The Cars Make Exciting Comeback With New Album 24 Years Later

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Ric Ocasek, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes, and drummer David Robinson have been in the studio recording in Millbrook, New York– founding bassist Benjamin Orr died of cancer in 2000.  Rolling Stone recently gave their leaked single “Sad Song” four stars and said it “sparkles like 1978’s ‘My Best Friend’s Girl‘ with a fresh coat […]

The Cars in the studio on their Facebook page

Ric Ocasek, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes, and drummer David Robinson have been in the studio recording in Millbrook, New York– founding bassist Benjamin Orr died of cancer in 2000.  Rolling Stone recently gave their leaked single “Sad Song” four stars and said it “sparkles like 1978’s ‘My Best Friend’s Girl‘ with a fresh coat of chrome.”

The Cars is an important band because they were at the forefront of transitioning from guitar-heavy rock of the ’70s to synth-pop of the ’80s.  They exploded onto the scene with their self-titled platinum debut album The Cars, scoring a hit with “Just What I Needed.”  A music critic for The New York Times and Rolling Stone describes The Cars saying, “They have taken some important but disparate contemporary trends– punk minimalism, the labyrinthine synthesizer and guitar textures of art rock, the ’50s rockabilly revival and the melodious terseness of power pop– and mixed them into a personal and appealing blend.”

[pullquote quote=”I’m saying never and you can count on that.” credit=”Ric Ocasek, 1997″]It’s nothing short of a miracle that The Cars are back together supporting a new album, and here’s why.  Since the band split up in 1988, Ric Ocasek has consistently discouraged talk of a reunion– “I’m saying never and you can count on that,” Ocasek maintained.  He went on to produce musicians like Weezer and Le Tigre and even held the position of A&R executive at Elektra Records.  In 2005 once Ocasek declined to reunite the band yet again, Easton and Hawkes enlisted Todd Rundgren to form the spin-off group The New Cars.  Now they’ve reunited and are performing new music for the first time in 24 years.

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