It's Barry Time Again!

That's right, Barry Manilow is at it again. With the success of last year's Music and Passion DVD, Barry is releasing another DVD.

Five of Barry Manilow's classic early television specials spanning 1977-1988 - including two Emmy® winners - on DVD for the first time in a deluxe 5-disc boxed set.

This has some really classic footage to say the least. One of the cool scenes I saw in the E-Card is him playing side by side with Ray Charles.

Cipes and The People

Artist: Cipes and The People

CD: Conscious Revolution

Single: “Free Me” Free Mee

Press Release:

“And one love is our love/We can free the world.” “Free Me”



“Reggae is the weapon of the future,” explains Greg Cipes about The Conscious Revolution, the debut album from his group Cipes and the People. “It’s the music that unifies everyone and everything.”



An accomplished actor on hit TV shows House, Ghost Whisperer, Without a Trace and Deadwood, a voiceover artist on Disney Channel’s W.I.T.C.H. and Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! along with Cartoon Network’s Teen Titans and a professional junior surfer, the Florida-born Cipes comes from a show business family. His grandparents both acted professionally and his father was a TV director who became successful in real estate, then traveled extensively with his family, often taking them to the Bahamas, where Cipes heard reggae music for the first time.



“I was divinely placed in a position to see how the music made those living in poverty feel so good,” he says. “The culture and the warmth of the people always intrigued me.”



Citing reggae, hip-hop and rock as his main influences, the 27-year-old packed up his yellow Nissan Xterra and moved to Los Angeles to study directing at USC, but dropped out within weeks when he landed a pilot at Warner Bros.



“Music has always been part of my life,” he says, citing such disparate inspirations as Bob Marley, the Doors, Sublime and Miami bass rappers 2 Live Crew, whose battle for freedom of speech attracted a young Cipes as much as their music. “But it only started to take this form seven years ago.”



The album’s lead single, “Free Me,” is also the first song Cipes ever wrote seven years ago, inspired, he says, by his dog Timber and the spirit of Bob Marley.



“I called on Marley spirit to work its way through me,” he says. “I couldn’t even sing growing up. I just prayed to him to let me spread his message and be a conduit of his love, power and wisdom. And it happened.



“I’m talking to Mother Earth in the song as a female whom I’ve disrespected. And this is my plea to heal that relationship. The other element is my own earthly relationships with women. My heart has been broken at least four times. But I’ve never stopped loving. I don’t regard women as the opposite sex anymore. I wasn’t always strong enough to do that. But I’ve vowed not to have sex until I’ve found my one true partner out there.”



Cipes’ music is part of his Conscious Revolution, his attempt to unite people’s beliefs and bring them together. “I do everything in the service of God,” he says, explaining that he no longer drinks, smokes, watches TV, goes to the movie, listens to the radio or has sex. “I’m being lifted up so I can shed light on others who have the knowledge, experience, heart and drive to unite cultures, religions and races. Reggae is all about the positive message, the positive vibration. It’s a music that unifies everyone and everything.”



The video for “Fade Away” gives a plug for Save the Earth, while “Jah People” is inspired by Marley’s assertion that “God loves everyone.”



“God is part of every one of us,” he explains. “Whether it’s Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Krishna, Jah or Allah. I’m a firm believer in experiencing all religions so you can understand where everybody is coming from, so you can communicate from a compassionate place. I may not know anything, but I understand everything.”



The album’s musical styles range from the hip-hop dancehall toasting of “Ones Up,” featuring Houston rapper Big Boss, and the Two-Tone speeded-up ska of “Pain,” which tells the story of visiting an ex-girlfriend in the middle of the night and getting picked up by the police, to the singer/songwriter balladry of “Fly,” detailing his decision to leave Florida and go to California. “That’s about letting to and putting myself in God’s hands,” he explains. “This album, produced by newcomer and friend. 23 year old Greg Whitman, is about unifying all races, religions and genres of music. All of those things are in me.”



Cipes and the People has coalesced into a core 11-person line-up, which includes two horn players, three back-up singers, lead guitar, bass, keyboards and a DJ. The band was featured in the MTV show Twentyfourseven, which spurred more than 200k people to check out their music on MySpace, where they were the site’s #1 unsigned reggae band earlier this year.



