TMG
Biography and full discography of TMG, with a page for every album, on METAL BOOST.
Biography
TMG Biography
Profile
Formed 2004 / Japan / Hard Rock, Melodic Rock
Official sources verified: TMG Official Website / B'z Official Website - TMG LIVE 2026 “SAYONARA” (checked 2026-08-03).
Biography
TMG is a Japanese hard-rock band built around Tak Matsumoto, the guitarist of B'z. The name stands for Tak Matsumoto Group: Matsumoto plays guitar and produces, and the records are made with singers and players drawn from bands outside Japan. Eric Martin of Mr. Big sings, Jack Blades of Night Ranger and Damn Yankees plays bass and sings harmony, and the drum chair has been held by Brian Tichy at the 2004 launch and, since the 2024 reunion, by Matt Sorum of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver.
The group was announced on February 9, 2004. The single “Oh Japan ~Our Time Is Now~” followed on March 31, and Vermillion Records issued the first album, TMG I, on June 23. It reached No. 1 on the Oricon weekly albums chart and was certified Gold by the RIAJ. A nine-date national tour, Dodge the Bullet, ran from July to September, and the video release of the same name appeared on December 15, 2004. From the start, what defined the project was that international hard-rock phrasing and Japanese rock met as one band rather than as a novelty pairing.
A long hiatus followed. Eric Martin later said he had asked Matsumoto about a reunion nearly every year, and on March 8, 2024 — twenty years on — the band officially returned. With Matt Sorum in the line-up, the second album, TMG II, arrived on September 18 and reached No. 3 on both the Oricon weekly albums chart and Billboard Japan's Hot Albums. BABYMETAL guest on “Eternal Flames” and LiSA on “The Story of Love,” with traditional Japanese instruments and keyboards widening the palette. A tour billed as TMG LIVE 2024 -Still Dodging The Bullet- played nine shows at six venues that September and October, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 28, 2025.
In May 2026 the band announced a new release and an autumn tour, TMG LIVE 2026 “SAYONARA” — nine shows in five cities, from Zepp Haneda in Tokyo on October 5 to Tokyo Garden Theatre on October 23. The official announcement notes that the word “sayonara” may mean 2026 is the group's final year of activity, which gives the run the shape of a farewell. Yukihide “YT” Takiyama, known for his arranging and live work with B'z, joins the touring line-up on guitar.
How the Band Came About, and How It Sounds
TMG is a group Matsumoto started under his own name. What separates it from a solo record is that he keeps the writing and production role while handing the singing and the words to writers from outside Japan. On TMG I, Eric Martin and Jack Blades wrote the lyrics, with outside writers including André Pessis contributing as well. The result sounds like neither B'z nor any of the members' home bands: it is straightforward hard rock with its own texture.
The center of gravity sits in the riffs that shape each song and in the melodies that run beside the vocal, not in displays of speed. Martin's burnished voice, Blades's thick harmonies and bass, and Matsumoto's singing lines are given equal room, and songs with a blues or American-rock feel sit naturally among them. On TMG II, Sorum's heavier drumming joins traditional Japanese instruments and guest Japanese singers, closing the distance between the two sides further still.
Detailed Member Profiles
Tak Matsumoto (Guitar) — The guitarist of B'z and the founder of TMG. He has produced and written the music for every release and remains the band's directing center.
Eric Martin (Vocals) — The singer of Mr. Big. He takes the lead vocal on every track of TMG I and TMG II and contributes lyrics to both.
Jack Blades (Bass / Vocals) — The bassist and singer known from Night Ranger and Damn Yankees. Beyond bass and harmony vocals, he wrote many of the songs on both albums.
Matt Sorum (Drums) — After Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, he has been TMG's drummer since the 2024 return.
Yukihide “YT” Takiyama (Guitar) — A multi-instrumentalist who studied at Berklee and is known for arranging and live support work with B'z. He sang backing vocals on TMG II and plays guitar in the touring line-up.
Brian Tichy (Drums, 2004) — He drummed on most of TMG I and on the 2004 tour; Cindy Blackman played on three tracks of the album.
