tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-198945072024-03-13T11:42:14.507-04:00Daily Events Book Page ThreeRic Ocasek NewsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-71948980920265702592011-05-16T07:35:00.000-04:002011-05-16T07:35:20.362-04:00"Move like This" Listening Party and Cars 2011 Tour Talk<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sevQc2QIdmE/Tc79UWNpl3I/AAAAAAAABmc/c8Rzzp3je1I/s1600/242704_10150200596519929_189146859928_6757255_4731771_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sevQc2QIdmE/Tc79UWNpl3I/AAAAAAAABmc/c8Rzzp3je1I/s400/242704_10150200596519929_189146859928_6757255_4731771_o.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Cars have returned in a big way with absolutely great album accompanied by a small but much long awaited tour.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Cars fans will have a chance to interact with each other and get a chance to give their opinions on the new album and the first tour with the remaining members in 24 years.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The show will air on Tuesday May 17th at 9 PM EST a internet radio broadcast hosted by Eddie Gieck and comes courtesy of the Frozen Fire Fellowship page on facebook.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">There will be a live chat room and call in number for fans to talk about everything Cars ! </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">To listen to the live broadcast or and participate in the chatroom follow this link: <a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hockey-card-night-live/2011/05/18/the-cars-2011-listening-party-tour-talk">"Move like This" Listening Party and Cars 2011 Tour Talk </a></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The call in # is (818) 514-1210</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">To participate in the live chat room you must have a screen name go here to register it's free.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.blogtalkradio.com/">Blogtalk Radio </a></span><br />
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</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-47692453385921776822009-03-23T18:02:00.006-04:002009-03-23T18:09:04.037-04:00OTCASEK Turns 60<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/ScgHPA-M1KI/AAAAAAAAAIg/5zf8Bc4N5p8/s1600-h/4055037.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/ScgHPA-M1KI/AAAAAAAAAIg/5zf8Bc4N5p8/s320/4055037.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316507314651190434" /></a> Ric Ocasek turns 60 today, Happy birthday Ric - O ! <br /><br />My birthday wish for you is that you quit smoking and release albums more frequently. But all joking aside have a happy and frenzied Birthday.<br /><br />All The Best !<br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-71084070263680694582009-03-19T02:23:00.011-04:002009-03-19T02:50:43.052-04:00Ric's "Noise Party" You're Invited<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/ScHocHT-seI/AAAAAAAAAIY/NH2cMfrIxv0/s1600-h/ar-ocasek.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 200px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/ScHocHT-seI/AAAAAAAAAIY/NH2cMfrIxv0/s320/ar-ocasek.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314784604970725858" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I kind of imagine that Ric isn't a good roofer or one that tinkers about the house looking for things to fix. The reason I say this is that Ric's left brain must never shut off. The create switch is ON 24/7. <br /><br />The creativity that exudes from his mind is sure to be envied. Ocasek has now stumbled into the art world debuting his drawings at his first art show ever at the Mahan gallery in Columbus, Ohio. <br /><br />Ric had mentioned this gallery but not by name in an interview during his "The Cars Unlocked" DVD promotional tour. <br /><br />To read more about how this came about follow this :<br /><a href="http://www.columbusalive.com/live/content/features/stories/2009/03/12/ca_ar_scapeocasek.html?type=rss&cat=&sid=108">Artscape</a><br /><br />To see some more of Ric's drawings <br /><a href="http://mahangallery.com/">Mahan Gallery</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-15333560294964761002008-10-13T04:41:00.005-04:002008-10-13T05:02:34.192-04:00Slash's New Book and The Cars<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SPMLqTe1TsI/AAAAAAAAAGI/tDUkju0nQKg/s1600-h/slashbook.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SPMLqTe1TsI/AAAAAAAAAGI/tDUkju0nQKg/s320/slashbook.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5256558011483508418" border="0" /></a>Slash's newly released autobiography contains some high praise for The Cars especially for Ric Ocasek and as well as former Cars guitarist Elliot Easton. Slash recalls his friend throwing the Cars Debut on when it was initially released and being surprisingly blown away the album.<br /><br />Slash said the guitar playing especially stood out. He is quoted in the book saying that on The Cars debut "Elliot Easton was the heart and soul of the Cars"<br /><br />He also recalled a time when he saw Ric Ocasek as a 15 yr old and being totally awestruck by him. Ric was on his way to Cherokee studios In Los Angeles when Slash spotted him. This most likely occurred when Ric and The Cars were doing some of the recording for Panorama at Cherokee in 1980.<br /><br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-28257988957871575552008-09-30T11:57:00.010-04:002008-09-30T12:24:47.408-04:00That New Cars Smell Part 1This will Likely be the First and Last time you will ever see this addressed here. Mostly because <span style="font-style: italic;">The New Cars</span> is not in anyway a Ric Ocasek related project. But over the last three years something has been going on within Cars world that frankly needs to be addressed. Mainly due to the fact I need to voice my opinion on it and equally so that their basically isn't that much happening on The Ocasek front these days. I also want to add this is my opinion alone and not Ric's in any way.<br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SOJOy3YbvRI/AAAAAAAAAGA/dni78Cbaiow/s1600-h/GREED.GIF"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SOJOy3YbvRI/AAAAAAAAAGA/dni78Cbaiow/s320/GREED.GIF" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251846751234276626" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />First off, it is naive to think The New Cars was done for creative reasons since only three "songs" were new. Not One single song was penned solo by Rundgren. I frankly only listened to the one song “Not Tonight” and it sounded like a band trying to imitate the Cars from the HBC-D2D era. Even the lyrics are crafted in a poorly mimicked Ocasek style and delivery. I am guessing this was Rundgren’s only contribution to at least that song.<br /><br />This project was done for financial reasons only, for all the parties involved. Now I don't begrudge people making a buck, but do it with integrity especially when you have a tie to its past musical credibility and are given the real opportunity to do so with Ric Ocasek's blessing. His only stipulation was that THE CARS not be the name of the band.<br /><br />Most people who even still care frankly don’t know the facts as I have been following this story since Easton signed his deal with Paid Inc right around Live 8 where he and other Paid Inc. members were showcased in one of worst Supergroups I have ever seen perform live.<br /><br />Easton was the catalyst in restarting the NEW Cars. Previous to this, Easton and Hawkes had asked Ric to let Circuit City use “Just What I Needed” for their commercials. Ric had never authorized a song for a TV ad before that and did this as a favor to his former bandmates who would benefit from any residuals that would come their way. Ric even in some interviews used the word “Pressured”.<br /><br /><br />Ric has also gone on record saying that he justified this move to himself by saying, “If Dylan has used a song for a commercial, I guess I can too.” He also stated in more than one interview that he did it for a few guys in the band who approached him who wanted to see some benefit ($$$) from their old tunes through sync rights.<br /><br />So basically we have Easton and possibly Hawkes with some financial problems. Now in both Easton's and Hawkes defense they have been pestering Ocasek for years about playing again. But from all accounts Ric hates touring. He loathes it. He is a studio geek and really loves NYC and doesn’t want to leave. Plus he is in his sixties. Ric is stubborn and unmovable on the subject. Dozen dates-No Big venues. Studio album yes. Major tour in support of an album absolutely not. Also, without Ben Orr the possibilities grow even slimmer.<br /><br />David Robinson did not join for several reasons. He is not a drummer anymore. He doesn’t even have a kit. He had a small bistro at the time he was running which he has since sold. He was also taking care of his ailing mother. But his main reason was that it wouldn’t be the same without Ben Orr.<br /><br />As Easton was tinkering with forming the New Cars in 2005 , Robinson who lives in Rockport MA showed up at Ocasek’s gig at Harpers Ferry in Boston. To me this was a sign of solidarity or just plain friendship between the two. I found it peculiar that Greg Hawkes was nowhere to be found even though he lives even closer than Robinson did to the venue. But who knows, maybe he was busy. From my encounters with Hawkes, I don’t think the guy is capable of any malice.<br /><br />Now enter Rundgren. Just before the announcement of joining the New Cars, he is in financial ruin. His tour in support of his album “Liars” left him almost bankrupt and owing the IRS back taxes. Rundgren himself, on his fan based TR connection, addressed this himself and informed his fans of his joining the New Cars to pay his taxes, fish himself out of debt, as well play with some long time friends.<br /><br />The Theme of this whole get together is MONEY. This is not done for the Fans or to get the Cars Music back out live for people to enjoy. It has nothing to do with musicians who just wanted to play their old band’s old tunes and be on the road. It was about cash. Why would Rundgren even be interested in a project like this ? He is about as opposite of Ric Ocasek as they get.<br /><br />The band is announced and then this shitty New Cars website appears. It’s all about Cash packages just to join etc. This is all before The New Cars even play a gig. Then it finally happens the product is launched. The New Cars do a showcase in L.A. longtime Fans were in attendance. They said it was god awful. Rundgren was not prepared. He stumbled on many lyrics. He flat out didn’t know some of them. At the showcase were both fans as well as people from the industry; they flat out were not impressed to say the least. I can forgive Rundgren’s faux pas, I mean learning 12+ songs you never wrote is a hard thing especially with Ric’s wacky word play. But to many die hard Cars fans it just seemed this product was rushed to the public, and the music and the set itself was not painstakingly taken care of before being unleashed onto the public.<br /><br /><br />Soon after the New Cars showcase debacle Easton starts making comments that are so arrogant and ludicrous it alienates most of The Cars fan base, what’s left of it after all these years. The following are quotes from Easton when asked about the New Cars and the fact that Ric Ocasek isn’t participating in it.