For Cipes, it’s not about either fame or success, but bringing people together. “Music is a celebration, a time for people to rejoice in their connections,” he says. “At our shows, we hve hippies, hip-hop heads, rockers and Goths. We’re uniting people that ordinarily wouldn’t come together because our message is so universal.

Foo Fighters New Album

Mine is yours and yours is mine/There is no divide/In Your Honor I would die tonight"

Foo Fighters fifth and definitive album opens with a statement of purpose universal in its passion. Dave Grohl could be singing to his wife, bandmates Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins and Chris Shiflett, or to any and every fan listening to the song. In truth, the song and the double album -- one heavy as fuck, the other subtly laid back -- are dedicated to all of the above: the friends, family and fans that have made the decade-long Foo Fighters odyssey possible.

"We've been a band for 10 years now," says Grohl, channeling the band's quandary at the outset of the In Your Honor sessions. "So what do we do? Do we make another album? Rush into making another record? So I came up with this idea. I thought since I'd just been all around the world for a year and a half screaming my ass off, I'd make a solo acoustic record...but disguise it as movie score. We've always had acoustic songs. Most of our rock songs were written on acoustic guitar, songs like 'Times Like These,' 'Everlong'… I had this little studio up at my house and started recording all this music, some of it songs, some of it like a score, it was really beautiful, really coming out well then I listened to it and I was like 'Wait a second: It sounds like the Foo Fighters. It sounds like the band.'

"Everyone in the band has so much to offer," Grohl says. "But we'd sort of remained in this one ‘thing’ for so long that I felt it was time to break out, to branch out, that maybe we should make the acoustic record - but then I started thinking about how I didn't want to show up to the Reading Festival with a harpsichord, or whatever. This band just has to make some rock music…so I thought, OK, why don't we do this? Why don't we make a DOUBLE album?"

And so it was that the In Your Honor double disc opus was conceived. The band and producer Nick Raskulinecz would take the Foo Fighters' unique and precarious balance of balls-out aggression and lady-killing melodic tenderness and split the difference. The chemistry that had made it possible for “All My Life,” "Everlong" and "Times Like These" to impact listeners equally in their acoustic and electric incarnations would be divided and pushed to separate extremes of hard and soft, distilled into their purest forms.

John Lennon covered on new Barry Manilow CD

Apparently Barry Manilow loves John Lennon's Work too. On his latest album, Greatest Songs of the Seventies, Barry covers The Long and Winding Road written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Also covered are artists such as Carole King and Paul Simon. Here is a sample from the new Dual CD Set:

It Never Rains In Southern California (WM, Streaming, 96k, Audio)
Sound Clip

Also...

You Can get Tickets to see Barry perform in Vegas: Manilow Vegas Tickets

And win a trip here: Barry Manilow Contest

Back From Our Long Break

We took a break for a while due to lack of time etc. But we are back and ready to continue blogging.. Our first tidbit is on Led Zeppelin... Yes Led Zeppelin!!!

Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are reportedly in talks to play the 02 Arena with Jason Bonham filling in for his late father. Of course, this rumor rings of another recent rumor which may give it more credence or make it smell that much more fishy since it's reportedly being set up to honor the late record mogul that gave them their deal, Ahmet Ertegun. This was a big part of the last rumor that Plant dismissed. "If there was one, then there wouldn't be enough doctors to support it," Plant said back in June when the rumor first surfaced.

The Telegraph quotes a "source" saying that the deal is being worked on, "The talks are ongoing but it looks like a definite possibility. Nothing has been finalized but fingers crossed the most anticipated comeback concerts ever could become a reality."

Sirius Merges with XM Radio

According to sources, Sirius and XM have announced their merger. In an all-stock merger, the two will provide more programming choices for the consumer and more importantly a stronger financial strength for the stock holder.Planned is the announcement that Gary Parsons will become the Chairman of the combined company and MelKarmazin, the current Sirius CEO, will be the CEO. TogetherThe company will be located in Washington, DC and New York City. Interestingly, representative from each of General Motors and Honda will be directors as well.