The Cars reforming with Todd Rundgren? WTF?

[Synth80s]

Has April Fools' Day come early? While a few '80s reunions have worked well in recent years (Echo & The Bunnymen, The Soft Boys, Tears For Fears) what the f*uck are The Cars doing touring without Ocasek? I don't care how much you like Rundgren, when Ocasek said "not interested" it should have died on the vine. keep cashing those checks, boys.

What's next? Is the Clash going to tour with Glen Ballard as the front man??!?!?! AHAHAhahahahaa...madness!!!!! fuuck

On a related note, the new Ocasek solo album, while not revolutionary, is a good listen from an artist/ producer who continues to hone his style.

-Synth80s

[mcguin]

I don't know - I'd take Todd over Rick in any situation. Hands down one of the most brilliant musicians ever (IMHO).

Dan
www.Islandsoundworks.com

[JulianBrightnes]

Originally Posted by mcguin

Hands down one of the most brilliant musicians ever (IMHO).

Dan
www.Islandsoundworks.com

[TinderArts]

Actually, I think the band is a really good lineup, but they might have done better with a new name.

[max cooper]

At least this saves Elliot Easton from having to play in the Fogerty-less "Creedence Clearwater Revisited".

I think I'm going to be shot for saying this, but Rundgren-Schmundgren. What's the big deal? I remember he produced The Pursuit of Happiness and he did that song "Hello, It's Me" plus he acted as Liv's father while Steven Tyler was all doped out.

So what's the good stuff? I'm open minded. I'll check it out. Someone hook me up.

[mcguin]

The work Todd was doing with sequencing (OK flame on) way back in the 60's and early 70's was steller. Anything from Nazz at first to Utopia later on is terrific. Even the Best Of CD that can be found in the discount biuns - lots of great material. He also produced some of the later Gand Funk stuff and XTC. I think he really was a pioneer of synth and sequenced music - a musical rennaisance man if you will. Hello It's Me, We Gotta Get You A Woman, I Saw The Light, One World, Bang The Drum - the list goes on. Almost forgotten by many, and unknown to more, but definatly worth checking out.

Dan
www.islandsoundworks.com

[Kyle Ashley]

I used to think Rundgren-Schmundgren too. Then I really dug in and listened to the Nearly Human and Mink Hollow records. Now I love all things Todd. I listened to his latest, Liars, for a solid month.

Even the late, great Michael Hedges referred to Todd as the "Godhead".

[gogo]

Ocasek is the Cars.

[silverdisk]

Yup, I saw this line up on Leno last night, the 'New Cars' is what they called themselves , and I agree it was not a cars I would go out and see.


It was like a wedding band version, or a county fair version. Its not the cars without Rick, its a cover band. IMO

But , i must confess, im also not a Rundgren fan so.....

[ArcCirDude]

Rundgren produced "Bat Out of Hell", as well. He wrote "Love is the Answer" which England Dan and John Ford Coley watered down and made into a soft rock hit. He invented the touch screen pad back in the early eighties. He's ALWAYS been on the cutting edge of technology, programming software to get his ideas done if need be. His last album, "Liars" was made at home on a Mac. It sounds a little thin at times, but who gives a crap. The tunes rock, the concept is solid and he did it all himself...again.

[Jose Mrochek]

Originally Posted by gogo

Ocasek is the Cars.

Yep!

I love the cars, what a great band they were, so many classics..

[mitchell]

I'm so offended by this that I can't even put it into words. It's not a question of Rundgren's credentials; clearly he's a talented guy with a proven track record. He didn't even do too bad singing "Good Times Roll" on Leno. But comparing the two of them is ridiculous and completely misses the point.

The Cars without Ric Ocasek is like, christ I can't even think of a more ridculous analogy, it's like THE CARS WITHOUT RIC OCASEK!!@#@ He wrote ALL of their songs. If the guy who wrote all the songs and sang almost all of them ain't there, then you don't have the band. Period. (remember the awesome success of the Coverdale/Page project? At least they didn't call it New Led Zeppelin).

The other thing no one is mentioning is that many of their songs were sung by Benjamin Orr, who sadly left us a couple of years ago, so there's the other voice of the Cars right there. The bass position has been filled by Todd's longtime cohort Kasim Sultan, who has lots of cred, but probably doesn't sing like Ben Orr (admittedly I have a personal bias, as I worked with Mr. Sultan on a show, and he was a condescending prick).

Also curiously missing is drummer David Robinson, replaced by some silly happy looking dork, not exactly keeping up the "cool" quotient that I used to love them for. (David Robinson was the first person I ever saw with his hair dyed black and blonde!).

So that leaves Eliot Easton, a great guitarist who should've already been smacked upside the head for being in sham version of Creedence, and Greg Hawkes on keys.... I'm no mathematician, but that looks like 40% of The Cars to me... maybe that's what they should have called it "40% Cars".

mitchell

btw, if the New Cars are so swell, why didn't they play one of their great new songs last night on Leno... instead they wimped out and played one of Ric's classic hits

[severe]

Wow!

I have to agree that this shouldn't be a debate on talent. All involved (or not) are proven talented. However, when I first saw this thread I thought, "Great, Todd is sitting in for Ben...weird..but cool!"

But good god, this is way too weird.

I noticed that "The New Cars" were performing on TV last night. I had no idea it was this. I just thought it was a new band (a new band giving themselves the name "The New Cars" would not be surprising at this juncture, which is sad and an entire other subject). I missed the performance.

BTW...I caught Rick performing on Conan last year. Good performance, decent song. His voice hadn't seemed to change at all. It sounded like the Cars w/o keys, go figure.

[ArcCirDude]

Why is this so weird? A surprise, perhaps, but not so weird. Van Halen survived a front man change. Yes survived a front man change. (I thought Drama, with Trevor Horn on vocals, was great.) So many groups have gone through changes that originally pissed off lots of fans but then stood the test of time. The Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Genesis (well, they just shrunk...). They have billed themselves as "The New Cars", obviously stating that there is something new. It would have been harder to swallow if they had called themselves "The Cars". But even then, so what? How does the new music sound? I hope it rocks. I hope it shows twenty + years of living on the members parts. I remember people being dissapointed in Blondie's new album because it didn't sound like 1978 Blondie. F*ck that. If I want to hear 1978 Blondie I'll pull out "Heart of Glass". But I digress... Give the boys a chance before you blast them because of their name.

[superburtm]

You can't have the fricking cars with out Benjamin Orr and Rick Ocasek!! That's like The Rolling Stones without Keith and Mick!

[James Guitar]

yeh i think it's pretty weird too. i thought TR was taking ben's spot, but noooooooo, he's taking ocasek's. THAT is weird.
but todd is THE MAN. love him. i can't be certain about nowadays, but you wanna talk about a gearslut and a recording maniac? he's your guy. like him or not, he's been all about studios, gear and whatnot since the late '60's. the sleeve or something/anything (1972) with him in his living room standing in front of a (i think) U87 and a VCS3 while the sun rises in front of him says it all (to me at least). the man lived (maybe still lives?) for recording music in studios.
-J

[ArcCirDude]

Originally Posted by superburtm

You can't have the fricking cars with out Benjamin Orr and Rick Ocasek!! That's like The Rolling Stones without Keith and Mick!

Hence the name, "The NEW Cars". As a keyboard player, I feel that a big part of The Cars sound was Greg's keys. He's still there. I feel that he has a right to be one of the "Car" parts. (Pun intended..)

[superburtm]

Originally Posted by James Guitar

yeh i think it's pretty weird too. i thought TR was taking ben's spot, but noooooooo, he's taking ocasek's. THAT is weird.
but todd is THE MAN. love him. i can't be certain about nowadays, but you wanna talk about a gearslut and a recording maniac? he's your guy. like him or not, he's been all about studios, gear and whatnot since the late '60's. the sleeve or something/anything (1972) with him in his living room standing in front of a (i think) U87 and a VCS3 while the sun rises in front of him says it all (to me at least). the man lived (maybe still lives?) for recording music in studios.
-J

Yeah..maybe you can have the cars with just Rick or with just Benjamin...but you can't have the cars without eitherof them..Ben was a huge part of the cars and was the better singer of the two anyhow..

[superburtm]

Originally Posted by ArcCirDude

Hence the name, "The NEW Cars". As a keyboard player, I feel that a big part of The Cars sound was Greg's keys. He's still there. I feel that he has a right to be one of the "Car" parts. (Pun intended..)

Ok you got me there...you are correct BUT neither of the front guys are there so they are gonna have a tough time...BTW was it the original drummer on Leno last night..he actually was pretty good behind the kit.

[ArcCirDude]

Originally Posted by superburtm

Ok you got me there...you are correct BUT neither of the front guys are there so they are gonna have a tough time...BTW was it the original drummer on Leno last night..he actually was pretty good behind the kit.

That's probably why they brought TR into the fold. It's a drag sometimes living outside of the states. Would've been cool seeing Leno last night...

[lucey]

I saw this "new" band last night ... and now I understand why it seemed so ... weird ... ugly old guys very out of tune ... wrong somehow. If you're old you MUST be great, they weren't.

Rundgren had a hair clump stuck in the side of his mouth the whole time ... the cameras tried to shoot around it ... it was so .. off.

I think this experiment is doomed already and any band that loses key people should fold the tents... then again, they need the money I suppose.



p.s. Van Halen sucked without DLRoth, it was never the same band.

Genesis? Should have been called Psalms post Gabriel.

[ArcCirDude]

Originally Posted by lucey

I saw this "new" band last night ... and now I understand why it seemed so ... weird ... ugly old guys very out of tune ... wrong somehow. If you're old you MUST be great, they weren't.

Rundgren had a hair clump stuck in the side of his mouth the whole time ... the cameras tried to shoot around it ... it was so .. off.

I think this experiment is doomed already and any band that loses key people should fold the tents... then again, they need the money I suppose.



p.s. Van Halen sucked without DLRoth, it was never the same band.

Genesis? Should have been called Psalms post Gabriel.

You don't say? Hmm... Too bad they didn't deliver.

Van Halen? No opinion. Don't own any records. Just remember hearing about them often post DLR. Figured they survived the departure. Also read recently that DLR is a paramedic, now. Go figure.

As far as Genesis post Gabriel (Psalms...HAHA! Good one) , I think the first two albums they did after him, "Trick of the Tail" and "Wind and Wuthering" are fantastic.

[hillbilly]

Does anyone know why Ocasek declined to participate?

Todd is the coolest, but this might be like a Wings reunion without Paul.

[severe]

Originally Posted by ArcCirDude

Why is this so weird? A surprise, perhaps, but not so weird. Van Halen survived a front man change. Yes survived a front man change. (I thought Drama, with Trevor Horn on vocals, was great.) So many groups have gone through changes that originally pissed off lots of fans but then stood the test of time. The Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Genesis (well, they just shrunk...). They have billed themselves as "The New Cars", obviously stating that there is something new. It would have been harder to swallow if they had called themselves "The Cars". But even then, so what? How does the new music sound? I hope it rocks. I hope it shows twenty + years of living on the members parts. I remember people being dissapointed in Blondie's new album because it didn't sound like 1978 Blondie. F*ck that. If I want to hear 1978 Blondie I'll pull out "Heart of Glass". But I digress... Give the boys a chance before you blast them because of their name.

ugh?

This isn't a "current" act that decided to get a new singer. The examples you use had still been making music under their name and had hardly missed a beat. And I have a feeling that naming the project "The New Cars" hardly had anything to do with "stating that there is something new".

It's weird...but so what.


http://www.myspace.com/thenewcars


Sounds a little like The Cars just before they split.

[allencollins]

Originally Posted by gogo

Ocasek is the Cars.

Yeah your right ....

The late great Ben Orr only sang and wrote half their hits

[ArcCirDude]

Originally Posted by severe

ugh?

This isn't a "current" act that decided to get a new singer. The examples you use had still been making music under their name and had hardly missed a beat. And I have a feeling that naming the project "The New Cars" hardly had anything to do with "stating that there is something new".

It's weird...but so what.


http://www.myspace.com/thenewcars


Sounds a little like the Cars just before they split.

No, not a current act. The Cars sound is therefore, for many people, set in stone. All I was saying was to not write them off before hearing what they have to offer just because of the name they chose to call themselves. After reading a few of your reviews below, I guess they should have been called, "The Old, Broken Down, Ready for the Junk Yard Cars". As I said, too bad they didn't deliver...

[Rush909]

Originally Posted by lucey

p.s. Van Halen sucked without DLRoth, it was never the same band.

Genesis? Should have been called Psalms post Gabriel.

I completely disagree with both these statments, but again to each their own... both V. Halen and Geneis went on to HUGE success after both original leads left... If the "new Cars" can do this then great, only time will tell... but to loose both leads singers, and the main songwriter, it's pretty tough to keep going on...

actually Ocasek said somewhere else that he did not even want to let circuit city use their song in the commercials, but the other members pressured him into it... looks like they had an a secret motive behind it... I guess they were always planning on reforming and needed the profile raised again...

r.

[severe]

Originally Posted by ArcCirDude

No, not a current act. The Cars sound is therefore, for many people, set in stone. All I was saying was to not write them off before hearing what they have to offer just because of the name they chose to call themselves. After reading a few of your reviews below, I guess they should have been called, "The Old, Broken Down, Ready for the Junk Yard Cars". As I said, too bad they didn't deliver...

thumbsup


Yep.

Would have loved to have seen it though.

[lucey]

To their credit they did play live ...

It was still very strange, a band without a soul IMO.

[superburtm]

Originally Posted by ArcCirDude

That's probably why they brought TR into the fold. It's a drag sometimes living outside of the states. Would've been cool seeing Leno last night...

It wasn't bad actually the keys did sound really cool!