As we all know from his days as a solo artist before fronting the Ric Ocasek-less “The New Cars” that’ve been touring around and shilling Cars songs for the past several years, songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist Todd Rundgren doesn’t want to work. He just wants to bang on the drum all day! Well, be careful what you wish for, Mr. Rundgren. You just might get it. According to Brooklyn Vegan, Ric Ocasek is back with his old band The Cars (the still-living ones, anyway) for a brand new album and US summer tour, thus rendering The New Cars kind of redundant and sending Rundgren back to his day job of MAKING GAZILLIONS ON LICENSING DEALS.
The sort-of-semi-reunion was conceived organically, according to Ocasek, who realized while he was writing new material in 2009 that all of his Cars-like songs would probably sound even better if they were played by The Cars. “It totally clicked immediately,” he says. “Everybody got right into it, as if we had never stopped playing. After two days I thought, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be cool.’” The fruit of these ‘cool’ labors, entitled Move Like This, will mark the first official Cars album in 24 years and is due May 10 via Hear Music (duh) and Concord Music Group.
“We tried hard to keep it from just being a nostalgia thing,” Keyboardist Greg Hawkes says of the album. “We definitely wanted to bring a modern slant to it.” Translation: when the Cars tour this spring, you’re going to have to put up with a bunch of new shit while you’re waiting for “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight.” Fuck, I hope The New Cars reunite soon.
Tourdates:
05.10.11 - Seattle, WA - Showbox @SODO
05.12.11 - Los Angeles, CA - The Hollywood Palladium
05.13.11 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theatre
05.15.11 - Denver, CO - The Fillmore
05.17.11 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
05.18.11 - Chicago, IL - The Riviera Theatre
05.20.11 - Toronto, ON - The Sound Academy
05.23.11 - Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
05.25.11 - New York City, NY - Roseland
05.26.11 - Boston, MA - The House of Blues
• The Cars: http://www.myspace.com/thecarsunlocked
• Hear Music: http://www.hearmusic.com
• Concord Music Group: http://www.concordmusicgroup.com