<br /><br />1) The Cars Music were His and Greg’s musical legacy as well as Ric’s<br /><br />2) Ric just wrote the skeletons of the songs the others in the band especially he and Greg gave the songs their meat.<br /><br />3) During one of his numerous Rockstar camp sessions Easton previewed “Not Tonight” for his students. After the song was surprisingly applauded, Easton smugly said, “ I betcha Ric ain’t gonna like that.”<br /><br />Over and Over Easton has shown a smugness and real arrogance since he launched the New Cars. The Luke-warm reception he and Rungren created from Cars die-hards right from the start as well as the cash oriented approach in which eager Cars fans were greeted immediately and the grim fact both Orr and Ocasek would not be present doomed this “project” from the start.<br /><br /><br />It is very hard for me to be unbiased when it comes to Rundgren fronting a band that is doing songs that Ric Ocasek wrote and predominantly sung, But I will try my best to try and critque what I thought when I actually went to see The New Cars out of some morbid curiosity at Jones beach in New York.<br /><br />Todd Rundgren was simply awful. His voice, his shtick and his solo material was not enjoyable at all. Greg Hawkes was fantastic and so was Easton. Kasim Sulton the bass player that night was very capable and able to pull off the vocals on Drive, to where it was enjoyable. It just frankly wasn’t worth the 80 bucks to see. I got severe douche chills when the band did an acoustic ukulele version of Rundgren’s “ Bang On The Drum” all day. It’s kind of amazing that with a set of some of the greatest Pop/Rock tunes that a concert could suck. But it did.<br /><br />I give credit to those people who embraced the New Cars concept with excitement and support. They hung in with that band until the end. Their poorly run website which screwed people out of money and time wasted waiting around for the junk they were supposed to send out proved to me that the fans of this new entity The New Cars were dedicated to putting up with a lot of Bullshit. The Bullshit never ended over there. The non-notification of Cancelled shows, the horrible customer service. The laughable Forum moderator who wouldn’t allow any dissenting posts the remotely criticized The New Cars. The Posting of Easton himself on the site, which we will never know if it was actually Easton doing the posting but from the arrogance, it probably could have been.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">End Of Part One</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-61800403210548284732008-09-17T20:06:00.016-04:002008-09-17T21:05:34.675-04:001987 WNEW Interview<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNGdzxVYBII/AAAAAAAAAF4/B2UZvSW1qnQ/s1600-h/ce47.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNGdzxVYBII/AAAAAAAAAF4/B2UZvSW1qnQ/s320/ce47.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247148553605219458" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Scott Muni was a DJ Icon in New York Radio at WNEW and he sat down with Ric in 1987 to interview him just before the Door To Door tour. Ric was surprisingly stoked for upcoming Cars World Tour in support of the album. He was also rock solid in his faith the Cars would be around for a long time.<br /><br />Take a Listen<br /><br /><a href="http://www.wnew.com/2008/04/ric-ocasek-1987.html">Ric Ocasek: 1987 WNEW Interview</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-347295165890971612008-09-17T08:57:00.009-04:002008-09-18T07:14:39.156-04:00The Rat<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNEC2H3dgcI/AAAAAAAAAFg/eicVCsJE6Pg/s1600-h/CarsPS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNEC2H3dgcI/AAAAAAAAAFg/eicVCsJE6Pg/s320/CarsPS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246978169711198658" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNECvjWevsI/AAAAAAAAAFY/mYTW6PL9ifo/s1600-h/Cars3PS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNECvjWevsI/AAAAAAAAAFY/mYTW6PL9ifo/s320/Cars3PS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246978056829976258" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNECY9ucEeI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/cSLOxXxTPnE/s1600-h/Cars2PS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SNECY9ucEeI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/cSLOxXxTPnE/s320/Cars2PS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246977668772794850" border="0" /></a>I think it always come back to The Rat. It's where Ric's later bands ended up playing. I had a chance to talk to Alan Vega's wife and she said it was incredible, talking me to as If i were Old enough to remember it. I'm not that old but its about the first time I wish I had been born in Boston and not NYC. The place was certainly a dive (which is often a good thing) but it was tied into a music scene that had a real sense of community.<br /><br />I recently came upon a website called Boston Groupie News.com which documented the going's-on of the Boston Music scene in the 70's and 80's. Thats where I came upon the above Pictures. They were taken By Joanie Lindstrom sister of New Models guitarist Casey Lindstrom.<br /><br />Her brother Casey as most Ocasek fans know appeared on Ocasek's first release Beatitude. Casey also was the lead guitarist in Ocasek's three man band that played at Perkins Palace where Ric's 1983 appearance on Rock and Roll Tonight was taped.<br /><br />Enjoy these old photos of Ocasek and his bandmates. Also check the Boston Groupie News website out it's quite cool.<br /><a href="http://www.bostongroupienews.com/"><br />Boston Groupie News</a><br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-14002765027108460832008-09-17T08:28:00.008-04:002008-09-18T07:17:54.605-04:00Sometimes It Don't Work Out<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SND8X9X0E1I/AAAAAAAAAFI/noYzkX_x7tM/s1600-h/i98787b223h.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/SND8X9X0E1I/AAAAAAAAAFI/noYzkX_x7tM/s320/i98787b223h.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5246971054428263250" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Ric worked with Motor City Soundtrack on their latest effort<span style="font-style: italic;"> Even If it Kills Me </span>on some tracks and apparently they thought Ric was going to sparkle and polish their tunes up, then turn them into pop behemoths.<br /><br />But often Ocasek's approach is to tweak the demos he hears and capture the band sound as he first heard it on the demo. Ric who even played Keyboards on Motor City Soundtracks latest effort got slammed by the bands guitarist Joshua Cain according to The Maneater.com<br /><br /><br />Cain said working with Ocasek, who produced landmark albums like Weezer's <em>Blue Album</em> and Bad Brains's <em>Rock for Light</em>, was a disappointment. <p class="MsoPlainText"><br /></p><p class="MsoPlainText">"We were kind of bummed afterwards because he really didn't do much with it," Cain says. "We were really stoked before, but we wish we would have done the record without him."</p><br />This really is the first time a band has not been happy with Ocasek in the studio. The only thing close has been a disdain for Ric's production of Guided By Voices 2001's <span style="font-style: italic;">Do The Collapse </span>by GBV fans not the band itself.<br /><br />The full Motor City Soundtrack article can be found here <a href="http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2008/9/16/motion-city-soundtrack-will-play-thursday-blue-not/">Maneater.com</a><br /><br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-79902024433256308032008-03-23T12:57:00.002-04:002008-03-23T13:09:01.493-04:00Happy Birthday Richard Otcasek !<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R-aMfnsUvWI/AAAAAAAAAFA/jXtvHoKlJl4/s1600-h/157_5705_IMG.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R-aMfnsUvWI/AAAAAAAAAFA/jXtvHoKlJl4/s320/157_5705_IMG.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180982896195059042" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Ric turns 59 today. This enigma trapped within a riddle shares his birthday with the Easter Bunny this year so no doubt it's gonna be celebration central at the Ocasek household.<br /><br />Now for the controversy. According to Elliot Easton's Brother Ric is a bit older. Easton's brother claims Ric is 63. But who really cares ?? If you do find your self caring, let's hope we keep guessing Ric's real age for many years to come.<br /><br />Cheers to you Ric !Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-50917803130174357622007-12-06T06:05:00.000-05:002007-12-06T06:22:20.594-05:00Ric's My Space Update<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R1fa21uqiuI/AAAAAAAAACY/g07sUXRJayA/s1600-h/aca.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R1fa21uqiuI/AAAAAAAAACY/g07sUXRJayA/s320/aca.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140818135337306850" border="0" /></a>Ric has added a new video to his MySpace page as well as several different songs for your listening pleasure. Please visit the Page to take a gander at the new stuff. Rumor has it Heg gets a dime for every hit.<br /><a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=123065405"><br />Ric's MySpace</a><br /><br />The video is for the song "Help Me Find America" which appeared on Ocasek's 1993 album <span style="font-weight: bold;">Quick Change World</span> as well as the Import Double Album <span style="font-weight: bold;">Negative Theater</span>. I suspect this video will land on his work in progress DVD project "Different Times" which has no date for release as of yet.<br /><br />The Video is an 8mm job with some really cool scenes from the must see movie "Atomic Cafe" as well as some road trip footage from around the U.S. Ric is superimposed in several frames but certainly not the subject of the video.<br /><br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-30331503991578682892007-12-03T13:34:00.000-05:002007-12-03T14:07:27.595-05:00Paulina Replacing Twiggy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R1RO1FuqitI/AAAAAAAAACQ/UOE5GgZjklU/s1600-R/pau.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R1RO1FuqitI/AAAAAAAAACQ/UI8Pjt4vrUY/s320/pau.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5139819748714515154" border="0" /></a><br />The Charlotte observer reports that Paulina will be replacing Twiggy as a judge on the CW show "America's Next Top Model". She will join the panel for the upcoming Cycle 10 season of the show. Twiggy has been with the show since the Cycle 5 season.<br /><br />Full the full skinny click here :<br /><br /><a href="http://www.charlotte.com/200/story/379317.html">Paulina ANTM</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-43382012588598909012007-11-30T03:16:00.001-05:002007-12-06T06:29:00.633-05:00Ric and Paulina's Part-Time Digs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R0_NmjosOdI/AAAAAAAAACI/15OrxWfhaSc/s1600-R/millbrooksm.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/R0_NmjosOdI/AAAAAAAAACI/sGZXVlzvXD0/s320/millbrooksm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5138551762137659858" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I recently discovered that the Ocasek's enjoy spending their summers in Upstate New York in a town called Millbrook. Paulina a couple months ago spoke with the Poughkeepsie Journal about how she likes the country life and that Milbrook reminds her of the rural towns located in Europe with it's rolling hills and farms.<br /><br />Paulina also went on to say that their youngest son Oliver especially enjoys the rural life of their Milbroook home while their eldest son Jonathan is more of a city kid.<br /><br />Paulina spoke to the paper during the promotion of her book " A Model Summer". Millbrook is located near PoughkeepsieUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-25949112581641965122007-08-08T00:11:00.000-04:002007-08-08T00:34:24.631-04:00Ric With Iggy Pop Again.. Sorta<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RrlHB0YlEDI/AAAAAAAAACA/RpwidD3nx-k/s1600-h/iggy-pop.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RrlHB0YlEDI/AAAAAAAAACA/RpwidD3nx-k/s320/iggy-pop.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5096182549913604146" border="0" /></a>The way I first read the following article was that a new Iggy Pop Live CD was going to be released featuring two previously unreleased studio tracks from 1981 that Iggy did with Ric. But after reading it a bit closer, it never actually says thats Ric's in the band or appears on any track and maybe just the producer of the two tracks.<br /><br />Here is the Original article as it reads from antimusic.com<br /><br /><br /><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >MVD has set the release date for a new live Iggy Pop album that also features two previously unreleased bonus tracks featuring Cars frontman Ric Ocasek.<br /><br /><br />The CD is set to hit stores on 09/18/2007. </span> <p style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Iggy Pop, live and wild from 1981, plus two bonus tracks from a studio session with Ric Ocasek. Fronting a crack band featuring Blondie drummer Clem Burke and future David Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar, Pop is as unpredictable and dominant as ever. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">This is a soundboard recording, taped near the end of their tour supporting his 1981 album Party. Iggy and co. are raw and ready for business. The two bonus tracks are previously unreleased versions recorded with Ric Ocasek in 1983</span></span><br /></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Arial,Helvetica;">Troub<br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-22132288992888653122007-07-13T22:40:00.000-04:002007-07-14T05:45:09.715-04:00Ric Inks New Publishing Deal<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/Rpg6yNEiHNI/AAAAAAAAABg/P0jtBOsp-vM/s1600-h/wmaricdeal.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/Rpg6yNEiHNI/AAAAAAAAABg/P0jtBOsp-vM/s320/wmaricdeal.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5086880413291519186" border="0" /></a>Rics songs have found a new home at the Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) who announced on July 5th they have signed Ric , to an exclusive, publishing administration agreement.<br /><br />David Renzer, Chairman & CEO, Universal <span id="hotlink16" onmouseover="" class="poptable"><div class="pop2maintd">Music Publishing Group said of the signing, "Ric Ocasek's hits for the Cars represent a seminal piece of modern rock and pop history. Ric's talents as chief songwriter, artist and producer are legendary and he continues<br /></div></span>to create Music today both as a writer and producer that continues to be at the cutting edge. It's a true privilege for us to welcome Ric to the Universal Music Publishing Family"<br /><br />Ric is currently managed Managed by <person>Jeff Kramer</person> and <person>Brian Higgins</person> of OK Management, Ric Ocasek joins UMPG's successful rock roster, including The Killers, Maroon 5, Coldplay, All American Rejects, Franz Ferdinand, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), The Sex Pistols, The Clash, Joy Division, the Pixies, including many others<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=158829">Full Article Link</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-20912961091741260492007-04-08T12:11:00.000-04:002007-04-08T13:13:52.732-04:00The Cars Musician Magazine Shake It Up 1982<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RhkVI_0GsLI/AAAAAAAAABY/v23wYJ5H0Vk/s1600-h/harpers1+287.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RhkVI_0GsLI/AAAAAAAAABY/v23wYJ5H0Vk/s320/harpers1+287.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051091701385834674" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">By J.D. Considine</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The first time I saw the Cars, I was tempted to feel sorry for them. It was 1978, and the Cars were opening for Foreigner at the local sports complex.<br /><br />At the time, It seemed like the Christians opening for the lions. As far as the heavy metal kids were concerned, the only thing worse than disco was punk, and the chances that a smart, new-wavish band from Boston could win the hearts of 14,000 kids waiting to sing along with Hot Blooded" seemed pretty slim.<br /><br />Little did I know. Despite the band's severely artsy attire, which ranged from spandex leopard-spots and black leather to exaggerated stripe and polka-dot motifs, the kids didn't look at the Cars and decide they were punks. Instead, they listened to the Cars, and decided they liked what they heard. Some of it they simply loved. The two most obvious crowd-pleasers were "Just What I Needed," which, as sung by the band's good-looking bass player, attracted a lot of feminine attention; and "My Best Friend's Girl," a snappy tune served up by the band's rhythm guitarist, a guy awkward and gangly enough to have passed for Elvis Costello's American cousin.<br /><br />Their rags-to-riches leap from the Boston club scene to arena glory seemed overnight, but actually concealed ten years of dues-paying. After meeting in Cleveland, gangly guitarist Ric Ocasek and heart-throbbing bassist Ben Orr had moved through Detroit and the Big Apple before settling in Boston. One of their first attempts was a folk trio called Milk-wood, which actually released an album in 1972. It didn't do much else, though, and soon afterwards Ocasek and Orr had formed Richard and the Rabbits, which included Marylander Greg Hawkes on keyboards. Unfortunately, the Rabbits died, and Hawkes took off, eventually winding up with Martin Mull's Fabulous Furniture. A few prototypes later, Ocasek and Orr had another hot prospect in Cap'n Swing, which featured Long Islander Elliot Easton on guitar. This, too, failed, but Ocasek and Orr held onto Easton, got Hawkes back and recruited Bostonian David Robinson, who had drummed with protopunks the Modern Lovers as well as punk rockers DMZ, to complete the line-up. The new band was christened the Cars.<br /><br />As it turned out, the Cars and their self-titled debut album were the hit of that season. The album went platinum, and the band walked off with every Best New Artist award except the Grammy (which, typically, went to a one-shot disco act, Taste of Honey). What was unexpected was that the Cars didn't turn to formula to hold on to their audience. The band moved ahead, and the fans didn't miss a step following them. And ironically enough, Foreigner itself emerged this year with "Urgent," a single that sounds suspiciously like the Cars. Small world, isn't it?<br /><br />Ric Ocasek is sitting in the basement lounge of the Cars' recently acquired and refurbished Boston studio. Although there are still a few bits of carpentry to be done, the studio is sleek and modern-looking, all pristine white walls, dark wood floors and tasteful austerity. In fact, it looks a bit too new: between the unfinished construction and the unremitting cleanliness, it looks not unlike a model apartment for a new development of Swedish-style condominiums.<br /><br />Typically, Ocasek is dressed in black from head to toe. Yet as ultra-modern as his appearance makes him seem, his actions are far less imposing. He's sprawled across a canvas-backed director's chair like an oversized teenager, and he speaks quietly, almost shyly. I mention that while working for a daily paper in Baltimore, Ocasek's hometown, I had received a letter from his father, objecting to a less-than-enthusiastic review of Panorama. Pop Octasek (which is how he spells it) even provided his own headline, "The Cars Run On High Test, Says Father." His son laughs, and says, "He's in Florida now. He goes into record stores and puts the records in front: and all that stuff."<br /><br />Who knows, even as you read this he may be checking to see that Shake If Up, the Cars' fourth album, is getting the shelf exposure it deserves. I wouldn't worry, though, because the new album is the band's most melodic and accessible. That's about the only similarity between the two, however; Shake If Up isn't so much a return as it is an extension of the ideas explored on The Cars. That first album broke some important ground in applying minimalist rock devices, like the clicking rhythm guitar on "Best Friend's Girl" and "Just What I Needed," to standard pop song forms.<br /><br />Although the Cars scraped at the limits of the forms on side two of the first album, it wasn't until Candy-O that Ocasek's pop instincts were fully sublimated by the band's modernistic musical vocabulary. This time, instead of being hooked by the simplicity of the rhythm, you were drawn in by the way each bit of melody was wrapped in a new and unexpected sound. Oddly enough, the synthesized soundscape wasn't as off-putting as you'd expect- each weird sound made the music that much more interesting to listen to. A neat trick, but not an easy one to maintain. Panorama, the third album, extended the band's arsenal of acoustic curiosities by lavishing textural detail onto each track, so that every song was awash in burbling guitars and wooshing synthesizers. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a little too modernistic, not because it was unlistenably avant-garde, but because it was so emotionally remote. At times, it sounded like the Cars were playing at us, not to us.<br /><br />Shake If Up adjusts for that and more. Not only are the melodies back up front, but they haven't been stressed at the expense of the band's textural tapestries. Perhaps more significant, though, is the amazingly personal nature of some of the songs. Although I wouldn't exactly call it confessional, the forthright emotionality of "I'm Not The One" adds a sense of character and emotion that has been sorely lacking in previous Cars albums. Listening to it, I become increasingly curious to see what turns up on Ocasek's solo album, for which Geffen records has contracted.<br /><br />It'll be a while before we hear that one. The immediate priority on the Cars' schedule is a quickie tour in early '82. In the meantime, Ocasek is indulging in his passion for production . Just upstairs, Ian Taylor, the engineer who assisted Roy Thomas Baker on Panorama and Shake If Up, is working with Romeo Void for an album he and Ocasek are preparing. Right now, though, Ocasek is thinking hard to come up with an answer to the $64,000 question, Why are the Cars so popular? "I really don't know," he says, "I mean, it's obvious we had no idea that we would have sold so many records. But what do I think did it? You know, I can't pin-point it."