Ric Ocasek
Photo: MTV

Former Cars frontman Ric Ocasek, best known lately for producing albums for bands like Weezer and Guided by Voices, is planning to resume his own recording career before the end of the year.

On his most recent solo album, 1997's Troublizing, Ocasek used a backing band that included ex-Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan and former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. Corgan also produced several tracks, resulting in a sound that resembled the Cars' power-pop on steroids.

But for Ocasek's next solo album, which he hopes to begin recording this fall, the new-wave icon plans to go it alone.

"I might just do it all in the basement — no guest stars," Ocasek said last week. "I have a kind of vision of how it should be." The album will likely be released no sooner than next spring, Ocasek said. In contrast to Troublizing, Ocasek expects the new album to be more pop than rock.

"I would like it to be songs you sing when you're walking down the street," he said. "I would like it to be pretty melodic and pretty catchy." Ocasek was a familiar sight on MTV in the '80s, thanks to such quirky Cars videos as "You Might Think," in which his head was mounted on the body of a fly.

Ocasek produced both Weezer's 1994 debut album — Weezer, a.k.a. The Blue Album — and their just-released third album — Weezer, a.k.a. The Green Album — which spawned the current hit "Hash Pipe" (see "Weezer Drought Turns Into A Flood"). The newest disc will debut at #4 on next week's Billboard 200 albums chart (see "Tool Rule Next Week's Charts").

• Ric Ocasek

Benjamin Orr, singer and bassist with new wave hitmakers the Cars, succumbed to cancer at his home in Atlanta on Tuesday night. He was 53.

As previously reported by MTV News, Orr, born Benjamin Orzechowski on September 8, 1947, had been hospitalized last May with what turned out to be inoperable pancreatic cancer (see "The Cars' Benjamin Orr Hospitalized").

According to former Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes, Orr was surrounded by his friends when he passed away just before midnight (ET).

Orr co-founded the Cars with Ric Ocasek in Boston in 1976 and sang lead on many of the band's most recognizable songs, including "Drive" and "Just What I Needed." The Cars disbanded in 1988. Orr also released a solo album in 1986 called "The Lace."

A management spokesperson for Ocasek spoke on behalf of the singer-guitarist, telling MTV News, "He's very devastated by the loss of a close friend."

The singer had been playing with his new band, Big People, right up until late September, including a final show in Alaska on September 27. His Big People bandmates, Jeff Carlisi (formerly of .38 Special), Derek St. Holmes (Ted Nugent), and Rob Wilson, along with Orr's manager, Billy Johnson, and Orr's fiancee, Julie Snider, were with him in Atlanta when he died.

"Ben kept rocking," bandmate Carlisi told MTV News. "From the time he was diagnosed, he told us he wanted to keep playing until the end. He said, 'If I fall down one day and can't get up, you'll know its over."

The group will now turn a planned March of Dimes benefit concert scheduled for this Friday at the Tabernacle in Atlanta into a memorial performance. According to Orr's manager, another event is being planned to take place in Orr's hometown of Cleveland.

Orr had reunited with his former Cars bandmates -- Ocasek, Hawkes, Elliot Easton and David Robinson -- this past summer for an interview to be included on a new DVD documentary, "The Cars Live," scheduled for release through Rhino Home Video on November 1. Rhino will now be donating a portion of the profits to the National Pancreas Foundation.

Tributes to Benjamin Orr and cards to friends and family will be accepted by Crossover Entertainment Group, 2020 Howell Mill Road, Suite C, Atlanta, GA, 30318.

Donations to the Benjamin Orr Memorial Fund can be sent to at Box 600590, Newtonville, MA, 02460.

• The Cars
• Ric Ocasek

Former Cars bassist Benjamin Orr, who sang lead on the band's classic singles "Just What I Needed" and "Drive," has been hospitalized in Atlanta with a growth on his pancreas.

Derek St. Holmes, Orr's bandmate in the group Big People, has posted a message on his official Web site (www.dstholmes.com) reading, "Ben Orr is awaiting diagnosis at Piedmont Hospital regarding a growth found on his pancreas."

Get-well e-mails sent via St. Holmes' site will be hand delivered to Orr, the statement notes. Cards, flowers, and well wishes can also be sent Orr's way via the following address:

Benjamin Orr 1400 Bank One Center 600 Superior Avenue Cleveland, OH 44114

As a member of The Cars, