The New Cars
It's Alive!

Ric Ocasek dislikes reunions, much less going on tour, either with a band or solo. That’s why nothing has been heard about the Cars, their performances, or new albums. Something, a studio reunion, to record old tracks never released and remaster demos, was done in 1999 with the double anthology CD "Just What I Needed." Then nothing...

But if back then at least it could be talked about, the following year the possibility was rendered impossible by natural causes, namely the premature departure of the blond bassist — as well as the singer for half of the Cars' hits — Benjamin Orr, due to pancreatic cancer. From that day on, any type of reunion could only be partial. But it wasn't discussed at all: Ocasek doesn’t like nostalgia operations nor concerts (and maybe he doesn’t like the Cars anymore, and perhaps he doesn’t even own a car, since in New York you take taxis, who knows) and drummer David Robinson has always refused as well.

Without drums, rhythm guitar, bass, and the two voices as the brand’s trademarks, what remains of the Cars? Two excellent musicians, that's for sure: Elliot Easton - long-time session man for Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Brian Wilson's preferred guitarist for the Beach Boys, as well as Tiki God voted guitar hero in America - and keyboardist Greg Hawkes, an absolute talent and valued multi-instrumentalist, truthfully out of the loop for quite some time except for his keyboard parts in Ocasek’s solo albums... Two excellent musicians, as we said, and nothing more.

In short, you can find more than good session men for the drums and bass, maybe even permanently joining the band, but for the voice? Who can replace not one, but two singers simultaneously, and so different in voice, interpretation, in addition? And who has the fame, charisma, a respectable career behind him, basically someone capable of filling the “double hole” (or the two half holes, as you see fit) even “visually,” on stage, and even, so to speak, just by being named...? Well, Easton’s move was a big score, no doubt about it... Can one believe that someone less talented, less acclaimed, less famous, or less considered by the critics would want the place Ocasek has dismissed since 1986...? And yet singing Ocasek’s songs is a genius, a wonderful star, reviewed twice on this site for two albums, both times receiving five stars, and garnering five “fives” and only one “four” as comments. Not bad for an average, wouldn’t you agree? And this genius, rightly nicknamed “the wizard,” goes by the name of Todd Rundgren.

A lifelong friend, Easton secured a man who has sung well throughout his career, an excellent rhythm guitarist, and a potential author of new, if at his level, also great songs. In this live, Rundgren excels with the songs Orr used to sing. With Ocasek’s pieces he seems a bit caricatured when he hums the “oh oh” and the sobs in “My Best Friend’s Girl”; it goes better when the atmospheres become darker, and the tone of the voice lower. The band is mighty and demonstrates how the tracks from the first Cars LP, new wave as light as soap bubbles, and the second period pieces, more synth-beat, have a structure that, in the right hands, becomes pure rock, raw material to erect an imposing sound wall.

After all, if Ocasek was the skeleton of the Cars (and not only because he is very thin, as well as very tall, giving the sensation that he won’t last until tomorrow), Easton and Hawkes have been the “flesh,” i.e., the muscles and tendons of the Cars, the signature sound rather than the compositional mark of the band. It was right for Ocasek, contacted by Hawkes before the New Cars project came to life, to give his blessing to the operation, recognizing the value of the work of the two former companions in giving that recognizability and pleasantness that turned them into hits. Rundgren includes in the live his classic “I Saw The Light,” always beautiful but entirely “out of place,” and then plays the unreleased “Not Tonight” (which we find on the same CD in a studio version), beautiful, and “Open My Eyes,” a rock song good for concerts, although in pure Rundgren’s style. Praise goes to how “Drive” is played, not all keyboard as in “Heartbeat City” but as a gem, a treat, to the point that it makes you regret that Hawkes, as a multi-instrumentalist as mentioned, never thought of studying, maybe just for “Drive,” even the accordion (I am sure it wouldn’t take him more than a quarter of an hour to learn).

Three studio works remain: the first is “Not Tonight,” already on the CD in a live version. Note how in the recording studio, the piece is effectively simplified in its sound, just as if it were composed between the seventies and eighties, for the first Cars CDs, a sonic aspiration at which the New Cars seem determined to aim. Then “Warm,” a negligible track that tries to echo “Baby Why Can’t I Have You” from the “Heartbeat City” album, where the only good notes are Todd’s delicate voice beauty (for those who didn’t know it already) and the almost “ecstatic” perfection of the CarsChoruses (for those who didn’t know them already). Good ending with “More,” a rock piece with an excellent rhythm and a spectacular chorus.

In short, for live performances, these New Cars are here, worthy of being listened to, for the quality of the songs they propose and for how they know how to play them on stage. For the unreleased material and, we believe, upcoming expectations of a CD with new tracks, it’s still a bit too early; we have to see whether the vocalist will partially bend his way of composing to converge as best as possible toward a pop-rock-new wave band, or if it will be the opposite, and everything will sound like yet another (great, if not masterpiece) Rundgren album accompanied by exceptional session men. Or the usual middle ground that will displease everyone...

We’ll stay tuned. In the meantime, one thing remains, which I’ll leave for you to decide: if the great Rundgren sings Ocasek (causing heavy criticism in America for being deemed “inadequate” to be where he is, on Ocasek’s “pieces”), will that mean that Todd the wizard is in disgrace (and needs to make ends meet, playing with whoever’s available), or that Ric - author of light and immediate songs, “but nothing more,” as reviewed in a piece on this site about the Cars' Greatest Hits - is also a great author, at least on par with Rundgren?