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Cars Rev Up, Sans Ocasek

Tue., Nov. 22, 2005 8:00 AM PST by Josh Grossberg

The Cars are ready to shake it up again.

But the new model will bear only a passing resemblance to the original vintage.

Two of the main players from the seminal new wave band, guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes, will join forces with singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren for a reunion tour and possible album in 2006.

According to the Boston Herald, Rundgren will take the place of Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, who briefly flirted with the idea of joining his former mates but opted out of the project. Bassist and vocalist Ben Orr, who sang some of the band's signature tracks, including "Just What I Needed," "My Best Friend's Girl" and the band's biggest hit, "Drive," died of pancreatic cancer in 2000.

The retooled lineup will be billed as the New Cars and will hit the road next summer with Kasim Sulton filling in on bass and vocals and ex-Tubes drummer Prairie Prince taking over for original drummer David Robinson, who has quit the music business.

The announcement of a Cars reunion hasn't exactly gotten the group's fan base revved up--something Rundgren addressed in a recent message on the fansite 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. The catch is, a lot of people have been counting on something else," he wrote.

Rundgren says he knows his fans would rather see him reunite his '70s rock group, Utopia.

"Let's make this clear: the possibility of a Utopia reunion of any kind has always been extremely remote," the musician said, citing an ill-fated attempt in 1992. "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."

But Rundgren says he's excited about the Cars collaboration.

"Musicians have notoriously brief careers," he said. "So you see, if someone gives you an opportunity to make a good living for a year without violating your musical ethics (or having to play Beatles songs) and throws in the opportunity to retain your own identity and perform your own material and possibly create new fans, what choice do you have, really??

As for Ocasek, he's given his blessing to the venture.

"I want Elliot and Greg to be happy," he told the Herald.

Ocasek, whose solo career never quite matched the mammoth success he experiences with his former band, is reportedly working on a Cars documentary titled The Cars Unlocked, which includes interview material with Orr before he died. No word when the film will be released.

The Cars formed in Boston in 1976 and were in the vanguard of the new wave movement, thanks to a unique mix of electronics, catchy melodies and guitar-driven songs. The quintet scored 13 Top 40 hits, including such jukebox standards as "Heartbeat City," "Shake It Up," "Good Times Roll," "You Might Think" and "Tonight She Comes."

The original lineup called it quits in 1988 due to personality differences and the disappointing reception of their last album, Door to Door.