B'z to kick off North American tour Sept 17 in San Francisco
LOS ANGELES — Japanese band B’z kick off their North American tour at the Warfield in San Francisco on Sept 17 to follow up on the release of their 5-song album in English on July 25 exclusively through iTunes.
The self-titled album includes the newly released single, “Into Free-Dangan-” featured in the video game “Dragon’s Dogma,” and has sold over a million units worldwide. The opening track of the album, “Love Bomb,” was originally titled “Ai no Bakudan” and was a number one hit in Japan for B’z in 2005. All of the songs on the album have been re-produced with English lyrics to coincide with the North American tour.
Formed in 1988, B’z are guitarist Tak Matsumoto and vocalist, Koshi Inaba. Over the span of 24 years, B’z have released 18 albums, and 50 singles, with 46 of those singles consecutively debuting #1 on Japan’s Oricon Single Chart. B’z have sold over 80 million CDs in Japan alone, making them the best-selling artist in Japan’s history.
“This will be our 4th US tour,” says Matsumoto. “We have always loved playing here, and felt it was time to release some English songs for the American audience.”
As a world acclaimed six-string virtuoso, Matsumoto joined legendary guitarists Jimmy Page, Joe Perry, Ace Frehley and Slash, to become the fifth guitarist in the world to have his own Gibson signature model guitar. Currently his model, the “Tak Matsumoto DC Custom Ebony” is available worldwide.
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