<br />Perhaps, Ocasek suggests, the fans accept the Cars, even at the band's most avant-garde, because they can relate to the mood the music expresses. "I think people like things that are different," he says, "if you don't treat everybody like an idiot. People are smart enough.. .I don't think it's very difficult. We're not Joy Division. It's not very difficult to catch on to the Cars "It's pop, basically. It is. I just don't think it's reactionary, like most pop is."<br /><br />True, the Cars are a pop band, but it's just as true that they're an art band. On the arty side, the Cars are avowed minimalists, but on the pop side, that just works out as keeping the songs uncluttered. "I guess we just filter things out," he says, "and make sure whatever we put in means something, at least to us.<br /><br />'There are certain things to go for," Ocasek admits. "It's right, it's played well, and it doesn't have things that seem to complicated for someone to learn or pick up. There are things there that are easy to grab onto, and I think that's real important, for the people who are listening to the music to get that." It's that conscious discipline that holds the pop in place. "It could be real Out," Ocasek says of his music. "But I think that's one of the things, the fact that you can remember those lines.<br /><br />Aside from the music's poppish insistence, the other thing to keep in mind about the Cars is the band's notion of modernity. Most avant-garde bands take their futurist perspective too seriously, and see themselves as alienated from the past and most of the world around them. Although the Cars are no strangers to alienation - how many bands would have sounded as at home singing "Misfit Kid"? - they don't see it as the inescapable by-product of modernism. Instead, the Cars see modernism as a reconciliation between the values of the present, and the possibilities of the future.<br /><br />To Ocasek's way of thinking, pop for its own sake is reactionary because, "it's a reaction to something that has already been done and embellished upon. Being a musician or a writer or whatever I'm in, I'm always looking for an alternative to what I particularly think is pop. There aren't too many pop bands that I really like<br />Who, for instance?<br />'E.L.O.'<br />E.L O.? Ocasek laughs embarrassedly. "That just came to the top of my head."<br />Well, it is a ways from minimalism.<br />'Oh, yeah." he agrees. "E.L.O.'s pretty heavy-duty, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink. But the structure of the songs and the beauty of the melodies is.. Even though they're very Beatlesque, there's hardly one song you could listen to that doesn't have a very heavy hook in it. Every time I hear an ELO. album, I think, 'How'd they do that?' again."<br /><br />"How'd they do that" is a question that plagues a fair number of Cars fans, too. If writing "things that are easy to grab on to" is the most obvious aspect of the group's pop side, then backing pop with an array of interesting noises is the band's most tangible manifestation of modernism.<br />"It's funny," says keyboardist Greg Hawkes. "On Candy-O, a lot of people used to ask me about the guitar solos, because they thought they were done on synthesizers."<br /><br />Wait 'til they hear Shake It Up. On "Think It Over," there's a buzzing bass line at the beginning with something that sounds like a musical saw. So I ask Ben Orr what kind of gadget he fed his bass through to get that buzzing sound. "That was the Arp Solace," he says, .Yes, Greg played that."<br />Since Hawkes' synthesizers were doing the buzzing, would it be safe to assume that they also did the sawing? "No," replies Hawkes, 'That's a syndrum, so David (Robinson) played that. "An honest mistake, Robinson assures me. "Sometimes there'll be something Greg can't play that we'll do on a syndrum," he says, 'lust a very simple sound. And he can duplicate a lot of syndrum stuff on his keyboards, even some snare drum noises.'<br /><br />With so many wrinkles to the band's high tech sound, it's easy to empathize with Ocasek's attitude toward his effect boxes. "I pretty much keep a straight sound, personally," he says, because I feel it's about the only straight sound there."<br /><br />The Cars may well be the only pop group on the charts that cover bands actively avoid, if only because producing an approximation of what's on the records is so damned hard. It's not that the Cars are merely high-tech; the band quite simply has a sound of its own. Ben Orr says, "I read all the time in the trades about bands now that are 'just another Cars clone,' and it lust doesn't wash. But if you ask me if the band has an influence, yeah, I think it does, simply because it's had so much exposure."<br /><br />Exposure has been both bane and boon to the band. On the one hand, its prominence on the charts has allowed the Cars to book bands like the New York punk-synthesizer band Suicide as an opening act. Unfortunately, that same prominence has brought in its wake a lot of fans who enjoy the Cars' unconventionality but have no use for or interest in the avantgardisms of Suicide. Consequently, many of the band's attempts to use its popularity to help other acts have been disastrous, as was the case with Suicide at the Hollywood Bowl in 1979.<br /><br />The major difference between the Cars and these other bands is that the Cars use unusual sounds to articulate the band's concept of modernity and help define its musical process, while the other bands are tied in too closely to a modernist ethic to use these sounds for any purpose beyond sounding unusual. That may be why the Cars are, as Orr observes, without any real imitators.<br /><br />On a very basic level, the unconventionality of the sounds employed by the band operates as a secondary level of hook For instance, try to imagine the rift that opens 'Let's Go' played on a saxophone. It just doesn't work, because part of what makes that line happen is the compressed, robotic quality of the synthesizer tone. ("It's a Prophet 5," reports Hawkes 'The break is actually a Prophet doubled with a real guitar, but that part is just a synthesizer.")<br /><br />To a large extent, this succeeds because the Cars value melody first and weirdness second. In fact, the best weirdness is that which reinforces melody, becomes a factor in the melody itself. Because the Cars don't play up a separation between the two elements, breaking up the material into a 'melodic" section and a "noisy" section, this never comes off as artificial. Although it's clear that Ocasek is conscious of the importance of melody, he doesn't pander to poppish tastes. "It's enough to say that when you work on songs, you have a certain awareness to forms," he says. 'I think it's good to have things that always come back in a song. 'Shoo Be Doo' doesn't have that, and some songs might not."<br /><br />Most songs do, though, and that's what makes many of the outer effects function. Two-thirds of the way into "Getting Through ' there's a passage where David Robinson cuts loose on his syndrums. It sounds like a computer with indigestion - lots of edgy noises and jagged rhythms with no melody to speak of but what makes it work are the utterly conventional blocks of rhythm guitar underneath the syndrums that provide tonal and rhythmic continuity with the rest of the song.<br /><br />Conversely, 'A Dream Away," from Shake It Up, uses drum machine, synthesizers and backwards guitar to provide a wispy cushion of sound for the vocals. The sounds, taken individually, are rather unorthodox, but the overall effect is not. The Cars understand how to turn technology into interesting textures, and how those textures can focus attention on a melody without competing against it. Guitarist Elliot Easton provides a large chunk of the sound on ' A Dream Away," but not so you'd notice. "I even play guitar synthesizer on that song," he says. 'There are some parts there that you wouldn't know whether they were keyboard or guitar. There's no way to tell." Which is precisely what Easton is after. "It's more an interacting of parts than a bunch of solos," he says of the band's approach 'That's a pretty antiquated concept - you play two choruses and then for some reason it's assumed that you have to demonstrate your expertise at improvisation. That's not necessarily true of music and the construction of music.<br /><br />The Cars are a group in the plainest sense of the word. Although Ocasek writes all the band's material, no one personality dominates. In fact, after meeting them it's hard to imagine that any one could. Ocasek, modest to the point of diffidence, insists that he never forces a song on the group; if anybody objects to a new number, he'll abandon it rather than fight to get his way. Selflessness? Perhaps, but more likely it's a reflection of the immense respect Ocasek has for each member of the team.<br /><br />It runs both ways. Each member of the Cars seems supremely content to play what Ocasek writes. Elliot Easton, a quintessential guitar player, seems happy to sit and talk instruments and approaches; David Robinson, who with his extreme haircut-and-dye-job looks far more artsy than any other Car, even throws in a plug for his drum roadie, Hegg. ('You ought to talk to him," he insists. "Those guys would make an interesting story.") Greg Hawkes seems as owlishly intent about his array of synthesizers as his vaguely gnomic appearance would lead you to believe. Nonetheless, he's really not much of a technocrat, and admits that the main thing that has kept him away from micro-processor assisted keyboards is "first, I'll have to learn a basic computer language." Considering that his brother performs all sorts of computer esoterica for the government, I doubt he'll have much trouble.<br /><br />Perhaps the most convincing testament comes from Ben Orr. With his photogenic propensity, affable personality and fine, clear voice, Orr would seem a logical front man for the Cars, yet he's quick to insist that Ocasek should sing as much as he does. "A lot of people didn't want to hear Ric sing before," he says. "They'd say, 'Here's a vocal part, Ben. Why don't you do it?' I thought that was a bunch of rubbish. We've got both styles, his and mine, and whatever best suits the vocal goes on."<br /><br />Ocasek feels that it was this spirit of cooperation that made the Cars click. "There was more concentration on good songs," he says. "Things got more concise, more to the point. And in turn, I think it was an inspiration when it sounded so good to write better songs. "It seemed like the people in the band were not getting in each other's way, as far as musicianship and arrangements went. There were no attitudes of 'Let's play a 20 minute guitar solo because I play guitar,' or 'Let's do a 15 minute drum solo Basically, the solos were structured to mean something immediately, and when they fail to mean something, get out"<br /><br />"Ric is a songwriter first," says Easton, "and when Ric is in a band, that band does Ric's songs. So all those different incarnations were more or less just bands based around Ric's songs." Greg Hawkes feels that the direction Ocasek gives has come full circle: "I think some of the melodies that Ric comes up with are melodies he's heard me playing, so I feel that his sense of the keyboard parts has been influenced by me. I also feel the way I play keyboards has been influenced by him, because he does come up with parts that sound great." "We are all on the same wavelength," adds Easton, "and rather than the differences being a disruptive factor, they just add to the overall picture. We all have the same attitude to what we're doing, but we're all doing different things. You can't believe it, but it works out right."