Matsumoto Congratulates Carlton For Lifetime Achievement Award
Tak Matsumoto News Larry Carlton, who won a Grammy Award together with Tak Matsumoto in February this year, has received the George Benson Lifetime Achievement Award at The Canadian Smoothies 2011 on April 29th. A video has been put on vimeo in which various musicians congratulate Mr. Carlton for this outstanding award. Among them is Tak Matsumoto. For the impatient: watch from 3:43!
“Hi, Larry-san! Congratulations to you. You are an amazing guitar player and so inspiring to me. I learned so much by working with you on the Take Your Pick album. So winning a Grammy with you is one of my greatest achievements in my life. I’ll treasure it forever. I owe you one.”
Larry Carlton: Benson Lifetime Achievement Award from TrueFire on Vimeo.
Congratulations to Mr. Carlton! And may he come to the States or Europe (or both!) and perform with Tak someday! 😉
“Don’t Wanna Lie” as Detective Conan Opening & Commercial on Air
News Starting today, “Don’t Wanna Lie” is the new opening to the Detective Conan anime series. The opening includes footage from the PV, which was shot in LA. Hardcore B’z fans will notice that the PV sure does resemble Negai’s PV a bit. The last time they used PV footage for the opening, was with Giri Giri Chop. Also, during the broadcast of Detective Conan, the “Don’t Wanna Lie” commercial was aired. Check both out below.
Lyrics: http://bzwiki.offthelock.com/Don%27t_Wanna_Lie_(Lyrics)
Artistic Portrait of Tak Matsumoto
Tak Matsumoto News I found this a few days ago while browsing a few B’z related websites. Rima Fujita, a full-time artist living in San Diego, posted this on her blog:
[…]
After many years I’ve begun having this urge to paint portraits again, and when I was thinking about doing a portrait series once more I got a commission offer to do a portrait of Tak Matsumoto, the guitar player of the Japan’s renowned rock duo, B’z, by a good friend of mine who wanted to give it to Tak as a gift. Tak had just won the Grammy award this year. “How timely,” I thought. I was thrilled to do his portrait, yet the last time I met Tak in person was over 10 years ago. Normally I don’t like to use photographs to paint portraits. So I really had to depend on my imagination!
[…]
If you’d like to check out her drawing of Tak Matsumoto and what else she had to say about her encounter with Tak Matsumoto, check her blog right here: http://rimafujita.blogspot.com/2011/04/portrait-series.html
B’z LIVE-GYM 2011 in North America
News B’z is going to tour North America again, for the first time in 8 years. This is probably happening due to Tak Matsumoto winning the Grammy for “Best Pop Instrumental Album” together with guitarist Larry Carlton for their collaborative album TAKE YOUR PICK. Tickets are going to be on sale locally, so you probably won’t be able to buy them online. B’z will tour Vancouver (Canada) on July 20th, San Francisco on July 22nd and Los Angeles on July 24th. The exact venues have yet to be announced.
The tour at a glance:
7/20 Vogue Theatre – Vancouver, Canada
Open: 7 PM Start: 8 PM
(Tickets: http://www.voguetheatre.com/ – AVAILABLE MAY 14 10AM)
7/22 The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
Open: 8 PM Start: 9 PM
(Tickets: http://www.livenation.com/ – AVAILABLE MAY 15)
7/24 Club Nokia – Los Angeles, CA
Open: 6 PM Start: 7 PM
(Tickets: http://www.ticketmaster.com/ – AVAILABLE MAY 14, 10AM PDT)
Update: Word is out that there might be a livestream for the North American tour so that Japanese fans will be able to watch it as well. That means it could be livestreamed on Ustream or on NicoNico Live. Also, tickets are not available to Japanese fans through B’z Party, however they can buy a “travel package”(with ticket) to the LA performance.
When is B’z finally coming to Europe?!
Oh and here’s a snippet from the Japanese newspaper that revealed the information:
“Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo” Tops Oricon Chart
News 
B’z is at it again. One day before the official release, 50,335 copies of B’z new single Sayonara Kizu Darake no Hibi yo were sold across Japan, topping the Oricon daily single chart for the 44th time in a row. They continue to release #1 hit singles one after another, which is probably also because of the huge fanbase that B’z has in Japan. But honestly, they deserve it, right? The new single just ROCKS!!
We are now waiting for the sales data from today, which will be posted on Oricon tomorrow. Sales are expected to go up to more than 100,000 sold copies total. Will this be another platinum single for B’z?
LIVE-GYM 2011 Tour Dates Announced
News From the morning paper in Japan:
The title of the tour has yet to be determined. As the tour begins in September, we can deduce that the new album will be out in July/August. However, August is more likely as B’z second single, Don’t Wanna Lie, is going to be released on June 1st.
Hall Tour
9/23 Sundome Fukui
9/24 Sundome Fukui
10/1 Marine Messe Fukuoka
10/2 Marine Messe Fukuoka
10/9 Kobe World Kinen Hall
10/10 Kobe World Kinen Hall
10/16 Toki Messe, Niigata Convention Center
10/22 Hiroshima Green Arena
10/23 Hiroshima Green Arena
10/27 Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center – Kitayell
10/29 Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center – Kitayell
10/30 Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center – Kitayell
11/3 Saitama Super Arena
11/5 Saitama Super Arena
11/6 Saitama Super Arena
Dome Tour
12/4 Fukuoka Yahoo JAPAN Dome
12/10 Nagoya Dome
12/11 Nagoya Dome
12/15 Kyocera Dome Osaka
12/17 Kyocera Dome Osaka
12/18 Kyocera Dome Osaka
12/22 Tokyo Dome
12/24 Tokyo Dome
12/25 Tokyo Dome