05/koshi-came-to-my-exhibition-in-bevelry.html