<br /><br />The band's sensitivity to Ocasek's songs extends to his oft-used sense of irony or absurdity. One example is Hawkes' synthesizer line behind the B-strain of "Victims of Love" on the new album. Its asymmetrical phrasing throws the vocal line wonderfully off balance, perfectly undercutting the lyric's sentiment Says Ocasek, "That's definitely Greg's way of approaching things, which I really love and respect. Those are the kind of things I love to hear. I love the way the Cars throw a different mood into the instrumentation of the songs other than what the lyrics would call for, like putting something that's happy in a song that's really not. I like that ironic touch."<br />Irony is fine as a technique, but it gets a bit tedious when it becomes part of the fabric of a group's work, and Ocasek is dangerously fond of irony. Perhaps it's because irony allows Ocasek an extra margin of distance between his writing and his feelings. "It feels like I do keep a distance," he admits. "Maybe it's because I feel there's a certain amount of mystique in it.. People are generally cold to people. I don't like to create false feeling."<br /><br />But is it avoiding false feeling, or merely being afraid to accept responsibility for feelings in general? I'm reminded of the time the Cars hosted The Midnight Special, and refused to actually say anything. Consequently, all you saw was the band on screen, and a message at the bottom of the screen reading "We'll be right back," Cute, sure, but also something of a cheat for the fans who wanted to hear the group talk, Do the Cars live by this aesthetic because that's the way they see art and the world? Maybe, but I can't help but suspect that the view is as convenient as it is anesthetically serviceable.<br /><br />A lot of Ocasek's songs are oriented toward such emotional confusion. "Since You're Gone," on Shake It Up. fluctuates between melancholy and a restrained joy as easily as the music itself shifts modes. The opening itself is an excellent example. A percussion cadence is established by what sounds like a lone tap-dancer ("It's a real cheap rhythm box," reports Robinson. "It's supposed to sound like hand claps, but if you turn it up, it does sound like tap dancing"), and is joined by Ocasek's distortion-heavy rhythm guitar, playing fifths. Bass and piano enter ominously, answering Ocasek's fifth with a portentous ninth. After that brief rumbling of dark clouds, the sun breaks through as the rest of the band strikes up the poppish progression the verse is built on. "Since You're Gone" maintains its ambivalence throughout. Ocasek's vocals make much of the protagonist's plight, but don't seem anxious for a reconciliation. Like Jonathan Richman, he takes a mock-serious stance as he overstates his case: "I can't help it, everything's a mess/I can't help it, where's the tenderness?" It's hard to know whether to respond with pity or to dismiss him as a selfish crybaby, and most of the backing tracks - Hawkes' synthesizers in particular - do little to clarify the situation one way or the other.<br /><br />One aspect of the Cars' music needs no clarification' the rhythm; "When I write, I write from a rhythm thing, says Ocasek. I work a lot with drum machines and I love rhythm, that whole section. I'm more interested in that, the drive of the rhythm or the subtlety underneath." "So basically, my concentration is on that. I lust keep my part the same, and it holds the bed of it together. It has to almost work on its own, and I think if it does, there's no reason to change that bed. Any embellishments in the song will be what's on top."<br /><br />Ocasek's rhythmic orientation dovetails nicely with Robinson's approach to drumming. His playing is highly regimented with few superfluous notes, and like Ocasek, he usually locks into a pattern and stays with it. Nonetheless, his playing isn't a reflection of Ocasek's. but a convenient parallel. "I would probably approach anything I was playing the same way." he says. "When I learn a song, I go through a bunch of different parts and narrow it down until there is one part that I think is really perfect for a whole verse. And I'll always put the cymbal crashes in the same place, normally. I really like it to be well thought-out."<br /><br />Unlike most bands, which use the bass and drums to anchor the rhythm, the Cars' rhythmic axis is the rhythm guitar and drums. That can make shaping a part a little rough for bassist Ben Orr. "Sometimes I find it really frustrating." he says. "Occasionally, I like to have something develop around me Once in a while it happens, but it doesn't happen that often. It gets classified as the Cars-beat. "I try to play around the drums, too. I don't know where that comes from - probably the old Earth Opera album on Elektra. about then, twelve years ago. Some of the early Beatles stuff also didn't follow the drums, so you gotta keep that in mind."<br /><br />To guitarist Elliot Easton, texture and sound quality are as important as the notes themselves, an attitude that is particularly in evidence in his solo on "Since You've Gone." Passionately subdued, it strongly recalls the work of Robert Fripp "It does, doesn't it?" Easton comments. "I wasn't trying to get Fripp's sound. The way the part was conceived, I wanted a sound so thick and sustaining that I could slide my finger up and down and play the entire solo on one string, picking a minimum of notes. I wanted, it almost sounding like a synthesizer. "I was trying to get a hold of a device called an E-bow. It's a magnetic generator, and I thought that would keep the string vibrating so I could slide my finger up and down it. Perfect, right? Well, apparently they stopped making it, so I had to go for sheer volume. All I did was plug a Les Paul into a Marshall on ten, and open up both pickups. That's how it came about -it had nothing to do with Fripp."<br /><br />Technique aside, Easton's remarks point up a key factor in his approach to the band's music: an acute awareness to instrumental color and texture. "Since my thing in the band is more sounds oriented, or parts oriented," he says, "I'm constantly altering levels, bringing certain things out, coming back into the band and stuff like that. So I think in terms of, 'How would I do that?' "I just work instinctively on those things. I'll hear the sound in my head before I'll decide what guitar or amp or effects box it's gonna be."<br /><br />"The way it took place this time was to use some lead guitar breaks, but on the whole use more guitar parts. More orchestration of the guitars using a lot of tracks. "But really, the solo is nothing compared to the other stuff, to working myself in, between Greg's keyboard parts and Ric's rhythm guitar. Finding that hole, filling in that tapestry of sound."<br /><br />Like Easton. Greg Hawkes is also very sounds-oriented. Talking about his keyboard influences, he rattles off some favorites - Kraftwerk, Cluster, Wolfgang Reichman, Brian Eno - before remarking, "It's funny, because it's all keyboard music that doesn't have much individual soloing in it." Instead of marveling over technical proficiency, Hawkes is more interested in the approach a keyboardist takes, "starting with the way the Beatles used keyboard parts. You know, all their 'Strawberry Fields Forever'-type stuff. My first interest in keyboards developed out of those records. Up until that time, actually. I had been playing guitar in bands, rhythm guitar. I just switched my interests to keyboards, more to different textures. And the keyboard seemed the best way of getting the most possible sounds."<br /><br />The group thus sees each part as a piece of a larger whole; "It's not unlike a jigsaw puzzle. You try to do bits." says Hawkes. All the musical causes and effects are ultimately mixed and sorted in the studio. The band begins with Ocasek's 8-track demo. "Some songs I take in more complete than others." he says. "Some songs I take to the band with somewhat finished ideas, and whether they want to use the idea is entirely up to them. I'm not very dictatorial in those situations. I feel that everybody in the band has good taste, and will play for the benefit of the song."<br /><br />How much input do the other members have in realizing those songs? "Some of them Ric does all by himself," reports Hawkes. "Some of them we did here, and it was really a five-way kind of thing. It varies from song to song. There are a couple I've done with Ric. It comes out in all sorts of ways." But there's always some input from the band. "Even when Ric has a complete demo," Hawkes says, "it will be elaborated upon, and will go through quite a few alternations before it comes out. We don't, when we're recording the album, necessarily try to duplicate the demo," Because the mix provides the context for the sounds the Cars have labored over, it is almost more crucial to the realization of the band's intent than anything that has preceded it. No surprise, then, to find that the mix on Shake It Up is packed with detail. Even the smallest thump of a drum machine is placed with care to give the optimum effect.<br /><br />As with the instrumental textures themselves, the ultimate consideration in working the mix is to convey the idea of the music. "It comes about just from listening to the mood of the song and the way it's flowing," Ocasek explains, "and deciding whether a guitar part is important and should be up front, or whether it should be somewhere in the bed to carry it. In mixing, it's always the feel of the song. If that guitar is up instead 01 down, I imagine the flow of the song would change. It easily could.<br /><br />Helping to hold all these details in place is producer Roy Thomas Baker. In many respects, Baker would seem to be an odd choice for the band. For one thing, he's best known for his work with Queen, hardly the sort of thing one would expect of a producer with "new wave" affinities. For another, Ocasek himself is no slouch behind the board, and has more than enough production experience to get the job done. "Why didn't we do it ourselves?" Ocasek says, anticipating the question. "Well, Roy's a great friend, for one, and I like him to be here. Plus, I feel like a Cars album is different from when I do my own productions. If I was to produce the Cars' album, I would have to be in the middle of everything at once. I'd have to be on the board, I'd have to be Out there playing, doing this, doing that. It takes quite a lot to do a good record. I feel so confident that Roy and Ian (Taylor, Baker's engineer) know what they're doing as far as that goes that it's one thing I don't have to think about when they're here. I don't have to go in and work on a drum sound and then go out and do the take. I know it's gonna be there, and I can think about how the song's going, the arrangement, parts, things like that. Things I'd rather concentrate on.<br /><br />"One of the greatest things about Roy is that he'll let a band do what they want. Roy's not the kind of person who would try to force anything on anybody. For instance, two of the songs on the record are demo tapes that we recorded probably six months ago, here by ourselves in this studio. One of the best production decisions he ever made was, 'Why do this song over? It's done.' See, Roy can do that. While some other producer might say, 'Well, I didn't do the basics on that. I think we should do it again,' he knew that the feel was there. He could hear it, it was obvious. Why change it?"