Seeing how there's been some interest here in the Gacharic Spin thread, I figured I'd start one for the biggest Japanese band: B'z.
B'z have been around since 1988 and the band has always consisted of only two members: Koshi Inaba (vocals, lyrics) and Tak Matsumoto (guitar, music). They have sold over 80 million CDs and they've released 49 (!) consecutive (!!) No. 1 hit singles. Yes, every single of theirs since "Taiyou no Komachi Angel" in June of 1990 has gone straight to the top of the charts. That's pretty insane!
Why a duo? Well, the original idea behind B'z was that while you had to use the real thing for vocals and guitar, everything else could be provided by synthesizers and drum machines, and so their early material has a strong '80s feel. They had some good songs back then already, but the production isn't exactly timeless and the band was still far from realizing its creative potential.
With their initial success came the demand for live shows, and so B'z ended up working with a full live band after all. Their recordings started to feature more actual musicians and by '92 the band had decided to make a change: The '92 single "Zero" (the title signifying a new start) featured a full live band, even with real horns. It was a huge success (in fact, it was their 7th consecutive No. 1 hit single) and they never looked back. And why would they? With the band producing hit after hit, they got to work with a rotating roster of excellent studio musicians.
The rock element became a lot more dominant over the years and somewhere between the "Survive" and "Brotherhood" albums they had developed into a serious hard rock band. There have been some stylistic shifts since - "Green" was a more "pop" album with lots of programmed drums, which was followed by two stripped-down guitar rock albums ("Big Machine" and "The Circle"), only for the keyboards, horns and a broader stylistic palette to return in full force for the "Monster" album. They've pretty much stuck to that wide range of styles ever since.
So where do you start with B'z? That's actually easy to answer: With the two singles collections "B'z The Best XXV" released for their 25th anniversary in 2013 and now available from Spotify and similar services:
Not only do their singles show them at their best, many of them (including some of their very best) were never included on an album at the time. Except for two brand-new tracks added at the end of each, these collections are in chronological order, so the first one (covering 1988 to 1998) starts off with the dated-sounding '80s material. I would suggest you skip straight ahead to "Zero" and only try the early stuff after you've heard their later material. If the funky "rock with horns" stuff is a bit too light for you (personally I love it!), maybe even start with "Fireball" - the first single from what I still consider their best album "Survive" and the start of their move to a harder rock sound, which is followed by the classic rock ballad "Calling" and the awesome combo of "Liar! Liar!" and "Samayoeru Aoi Dangan" (both among their very best harder-rocking tracks). The 2nd compilation covering 1999 to 2012 is more on the rock side overall, so you can jump right in and enjoy the whole thing start to finish.
One thing that I've really come to love about the band is their approach to live shows. Not only are these hugely impressive visually and impeccably performed - they also tend to feature a lot of interesting material. Here you have a band with 49 #1 hit singles to choose from, but what do they play? Usually, pretty much all of the new album, with some obscure B-sides and some older album tracks thrown in. Plus a handful of crowd pleasers, but rarely more than that! Unless it's one of their anniversary "Pleasure" tours, which take place every 5 years. Then they tend to go more into a "party band" mode, with a lot of old hits and crowd interaction. But there are exceptions - the 2013 "Endless Summer" tour was an anniversary tour, but there was so much brand-new and obscure stuff featured that they ended up including two complete sets (with very little overlap) on the home release to capture everything featured on the massive master setlist.
They have released live videos from most of their tours since 1999, with everything from 2006 on being available on Blu-ray, and just recently added five discs from their massive career retrospective "5 Eras 8820" lockdown gigs from 2020. This was followed by the wonderfully different "Live Friends" show, which featured the live band augmented by a string section, a horn section, a female vocalist and a percussionist so they could finally do justice to the material from their three decidedly non-rock "Friends" EPs. I own 18 Blu-rays and a few additional DVDs and it's always amazing how little overlap there is between them due to their approach to setlists. The best example is the duo of releases recorded in 2008: From the "Action" tour and from the following "Glory Days" 20th anniversary tour. 48 songs featured in total with ZERO overlap between the two discs. That's how you do it!
And the cool thing is - during the pandemic, B'z made all of their live releases available on YouTube for a limited time. They're gone now, but the trailer with excerpts from the whole batch has remained online and it's almost half an hour long. So this is your best chance to sample some of their live shows, which are spectacular - it gives a decent overview of all their live releases until 2019 in chronological order:
https://youtu.be/LnhIVnk5BQQMaybe start at 8:05 for the awesome spinning stage from the 2005 "Circle of Rock" tour and take it from there!
Note that from 11:20 on there's about a minute of stuff from a DVD compilation of earlier stuff - the clip from the 2003 Big Machine tour with the motorcycles jumping over the stage being a real highlight there.
Here's the trailer for the "5 Eras 8820" 5-disc set from 2020:
https://youtu.be/rLUnZYI3W6UAnd for the "Live Friends" show with the expanded band from 2021:
https://youtu.be/QVipLYBQ31gWhat else is there to say? With the band spending quite a lot of their time in L.A., B'z have worked with several well-known musicians over the years. Tak recorded an album and toured with the "Tak Matsumoto Group", which featured Eric Martin of Mr. Big fame on vocals and Jack Blades on bass and backing vox. Both Tak and Koshi guested on Steve Vai's "The Ultra Zone" album, singing and guitar dueling with Steve on "Asian Sky". For the 2002 "Green" tour they held auditions for a new rhythm section and ended up going with Billy Sheehan (who also recorded a couple of tracks for them in the studio) and Canadian drummer Shane Gaalaas, with the latter staying in the live band until 2018 and recording a LOT of their studio tracks since. Shane's long-time bass partner Barry Sparks joined the live band in 2008 and stayed for a decade, giving B'z a stunning rhythm section that had previously played with Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Schenker and Vinnie Moore and recorded some awesome original prog fusion with Cosmosquad (with Jeff Kollman on guitar). Over the years B'z have also worked with Chad Smith (three tracks on 2009's "Magic"), Brian Tichy (several studio dates between 2000 and 2005, also toured with them in 2019) and Jeremy Colson (half of the 2007 "Action" album) behind the kit. Studio keyboard duties are handled by Akira Onozuka, a fantastic player whose own band Dimension is one of the biggest fusion bands in Japan. You may know him from a stunning performance of "Proto-Cosmos" with Greg Howe and Dennis Chambers that's quite popular on YouTube, recorded while they were touring in support of Tetsuo Sakurai's Gentle Hearts album.
Anyway, just give the music a try - maybe you'll end up as obsessed with it as I am, having known the band since the mid-'90s and still enjoying all of their new releases in 2023!
Topic: B'z - Japan's biggest rock band (Read 1074 times)