Retooled Cars Rev Up for Album, Tour

LOS ANGELES (March 14) - Two former members of long-defunct new wave rock band the Cars have refueled the group, installing singer-songwriter Todd Rundgren in the driver's seat and will hit the road as the New Cars, they announced Tuesday.

The new model, featuring Cars lead guitarist Elliot Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes, will be accompanied on tour by fellow classic pop refugees Blondie, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Monday.

Absent from the Cars reunion are singer/guitarist Ric Ocasek, who wrote all the band's hits, such as "Good Times Roll," "Let's Go" and "Magic," bass player Benjamin Orr, who died of cancer in 2000, and drummer David Robinson. The band broke up acrimoniously in the late 1980s amid declining sales.

By calling itself the New Cars, the band avoids legal traps that dog acts when they reunite with different lineups. Last July, former Doors drummer John Densmore won a permanent injunction preventing his two surviving bandmates from using the Doors name while touring with a revamped version of the legendary 1960s act.

The New Cars tour will begin in low-key fashion, at a casino in the Mississippi city of Tunica May 12, and will reach such key markets as Los Angeles (May 20), New York (June 7), its Boston hometown (June 9) and Toronto (June 21), before wrapping July 1 in Saratoga, N.Y. on July 1.

The Cars, founded in 1977, were among the most successful American rock bands to emerge from the remains of the short-lived punk rock revolution. The group managed to appeal to fans of both disparate genres thanks to radio-friendly pop tunes flavored with a hint of detached irony.

Its self-titled debut album, issued in 1978, yielded the hits "Good Times Roll," "My Best Friend's Girl" and "Just What I Needed," and turned the band into FM rock staples.

The Cars became MTV favorites in 1984 with a slew of videos stemming from its fifth -- and most successful album -- "Heartbeat City." But the belated follow-up, 1987's "Door to Door" sold disappointingly, and the band broke up at Ocasek's behest after a poorly received tour.

Rundgren, a maverick pop songwriter famed for such tunes as "I Saw the Light" and "Can We Still Be Friends," has been a cult attraction on the fringes of the music industry for most of his four-decade career.

Also aboard the New Cars are bass player Kasim Sulton, who has played with Rundgren, and former Tubes drummer Prairie Prince.

03/14/06 13:41 ET

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