<br /><br />With Shake It Up finished, in fact in the stores as you read this, the next project on the Cars' agenda is a tour. tentatively set for January-February '82. The band's last tour, behind Panorama, was surprisingly elaborate for a bunch of self-professed minimalists. With its huge aluminum-and-polyurethane stage set and elaborate lighting effects, it clearly catered to the coliseum circuit and left the Cars looking like an archly modernistic version of Queen (hmmm, maybe that's the connection..) If that wasn't enough, it also made the show stagey and cumbersome, numbing the effect of music that already seemed a little too astanced for its own good. This tour should avoid some of those problems. To begin with. Shake It Up is a far more personable album than Panorama was, and it should be interesting to see how a ballad like "I m Not the One" translates to live performance.<br /><br />Nor will it be as elaborate as the last tour. Asked about his plans for future tours. Ocasek is insistent: "Scale 'em down, scale 'em down. This year in particular. In fact, we're only going to tour for a month and a half." Why, "I like to be excited at the end of the tour," he explains, as well as at the beginning. I love to play in front of people, as long as I'm excited. I don't like it at all when it goes over the top time wise and I'm just out there, because I could be doing so many other things that are much more important. Making records is much more important to me, personally, than a live group, but there's no way that I wouldn't want to play live every year. just like I always have. "So it's gotta be interesting, even at the end. And when you go out for six months, it can't be."<br /><br />One thing that may keep things interesting on the tour is Ben Orr's pink bass. Pink bass? "There are going to be four guitars," he explains. "and they're all going to be pink. Ric has his old Fender Jazzmaster, Elliot's getting a Stratocaster, Greg's getting a Telecaster, and I'll be playing a Precision bass. Just a little flash for the folks, I guess."<br /><br />In the meantime, there are rehearsals for the tour, but Ocasek says that shouldn't take too long. "We don't rehearse a long time to go out," he says. "Live can never be a record, and with live. I think it's too unsteady for us to be concerned with whether or not it's perfect. I mean, you can do a bad show and people will come up and say it's great. That's happened so many times that I'm convinced its an uncontrollable situation. "Doesn't bother me in the least, though," he adds with a grin. "In fact. I look forward to it being uncontrolled, because I don't particularly like control "</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">Gear used On Shake It Up Album</span></span><br /><br /></span></span></span></span> <p>The significance of musical equipment varies from Car to Car. Elliot Easton, for example, asked if I would settle for a summary in place of a complete listing of his hardware, because, he said, "I have at least forty guitars. It could take days.'</p> <p><strong>Ric Ocasek</strong>, on the other hand, admitted that "I'll get a guitar for its color, quite honestly, and I'll use it onstage because it has that color."</p> <p>Nonetheless, each individual Car has a pretty impressive array of instruments at his disposal, plus a nice little studio in which to play them (more on that later). In order to keep things under control, therefore, we agreed to limit this to equipment used either on the road or on Shake If Up.</p> <p>Let's start with <strong>Easton's</strong> short-form guitar list. The Fender guitars he used on the album were mostly the Telecaster and the Lead II. "I didn't play the Stratocaster on the whole album, except for 'Cruiser,' that crazy thing where it ends slamming the door."</p> <p>Easton also used two Gibsons on the album. One was a Les Paul, which contributed the Robert Fripp-like solo to "Since You're Gone." The other was a 355-mono, "the B.B. King/Chuck Berry one. It's normally a stereo guitar; in the '50s, it was kind of rare but occasionally they made mono versions. It's the full, ebony-necked deluxe version, but without that silly Y-chord." The 355 can be heard on what Easton calls "the Keith bit" through the chorus of "Shake It Up."</p> <p>Under miscellaneous guitars, Easton used a Takamine J-115e electric-acoustic guitar on "This Could Be Love." He also used a Greco guitar from Japan - "I don't know the model name, but it's not available in this country anyway, so it doesn't matter." On the upcoming tour, Easton plans to take the 355, a Les Paul, a Telecaster, a Stratocaster and maybe a Dean. "You've got a Fender guitar, a Les Paul guitar and a hollow guitar," he said. "It gets to a point where things become redundant." His strings are Ernie Ball's Stainless Steels, the middle set (high E is .009 gauge). "Onstage, I'll swap the .009 for a .010," he said, "just to break 'em less."</p> <p>His effects include a Delta Lab digital delay unit - the DL-4, he thinks - as well as a Roland analog delay and an MXR digital delay; he also uses a Roland stereo flanger and a Roland Dimension D. "The Delta Lab is used for the bubbly, under-water sound I like to get, and the analog is an easy slap-echo, i.e. 'Best Friend's Girl."' He also used a Roland guitar synthesizer on "A Dream Away." In the studio, it was all fed through either a 50-watt Marshall amp, or a Fender Deluxe amp. Onstage, he uses Norlin Lab amps.</p> <p><strong>Ocasek's</strong> guitar line-up is much simpler. His favorite guitar is an eight-year old Fender Jazzmaster, painted pink. "I used it on this record a lot, and I use it on every record, all the time," he said. But he didn't use it on the last tour. Instead, he took an old Fender Jaguar Easton found for him in a hock-shop. It cost $80. "I think it was just the idea of it being old and beat up," he said. "So I used that on the tour. I should have used the other one, because it sounds cleaner."</p> <p>He has a Dean guitar that he uses in concert, but not in the studio "because I think it's too bright." He has a 55 Les Paul double-cutaway that he uses a lot, and also an SG and a regular Les Paul, but "not a heavy one, because I can't hold 'em up. I'm too skinny." His strings are D'Addario mediums, and his amp is an Ampeg V-4, "because I can twist the midrange up a lot. I like midrange in a guitar."</p> <p>As for effects, well, "I'll use echo sometimes," he said, "but I pretty much keep a straight sound." Andy Topeka of the Cars crew built him an effects board, "but I rarely use it. I either forget that I have them or, in a big hall, there's so much swishing around I just don't use it,"</p> <p><strong>Ben Orr's</strong> apartment burned down last year, and he lost all of his guitars, "including," he said, "an immaculate Vox Teardrop bass that had been sitting in a hockshop for about 14, 15 years. I was really depressed about that."</p> <p>Since then, however, he's found an instrument that almost takes its place. "I found a new bass I'm really happy with," he said, "the new Steinberger. It's wonderful, a marvelous bass guitar." In fact, his only complaint so far is that he hasn't found a place where he can get replacement strings. Another new gadget for Orr is the Roland guitar synthesizer and bass pedal setup, which got him so excited he wanted to go back and redub all the synthesized bass on "Think It Over," except, he said, "I was really happy with the way they turned out. Still, if I had an exclusive thing, I'd probably just take the Roland and the Steinberger on tour this year."</p> <p>Before the Steinberger stole his heart, his principal instrument was the Fender Precision Active bass. In fact, he has a fretless model on order, although he added, "we'll see how that one works out." He uses Fender strings, and runs the basses through an Alembic bass amp, with a speaker system using two 415's and a special horn designed and built by Andy Topeka.</p> <p>Like Elliot Easton, <strong>Greg Hawkes</strong> has a mess of equipment. His major instrument is the Prophet 5 synthesizer, "because it seems to be the most versatile one I've come across so far. Plus it's the one that I'm most familiar with, so that makes a big difference." In addition to two of those, he has an Arp Omni "which I use for string sounds a lot," a Mini-Korg monophonic synthesizer, a Roland Vocorder, an Arp Solace, and a Roland electric piano. "Plus I have them hooked upto a couple of monophonic sequencers, which control the Prophets, and they're all clocked off a Roland rhythm machine, generally the CR-7B.</p> <p>On the album, he also uses a Yamaha grand piano, and a Hammond B-3 on "Cruiser." The Hammond was used only because "it was the only keyboard in the studio when we did the track. Otherwise, I wouldn't have picked it. I don't need the aggravation."</p> <p>He limits his effects to a Roland chorus-echo, and runs the whole shebang through Yamaha power amps and Northwest cabinets, with Tad drivers, Audio Arts cross-overs and Parametric equalizers.</p> <p>As for <strong>David Robinson</strong>, he has two matching Slingerland sets, "one's chrome and one's red." He also uses timbales, a Ludwig snare drum, Sonor foot pedals, Ludwig cymbal stands, Zildjian cymbals -14" high hats, 14" thin crash, 16" medium crash, 18" medium crash, 22" ride and one which varies from year to year, though it's generally a 16" swish. His drum heads are all Remo Ambassador all-white rough coats, except for the timbales, which take Remo Diplomats. Robinson also uses two drum machines, the Roland TR-808 and "one which is the cheapest you can buy." He also has two Syndrum boards. "One is the newest model, and the other is one of the first ones, which has been modified to do different things," Robinson also has a switching system set-up in his drum kit that activates the syndrums without his having to turn around. It was designed by Robinson, his drum roadie Hegg, and other members of the Cars crew,</p> <p>If all that equipment isn't enough for you, there's the new studio. "It was another studio before this," Ocasek explained, "but it was only the one room upstairs. We ripped all the walls out, rewired it, built a room on the back and did all this down here." The studio now boasts a control room, main studio, drum room, guitar/reverb room (dubbed the "loud" room because, as Robinson put it, "it sounds like a little gymnasium") and a lounge. All are wired so you can plug directly into the board, and there's even a set-up for closed-circuit TV, so those in the downstairs rooms can see those upstairs, and vice versa.</p> <p>Perhaps the most impressive room is the drum room, which has its floor on the basement level, but its ceiling stretching to the studio upstairs. This added height makes the room very live, although it wasn't live enough while the Cars album was being recorded, Consequently, producer Roy Thomas Baker had to doctor the acoustics slightly. "He put white bathroom floor tile all over the floor," reported Robinson, "just spread them out, then put up some old sheet metal he got at the dump. We spent all this money fixing the room up, nice lighting and everything, and then we filled it with crap.