E-Mail This Article to a Friend Cars talk Ric Ocasek’s not in, but he’s back out BY BRETT MILANO
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When Ric Ocasek last hit town, he was touring his best solo album, 1997’s Troublizing (Sony). If this had been a Cars reunion, he would likely have been filling the Garden. As it was, he was merely playing Cars songs with a great, Cars-inspired band (which included Bad Religion guitarist Brian Baker, Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, and Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes). The Paradise was barely half full. Does the band’s name really matter that much?

Evidently, it does. Rumors have been swirling about a high-profile Cars reunion. If that does happens, absurdly it won’t include Ocasek, who wrote virtually all the Cars’ material and sang half of it (late bassist Ben Orr sang the rest). Instead, Ocasek has quietly released his first solo album in eight years, Nexterday (on his Sanctuary imprint, Inverse), and will be celebrating with a show at Harpers Ferry this Monday. Like all his solo albums, it likely won’t get half the attention that it would if it bore a Cars logo. Yet the disc proves that Ocasek, who’s been more visible in the past decade as a producer and A&R man than as a performer or songwriter, can bash out an album of Cars-worthy material whenever he feels like it.

From the start, we’re on familiar territory: "Crackpot" opens the disc with the kind of jittery rhythm that was the Cars’ specialty, and Ocasek is still singing in that coolly detached voice — in fact, the narrator sounds like an older version of the sympathetic misfits who populated many Cars songs. From there, he proceeds to roll out the sleek hooks and the romantic flashes, and he remains a master of the lyrical non sequitur: "Don’t fall apart when I get stuck, don’t take it wrong when I suck" (from "Don’t Lose Me") is the kind of line that makes you do an instant double take, much the way "It doesn’t matter where you’ve been, as long as it was deep" once did.

What’s different here is the sound. Whereas Troublizing was a high-profile, full-band effort co-produced by Billy Corgan, Nexterday finds Ocasek handing the production and most of the playing himself. The occasional guest players — guitarist Roger Greenawalt (once of Boston band the Dark), Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer, and the faithful Greg Hawkes — are the same ones who appeared on Ocasek’s solo debut, Beatitude (Geffen), back in 1982. Like that disc, Nexterday is demo-like spare. In fact, many of the tracks are Ocasek’s original demos.

Reached in his New York office, Ocasek credits that decision to his current musical taste, particularly his love of avant folkie Devendra Banhart. "I was inspired by Devendra’s cassette record [Oh Me Oh My. . ., on Young God] — here’s all the art, here’s the beautiful music, right into the cassette player. People are putting albums out over the Internet nowadays; it’s becoming, like, ‘anything goes.’ I was inspired by ‘anything goes,’ so I thought I would just do the songs and leave it as it is." Besides, the Troublizing tour convinced Ocasek that he didn’t care much about making a commercial comeback. "I do remember feeling a bit jaded after that. I realized I just wanted to make the records, not be out on the road doing a big number. I didn’t want to do those chicken finger–and–Polaroid parties again."

Even during the Cars’ heyday, Ocasek distinguished himself as a diehard music fan with somewhat left-of-center taste. That much was clear when he brought in the avant-punk duo Suicide to open (for less-than-appreciative audiences) at some Cars arena shows. As a successful producer, with Weezer, Le Tigre, and Guided by Voices, he’s walked the line between his commercial instincts and more-eclectic tastes. But his recent spell as an A&R man for the Cars’ old label, Elektra, was less successful: he signed only one band (Stratford 4, whose album was never released) and left when Elektra chief exec Sylvia Rhone moved on. "I guess I went in there naively thinking I could just sign anything under the corporate helm. I’d go in there and sign all kinds of people like Devendra Banhart and Le Tigre; I tried to get both of them. That’s the way Elektra used to be, but I could see that [Rhone’s] hands were tied. Maybe now, as a little indie label, I can do that. I’d like to see if I could maybe bring out 10 albums a year."

Feeling that the commercial pressure was off, Ocasek says, he approached Nexterday more personally than he’s done in the past. Asked about the "I suck" lyric, he deadpans: "Hey, I suck a lot. I’m not gonna be consistently on, you know; I’m subject to a lot of inconsistencies. I think that’s what I was saying there. I mean, it’s hard for me to sing a ballad, but I like to do ’em. Ben had the best voice for that, but if I do a ballad I have to be like Tom Waits — it’s not gonna be vocally beautiful, but the sentiment is nice."

His back-up band for an upcoming mini-tour are the Hong Kong, a New York techno-pop outfit who’ll be recording for Inverse. As for that Cars reunion, it’s been on and off the table for years — even before Orr’s death. Ocasek’s usually been the main holdout, but he nearly went along with this one before business went the wrong way.

"A few of the guys had signed with a different manager, and for a long time I didn’t know about that. Then they came to me with the idea to go on tour, and at first I wasn’t averse to it. I was hoping we could do it in a cool way, like the Pixies; maybe do it on a lower level so it wasn’t all in-your-face. Then things got a little weird and I’m not sure what happened. . . ." A New York Times story recently confirmed that only two Cars members, guitarist Elliot Easton and Hawkes (minus retired drummer David Robinson), were looking to tour, with Todd Rundgren as frontman. "I’m not going to join them," Ocasek says. "But I love Greg and Elliot and it might be good; they could do it." With his blessing? "I want Greg and Elliot to be happy. We can leave it at that."

Ric Ocasek + Hong KONG | Harpers Ferry, 156 Brighton Ave, Allston | October 10 | 617.254.9743