Pullin’ ‘Tubes: The Cars Rev It Up

In the latest issue of Rolling Stone, Ric Ocasek refers to The Cars second go-around together as a conjunction, not a reunion; telling the music mag that a little over a year ago he found himself a batch of new songs that he thought would be best suited to be recorded by the seminal New Wave band. A smidge over two decades after going on “hiatus,” the surviving members of the band, who have been teasing fans with their decision to regroup via Facebook, headed into the studio to lay down tracks for the group’s seventh studio album and first since 1987’s Door to Door.

After splitting time recording in upstate New York and in Los Angeles, The Cars, who made our recent list of Bands We’re Excited About In ’11, will release Move Like This on May 10 via Concord Music with five tracks produced by Gareth “Jackknife” Lee (U2, R.E.M.) and the rest by the band. Last week, Ric Ocasek & Co. dropped their first music video since the 1980s for the synth-heavy tune Blue Tip, which takes the classic Cars sound and brings it into this century. Take a gander…