</p> <p>Now, moving reflective panels make the sound more controllable.</p> <p>As for hardware, the main machines are Baker's 40-track Stevens 2, and an MCI JH 24 24-track machine. There are two 1/2-track 1/4"Ampex ATR-100's; one Studer B-67 V2-track, and an Ampex 440. The board is an MCI JH-600, "loaded as high as it will go," according to Andy Topeka, with 36 full channels and 8 "wild" faders not directly assigned, so, said Topeka, "you can use them for just about anything."<br /></p> <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:180%;">Corrections both typographical and factual made by Troub</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">Original article can be found here:<span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></span></span></span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://http//snow.prohosting.com/crasio/cars/8200cars.html"><span style="font-size:180%;">http://snow.prohosting.com/crasio/cars/8200cars.html</span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-76997640746687596542007-04-08T11:40:00.000-04:002007-04-08T11:48:35.115-04:00Paulina Eliminated Off ABC's Dancing with the Stars<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RhkOSv0GsKI/AAAAAAAAABQ/K2BSsLgotEA/s1600-h/ocasekporjap.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RhkOSv0GsKI/AAAAAAAAABQ/K2BSsLgotEA/s320/ocasekporjap.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5051084172308164770" border="0" /></a>Ric's wife Paulina was the first to be eliminated on Dancing with the stars. I don't want to go on a rant about how ridiculous of a decision this was but I will because its my page and I can. The show basically is a popularity contest which weighs heavily in favor of the men. Because men are expected to be nimrods on the dance floor any decent showing by a man the judges give them a good score even though they suck.<br /><br />The second half of the judging is viewer popularity call in. It's been a while since Paulina has been in the spotlight so she didn't get the push from the call voting she needed. The real scoop was she tried hard was a very good dancer and was one of the most likeable people on the show during the bio segments. What Paulina didn't know was that besides her immediate family and friends is she had a whole slew of Ric fans voting for her from their homes all of which were pretty pissed when she got voted off.<br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-29425222998190804492007-03-23T10:46:00.000-04:002007-03-23T10:53:58.936-04:00Ric is 58 Years Old Today<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RgPplTq3KII/AAAAAAAAABE/eNMtR4p07JE/s1600-h/157-5704_IMG.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RgPplTq3KII/AAAAAAAAABE/eNMtR4p07JE/s320/157-5704_IMG.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5045132834729568386" border="0" /></a>Happy birthday to the enigmatic peace loving chain smoking family man who likes to produce and make his own records from time to time. From all us Ocasek music fans we wish you a very happy and frenzied 58th Birthday.<br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-73004493193346569642007-03-15T08:02:00.000-04:002007-03-15T08:15:50.451-04:00Ric Rumored To Work With David Robinson<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/Rfk3KaxcKFI/AAAAAAAAAA8/Tog9kHP6n58/s1600-h/david01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/Rfk3KaxcKFI/AAAAAAAAAA8/Tog9kHP6n58/s320/david01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5042121909942888530" border="0" /></a>Recently a unnamed source told the Daily Events Book that David Robinson has been asked to work on the next Ric Ocasek album. Whether David will be asked to work on the art for the CD or play drums on the upcoming Ocasek release is a question yet to be answered. The newest CD which was eluded by Ric in at least in one interview will be due “<span style="font-weight: bold;">around</span>" the Spring of 2007 . In the Ric time continuum that could be Winter of 2009.<br /><br />But then again What is Time ?<br /><br />In more David Robinson news, David has sold his Hula Moon Cafe in Rockport Massachusetts and is gearing up to launch his own Art Gallery.<br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-11679031748912734402007-03-12T03:54:00.000-04:002007-03-12T04:09:11.144-04:00Ric Gives Confidence Boost<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RfUJe6xcKEI/AAAAAAAAAA0/enGXEaTH-Ws/s1600-h/ric+Vh1+Classic+8.bmp"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RfUJe6xcKEI/AAAAAAAAAA0/enGXEaTH-Ws/s320/ric+Vh1+Classic+8.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5040945784688486466" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RfUIiKxcKDI/AAAAAAAAAAs/KPr8v79ZNUY/s1600-h/hammond.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_MTy7U1bSjfY/RfUIiKxcKDI/AAAAAAAAAAs/KPr8v79ZNUY/s320/hammond.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5040944741011433522" border="0" /></a>Ric continues to be a influence in the New York music scene. He recently got together with Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. who gave Ric an exclusive listen to some of his solo work away from his typical gig from being the guitarist for the New York City based band The Strokes. Hammond's confidence in his solo work waned a bit over the years so he turned to Ric for some encouragement. "I had things around me and people around me I admire that helped me get through it," he explained. One of those people, he said, was Ric Ocasek."<br /><br />"I played him some songs, and he said, 'I never knew you were such a great songwriter.' He also said that I'd be doing this forever, and I was like, 'I love you,' " Hammond added. "He's one of my biggest idols, and it was nice to hear it from someone who had nothing to gain, telling me he liked my songs."<br /><br />I will bet my bottom dollar that this conversation and one on one listening party took place at Electric Ladyland studios where Hammond record the album. Ric can be found there always tinkering about mixing and producing. Ric however does not appear on Hammond's solo project entitled "Yours To Keep" which hit stores March 6th.<br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-1172131020420047322007-02-22T02:44:00.000-05:002007-02-22T03:05:16.823-05:00Paulina To Do ABC Show "Dancing With The Stars"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/523620/poriz11t.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/417277/poriz11t.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The new cast of ABC's hit show " Dancing With the Stars" was announced today on Good Morning America yesterday and will include Ric's wife Paulina Porizikova as one of the celebrity dancers. The fourth season of this very popular show is slated to start Monday, March 19th from 8:00-10:00 p.m EST.<br /><br />Paulina will be matched up with season one professional champion Alec Mazo. Knowing the agreemnt between Ric and Paulina to attend each others events and endeavors we will no doubt see Ric make an appearance on the show.<br /><br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-1171857381250123182007-02-18T22:52:00.000-05:002007-02-18T23:28:13.376-05:001984 Ric Remixer Lloyd Cole & The Commotions<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/706479/lloyd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/273764/lloyd.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Hey Ric is a Re- Mixer at least that's what I recently found out. It seems Ric remixed three tracks for one of the early 80's most popular UK bands Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. The three tracks appear on the bands 1984 debut album "Rattlesnakes".<br /><br />Apparently Ric did this for the Geffen only for the U.S Release of "Rattlesnakes". The back story on Lloyd Cole and The Commotions is that in the early 80's in the UK they were considered on par with The Smiths in popularity. They were wildly popular in the UK college radio scene. I frankly have never heard of them and there is a good chance you have never heard of them either. So I have included one of their most recognizable songs for your listening pleasure.<br /><a href="http://www.negativetheater.com/files/Perfect_Skin.mp3"><br />Lloyd Cole and The Commotions - Perfect Skin</a><br /><br />TroubUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-1171335314700035552007-02-12T21:45:00.000-05:002007-02-12T22:06:45.623-05:00Ric Is One "Perplexed" Fashionista<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/81175/Ricfas3.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/655465/Ricfas3.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Ric and Paulina were at the Michon Schur show during Fashion Week held in NYC on February 7th. The photo right of Ric was snapped backstage at the occasion as well as the ones of him and Paulina below this article. In a bonus moment Francine Parnes a fashion reporter for the Associated Press had a brief encounter with Ric which she added in her full review of the Michon Schur show. Here is the excerpt from her review.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">She wrote :</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Backstage after the Michon Schur show, a man quietly inquired about one of the glittery coats, hand-embroidered with Swarovski crystals, that he would like for his wife of 22 years. It was musician Ric Ocasek, taking in the scene with his wife, Paulina Porizkova, one of the best-known models of the '80s.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">"What brought you here?" we asked Ocasek.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">"A car," was the glib response from the former Cars front man.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">If Ocasek could design clothes, what would he pick?</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">"You know mood rings?" he asked. "I'd do mood shirts.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">What would his mood be?"Probably," he said, "perplexed</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/756213/Ricfas1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/660127/Ricfas1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/250938/ricfas2.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/942354/ricfas2.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-1171134553526351162007-02-10T13:50:00.000-05:002007-02-10T14:31:01.280-05:00Ric Slated to Produce Motion City Soundtrack in March<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/631802/MST.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/805553/MST.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Recently, Ric has undertaken producing several tracks for the pop/emo group Motion City Soundtrack. The group has been hunkered down in the Big Apple completing the writing and recording of new tracks for their new album and most likely will be headed for Electric Ladyland to record with Ric at the beginning of March.<br /><br />Ric will be producing part of the album while the other part of the record will be co-produced by the tag team of Adam Schlesinger (of Fountains Of Wayne) and Eli Janney (of Girls Against Boys). As we speak Motion City Soundtrack is in the studio with the aforementioned Schlesinger and Janney.