(Gibson) One of the most pleasant surprises in the world of music this past year has been the reunion of '80s pop rockers The Cars. It was a reunion few could have foreseen, given the divisiveness caused by keyboardist Greg Hawkes and guitarist Elliot Easton founding The New Cars six years ago, notably replacing Ric Ocasek with Todd Rundgren. But all sins have been forgiven and the four surviving members of the band (bassist and co-vocalist Benjamin Orr died of pancreatic cancer in 2000) have a new album, Move Like This, due in stores next month. Easton talked to MusicRadar.com about how the whole thing came about."My recollection of things is that I felt that a good amount of time had passed, and I hadn't spoken to Ric in a while," the lefty guitarist recalled. "So one day I just picked up the phone to call an old friend, you know? Ric and I chatted, and it was nice. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was writing songs. He said they were kind of different from other things he had written before, but he was very excited. I asked him what he was going to do with the songs, and he said, 'I'll probably make another solo record.' So I said, 'Why don't we make a Cars record?'"
Easton says the off-the-cuff joke turned into the real deal shortly thereafter "I guess he thought about it for a few weeks and called around to David [Robinson] and Greg, and everybody was up for the idea. Suddenly, it was like, 'Yeah, let's do that!'" more on this story
