Tuesday: Former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek -- now producer of Weezer, Bad Brains and No Doubt and a sometime solo artist -- was thinking of making another one-man-band album. Instead, he decided to invite his old bandmates to join him, and it turned into a full-fledged Cars reunion, the first collaboration by the four surviving members since 1988. (The other members test-drove the disastrous New Cars in 2005 with Todd Rundgren on lead vocals.) "Move Like This," released Tuesday, sounds like vintage Cars with its guitar/synth tension and Ocasek's robotic vocals, but also contemporary in its leanness and oblique social commentaries. The group did not recruit a replacement for its late bassist and co-lead singer Ben Orr; instead, keyboardist Greg Hawkes added bass duties. Not sure who will be singing "Drive" and Orr's other oldies, but Ocasek will be in the driver's seat and, on the new album, he does an Orr-evoking ballad, "Soon."
- 8 p.m. Tue., First Avenue, 701 1st Av. N., Mpls. Sold out