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-1169613800684729872007-01-23T23:38:00.000-05:002007-01-24T00:16:31.950-05:00Ric And Paulina Make Sunday ComicsWell Not really.. But here's a Cartoon with Ric and Paulina as the setup. The comic was done by Jonathan Rosenberg<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/913640/ric%20cartoon11.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/400/704222/ric%20cartoon11.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19894507.post-1169520228982218182007-01-22T21:24:00.000-05:002007-01-23T00:29:38.353-05:00Mandatory Ric Reading<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/1600/694490/9999.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/5722/1961/320/288024/9999.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Sometimes an Interviewer asks the right questions instead of asking the same generic Ric/Cars questions that we all get tired of hearing. Daniel Robert Epstein who writes for Suicide Girls.com IS one of the good ones. He interviewed Ric about a month ago on some various topics that I found both direct and noteworthy.<br /><br />Here's The interview<br /><br /><strong>Daniel Robert Epstein:</strong> How long has the Unlocked DVD been in the works?<br /><br /><br /> <div class="intervieweeLong"><strong>Ric Ocasek:</strong> Off and on I’ve been putting it together for a couple of years now. I’d go through a period of doing it for a few months and then go back and take some time off and then go back and do some more. I had to look through a lot of footage so it took quite a long time and then the rest is just putting it together and deciding what to put there and what not to. There’s quite a bit of stuff. I must have had a couple hundred hours of footage or something.</div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: I read your son was working on this with you.</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Yeah, because he’s an editor. That’s his job. He acts too but he edits when he’s not getting any roles.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Where were all these tapes?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: They were actually all in my basement. It was just stuff I collected when we were back on the road from various gigs. Some shot on VHS, some Betamax, some just things that were shot by our lighting designer. Some things that were shot by the bigger halls that we played in to show on the big screen.<br /><br />DRE: I just spoke to <a href="http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Stewart+Copeland" target="_blank">Stewart Copeland</a> a couple weeks ago about a movie he cut together from old footage of The Police. What is coming around that is making guys like you and Stewart do movies like this?</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Everybody must have thought “Oh it’s a good time, about 20 years. Let’s just do this” [laughs]. Also there isn’t much out on DVD on The Cars. If anything. There’s just one, Musikladen, which I was never crazy about anyway. So at this point it seems like everybody switched formats and now it’s all DVD. Also being able to edit things on Final Cut Pro rather than go to a studio gives you the luxury of time, that and technology made it a much easier thing to do.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: How much time did you spend tweaking all that audio and video?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: The audio was pretty much stereo tracks. I didn’t really have multi-track tapes. So it’s pretty much what it was. I EQued it a bit as a stereo track like a mastering engineer would. Some of the video got color corrected or was boosted a little considering how old the footage was. If it was really horrible looking we just made it black and white, like the interview stuff.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Did this all come out of your pocket?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Yeah it pretty much came out of mine.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Who owns The Cars music?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Well I wrote all the songs so I own all the songs. As for who owns the tapes, I guess it depends on how you look at it legally. I guess I own the tapes because they’re here. You have to get permission from the other guys in the band. But that wasn’t too hard to do.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: So everyone in the band gets along?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Well not great. A couple do, a couple don’t.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Is that stuff over old band stuff or is it because they’re out there doing The New Cars?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Well it was old band stuff, because the band broke up. The New Cars is just what it is. That’s a thing where you can either decide to make waves about it or you can let it go and let it stand on it’s own two feet if it will. There’s so much war going on these days it’s like, how many more wars do we need?<br /><br />I never had any intentions of going back out with The Cars first of all. I do so many other things that I really didn’t want to do some reunion tour. If I would have, I wouldn’t have done it like that. I just didn’t think it was a good idea personally. Some people might think it was, but I didn’t.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Since you do have a MySpace page, has there been a resurgence in recent years with people getting in touch with you about The Cars?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: I don’t know. I’m not paying attention on a daily basis. Someone writes the stuff on the MySpace page for me. But I’ll certainly look at it. I didn’t get any old lawsuits or any old people looking for me that I know.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: How did you decide what was relevant for the DVD and what wasn’t?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: First of all, song wise, I looked at every concert we had footage of. For a song like Best Friend’s Girl I had about ten or 12 versions of it. From that I tried to decide which one had the best overall sound and visuals. I wanted to put in something from all the different tours so I would make a decision based on that as well. That’s how I went through it and that’s what took a lot of time. But I used handheld stuff and the backstage stuff that I thought would be fun to see. I didn’t want to do a straight documentary thing. I tried to keep it a little bit obscure.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: I read that the CD that comes with the DVD has four songs that never came out before. Is that right?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: No, that’s not true. I knew that got into the press, but there are no songs that have never been out.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: That’s what I thought. I was like, “This band broke up a long time ago.”<br />I was always more of a casual fan of The Cars. I never heard that there was a myth that you didn’t really sing lead vocals that much. What’s up with that?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: I read that somewhere too. I think I would probably say I sang more than Ben [Orr] did, but it doesn’t matter to me. Ben was my best friend and a great friend but if you were to look at the albums, I probably sang more than him but we did try to keep it even.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Could you give me the short version on how The Cars got together?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: I guess it was a potpourri of other bands. When I went to Boston in 1972 I had about three or four bands before The Cars. Some of the people in the earlier bands remained in The Cars like Benjamin, Greg Hawkes and Elliot Easton. The last member to join was David Robinson and that’s when we changed the name to The Cars. By then we started getting airplay on local radio and that’s what kicked it off.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Is there a short version of what was the final straw for the band to break up?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Well, we toured a lot. We were on the road ten years. For me there started to be some weirdness between people. It was supposed to start off as a long break but then it ended up being…</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: A really long break.</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: A real break, yeah [laughs]. So that’s the reason. There weren’t any fistfights or anything. It was just one of those things.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Earlier this year you got written up as one of the one hundred unsexiest men in the world. I think it’s jealousy because of your wife</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: [laughs] Yeah, it’s ok. They can say what they want.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Are you still a music executive?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: No. I went to Elektra for a year to do A&R. I wanted to sign some cool bands because I was going to produce for them. So they said, “Well as long as you’re going to produce, why don’t you sign some bands with us.” I tried to bring in some pretty evil, weird stuff but obviously I found out that corporations don’t really do that stuff. I was trying to bring in Devendra Banhart and Le Tigre. They didn’t really understand that stuff so I left.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: This year you produced Brazilian Girls and Pink Spiders. Did you find them?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: No, I didn’t. They found me.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: When someone wants you to produce, what is it they want you to bring to the table?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Probably that one hundred least sexiest men in the world image [laughs]. I’ve produced a lot of records. People know I’ve been in a band and they think that I’ll be diplomatic and probably understand what they really want. I’m going to be sensitive to their art and sensitive to their music. I’m not going to work for the record company. I’m going to be on their side. I’m not going to change their sound. I’m going to just try to propel what they’re good at and I’m going to have a critical ear and I’m not going to let them do anything silly [laughs].</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: Is there more Cars material out there that you could do something with?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Well, I could probably do a part two but I’m not going to do it right now. If I ever do.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: How many videos did you guys do back then?</div> </div> <div class="interviewee"> <div class="text"><br />Ric: Maybe 20.</div> </div> <div class="interviewer"> <div class="text"><br />DRE: You should do a collection of those.</div> </div> <div class="prefix interview"><br />Ric: That would be pretty good. We did win the first MTV award ever for You Might Think. So we had some pretty good videos but most of them you wouldn’t want to see [laughs].<br /></div><br /><i>by <a href="mailto:danielrobertepstein%20@%20hotmail.com" target="_blank">Daniel Robert Epstein</a> From <a href="http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Ric+Ocasek/">Suicide Girls.com</a></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1