Discography
| Year | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Oh Japan ~Our Time Is Now~ | Single (March 31) |
| 2004 | TMG I | First album (June 23 / fourteen tracks / Oricon No. 1) |
| 2004 | Dodge The Bullet | Video release (December 15 / DVD and VHS) |
| 2024 | TMG II | Second album (September 18 / eleven tracks / Oricon No. 3) |
| 2025 | TMG LIVE 2024 -Still Dodging The Bullet- | Video release (May 28 / DVD and Blu-ray) |
A new release has been announced for 2026; as of August 3, 2026 its title and release date have not been made public.
Conclusion
TMG is the Japanese hard-rock band Tak Matsumoto founded with international musicians in 2004 and restarted in 2024 after a twenty-year gap. Its record is that it never became a one-off: two albums two decades apart hold the same texture, and the band has kept playing that music on Japanese stages. The 2026 “SAYONARA” tour is set to draw a line under that run.
Trivia
The official site pins down the date the reunion started. On 22 November 2022 Tak Matsumoto put it to the other two that they might reunite TMG in 2024, exactly twenty years on. Jack Blades answered without hesitation that he was in. Eric Martin replied that it was good to hear from him and that it would make a fine reunion. From that short exchange, a Japanese-American hard rock band started moving again after two decades.
TMG — the Tak Matsumoto Group — is a Japanese-American hard rock band with B'z guitarist Tak Matsumoto on guitar and in the producer's chair. It was formed in 2004 as a project of his, alongside Jack Blades of Night Ranger on bass and vocals and Eric Martin of Mr. Big on vocals.
The 2024 reunion made TMG a five-piece. To the original three — Tak Matsumoto, Jack Blades and Eric Martin — were added Matt Sorum, of Guns N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, on drums, and Yukihide "YT" Takiyama, familiar from B'z sessions and touring, on guitar. Sorum also played on the TMG II sessions.
TMG II was made against the grain of how Eric and Jack usually work. As Matsumoto explains it, the standard method for musicians of their background is for the singer to hear a backing track and arrive at melody and lyrics together. On this album he handed over songs with the vocal melody already played in on guitar, and the two of them wrote words to fit. Fitting words to a melody already fixed turned out to be hard going — they told him as much. The results were good enough, though, that he now says he may keep specifying the melodies.
Part of what makes TMG sound the way it does is Matsumoto's guitar harmony. For some years now he has recorded imagining a twin-guitar band — he plays every part himself on record, but the approach is a two-guitar one. Live, Yukihide "YT" Takiyama takes the second part and the harmony happens in the room; what Matsumoto values is the difference in nuance between them and the slight misalignment that produces. Watching the concert film, the interviewer noted, you can see how tightly it is built — YT harmonising for a single moment and dropping straight back to rhythm.
"GUITAR HERO," which closes TMG II, has lyrics Jack Blades wrote with Tak Matsumoto in mind. On the 2024 tour it closed the night as well: Eric Martin introduced Matsumoto as the guitar hero from the stage, and the band played it last.
"THE STORY OF LOVE (feat. LiSA)" on TMG II was not written for the record. It is a TMG rearrangement of "Another Great Day!!," a song Matsumoto had written for LiSA in 2021, reworked so that her voice and Eric Martin's sit together over the band's heavier sound.
On 19 September 2024, the day after TMG II came out, it was announced that TMG had signed an overseas partnership with the European label Frontiers Music SRL, with international CD editions rolling out from 6 December. Frontiers is the label behind records by Def Leppard, Toto, Whitesnake, Yes and Journey — and the one that had put TMG I out internationally back in 2004. In its statement the label noted that the band formed in 2004 had surprised listeners worldwide by fusing Western rock with Eastern sound, and that twenty years on they were setting out to do it again.
News
[Japan] TMG, Led By B'z Guitarist Tak Matsumoto, Write "DOOM" As The Theme Song For The Film "Yatsuhakamura"
The newly written track is the theme for Takashi Shimizu's adaptation of Seishi Yokomizo's novel, opening September 18 with Matsuya Onoe as detective Kosuke Kindaichi.
Current Members
Current lineup verified from the official artist source on 2026-08-03. Official profile
Albums
TMG's second album, twenty years after the first: Tak Matsumoto, Eric Martin and Jack Blades with Matt Sorum on drums, and guest turns from BABYMETAL and LiSA.
The first album by Tak Matsumoto's international hard-rock group with Eric Martin and Jack Blades — fourteen songs where Japanese and American rock instincts meet head-on.