Newly Refurbished, The Cars Ride Again

I did not expect to hear that Boston Area 80’s rock group The Cars was back together again, but apparently that is just what has happened. There are, however, only two original members in the new line-up this time around with guitar man Elliot Easton and Greg Hawkes playing keyboards.

Making up the rest of the band is well-known rocker Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton on bass and drummer Prairie Prince who was with the Tubes.

It’s hard to imagine The Cars without their original and memorable front man, Ric Ocasek, but according to at least one review of their recent performance in California, the overhauled version of the band sounded pretty good.

Back in their heyday, the band was on the radio a lot in the Boston area where I grew up and had a view videos to their credit on MTV as well, if I recall correctly.

While I never considered myself a big fan of The Cars, I have always liked just about all of their stuff and still listen to it from time to time when the mood strikes me.

It will be interesting to see how far the new group can take the band in the future.

Rush Planning New Album For Early Next Year

We know the guys from Rush have been getting together lately to begin work on a new album and the lastest word is that they hope to be able to release it early next year.

When they finish up with the album they would like to hit the road for a while and do some touring beginning in the spring if all goes well.

Apparently, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are the most heavily involved in this early stage of song writing and are reportedly “having a blast.” Nice to hear that the guys are enjoying themselves!

I’m sure there are a great multitude of Rush fans that will be eagerly awaiting this new album. Myself included.

For more on this story and lots of other Rush news, check out the Power Windows site.

Jon Anderson On The Mend And Gearing Up For Solo Show

The lead singer of one of my favorite bands has decided to try his hand at doing a solo show, in Hawaii of all places. Not that it isn’t a great place to do a show, just not a venue you hear about all that often.

Jon Anderson of the off-again, on-again progressive rock group Yes, was inspired by a gift he received from his wife: A MIDI guitar.

I must admit that I have not ever heard of a MIDI guitar before, although I am familiar with MIDI. Apparently, Anderson has been having a great deal of fun playing with this new toy and as a result, found the confidence and inspiration to do a solo show.

For the full story, you can check out this article, which also fills in the details of Anderson’s accident during the holidays when he fell off a ladder and broke his back while hanging Christmas lights at his California home.

Ann Wilson Goes Solo

Heart has been one of my favorites since back in the seventies when I first heard them. Dreamboat Annie is a timeless classic album that I will probably be listening to until my dying day.

It seems like it has been a hell of a long time since we heard anything new from the Wilson sisters but that is ready to change.

Ann Wilson is in the studio working in her first solo album. Sister Nancy is not totally left out of the project since she will be playing some guitar in the album.

Ann is working with Grammy-winning Canadian producer Ben Mink, who also performs on the album by contributing his talents on violin, guitar and keyboards.

The album is described as something that’s not the same old rock ‘n roll for Ann Wilson and in her sister’s words, even “cerebral, sort of restrained and extremely musical.”

It’s hard for me to imagine Ann doing something other than fronting the hard-rocking Heart, but I am looking forward to seeing what comes out of this effort. I’ve always loved her voice and I figure she’s someone that would have to work pretty hard at sounding lousy to actually sound lousy.

Rush Gets Down To Business

The boys from Rush are spending the month of May working out of small, rented studio in Toronto.

After spending some time sharing ideas and cooking gourmet meals for each other at Neil Peart’s place, it sounds like they are getting serious about the production of some new material.

This information comes from Peart’s website, which is interesting reading for Rush fans and probably drummers of every stripe as well.

Peart says he has been listening to Steve Smith’s stuff lately and it has been keeping him humble.

I recognize the name from Smith’s days with Journey, but I never thought of him as a giant among drummers. Perhaps working with Journey’s material was not all that challenging for the guy. I guess I am going to have to check some of his stuff out and see what it’s all about.

I don’t know who the web developer was that talked Peart into such a Flash-heavy site, but I wish they would focus more on the content and less on the eye candy. It is a very sharp-looking site, but all that Flash makes you wonder if you are surfing the web or watching a movie or something.

Jacksonville Rocks

Wow, I did not expect to hear that a classic rock station would be the most popular station in any market, let alone anywhere in Florida, but apparently, that is indeed the case in Jacksonville.

Classic rock station “Rock 105″ was the was the leader of the Jacksonville market last year.

I’ve been to Jacksonville only a few times on the way to other locations in the Sunshine State and spent as much time as it took myself and my family to have a bite to eat in what had to be the worst Denny’s restaurant in the country (which also happened to have the bitchiest waitress I had ever encountered).

Anyway, beyond the dreadful Denny’s, Jacksonville seemed like a pretty cool place. And now I find out it is actually even a cooler place than I thought.