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New Car

Johnny Dickshot Nov 22 2005 11:39 PM

Rundgren Steps In For Ocasek In New Cars November 20, 2005, 1:50 AM ET Jonathan Cohen, N.Y. Cars principals Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes are teaming with veteran singer/songwriter Todd Rundgren in a new incarnation of pioneering new wave rock act the Cars, which will tour and possibly record an album next year. Rundgren will step in for Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, who has no plans to participate in the project. Cars bassist/vocalist Ben Orr died of cancer in 2000. The original band split up in early 1988, after a 12-year-career that spawned such classics as "Just What I Needed," "Let's Go," "My Best Friend's Girl" and 1984's Orr-sung "Drive," the Cars' biggest hit at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard.com has learned that the New Cars are eyeing a 2006 tour with another legendary new wave rock outfit, but no details have yet been announced. Reaction to the news that Easton and Hawkes were pressing on without Ocasek and Orr has been mixed, but Rundgren defended the decision this week in a post on the Web site TRConnection.com. "So now an opportunity has arisen for me to pay my bills, play to a larger audience, work with musicians I know and like, and ideally have some fun for a year," he wrote. "The catch is, a lot of people have been counting on something else," he said, referencing the disapproval of fans that are clamoring instead for a reunion of the Rundgren-featuring '70s band, Utopia. "Let's make this clear: the possibility of a Utopia reunion of any kind has always been extremely remote," he said. "We disbanded for specific reasons that a previous reunion attempt [in 1992] only exacerbated. Despite whatever enjoyment we got from playing the music for our fans, the reformation left a sour taste. It would be ludicrous to Spinal Tap our way through a tour so fans could be satisfied that we simply showed up on the same stage. That's a redefinition of Utopia I can't personally handle." Speculation about a Cars reunion has increased in recent years, as the band's influence has become apparent on such hit-making modern rock acts as Weezer and the Strokes. "We will be playing parts of the country we'd never get to otherwise, and hope to see you all there when we do," Rundgren said. And although he is opting out of the new band, Ocasek told Billboard.com this summer that he was involved in assembling a Cars documentary, tentatively titled "The Cars Unlocked." No release date has been nailed down for the film. "The backstage stuff is stuff in hotel rooms and dressing rooms," he said. "I think it will be a nice insight into what the Cars were really like. There's interviews, video outtakes, kind of just hamming it up, and some nice club things that probably people wouldn't have gotten to see, from way back. I think it's pretty telling. I think it's the most comprehensive thing that's ever been put out on the Cars."

Johnny Dickshot Nov 22 2005 11:42 PM

Questions for discussion: 1. Will anyone care? 2. Discuss the Cars influence. 3. Cars documentary: Do you watch? 4. One of Ric Ocasek or Todd Rundgren has to die. Which?

sharpie Nov 23 2005 09:06 AM

1. No, not really. Todd Rundgren fans (and he has some obsessed ones) will be pissed off and likely go. Not sure the Cars had an obsessed enough following to get the big crowds. 2. The article mentioned the Strokes and Weezer and I guess that's fair though the Strokes always liked to give lip service to the Velvet Underground. 3. If it comes on the channel I'm watching on TV at that moment, probably. In the theater, not a chance. Nor would I rent it. They weren't the greatest live band. 4. Rundgren. He's older plus I like it that Ocasek has moved on to a new career.

Edgy DC Nov 23 2005 09:12 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Nov 23 2005 10:30 AM

1. Yes. Clearly some already do. 2. When I try to tell peeps that definitive new wave is not the Depeche Mode synth pop that the term was later retro-fitted to, I use the Cars and Split Enz and early Talking Heads to describe the sound that originally got the tag. They don't get it, then I hum a staccato riff from "Just What I Needed" or "My Best Friend's Girl" and they get it. 3. Sure. 4. I'm not God. That said, Rundgren has 2.7 times the talent, which instantly makes them better than Paul Rogers-led Queen, where Rogers had .46 times the talent of Freddie Mercury. That said, I had forgotten or overlooked that Benjamin Orr had passed. He was the hidden talent of the Cars --- a better singer, songwriter, and musician than Ocasek, just less prolific and ambitious. He also grossed me out by sucking a lollipop on an album cover, like some sort of Nu Wave Boy Lolitia. So, do they get Greg Robinson --- who, on drums, was probably the weakest Car? Who's on bass?

Edgy DC Nov 23 2005 09:19 AM

Greg Hawkes:

Johnny Dickshot Nov 23 2005 10:19 AM

Yeah. While Ocasek was obviously the best showman for the Cars, Rundgren is an incredibly talented guy in need of a vehicle. That alone is intriguing. "Just What I Needed" completely legitimized New Wave the very first time I heard it. I was wild about that song and I still love it. The Cars first 2 albums are just excellent, Candy-O being even better than the first one IMO. But I thought they kinda jumped the shark after that. They failed to do much beyond what they were good at, but what they were good at (re-introducing power-pop and adding synthesizers and style) was no small thing. I couldn't tell you if they were influential but doing good pop songs is always a good idea. Another article sez Kasim Sultan (a longtime Rundgren collaborator & evidently not the source of the issues in Utopia) will play bass and Prairie Prince of the Tubes replaces David Robinson, who has quit the music business. Coincidentally, in 1985 I saw the Tubes and Utopia play at the same show. Robinson might have been the weak link of the Cars but that's him providing that magnificently sloppy beat to the Modern Lovers' Roadrunner.

Edgy DC Nov 23 2005 10:34 AM

Yeah, with the Cars he was just sloppy. His crudeness was perfect for the Modern Lovers. Those sound like two ideal fill-ins. But despite Elliot Easton's distinctive tone, two Cars out of five hardly makes a reunion..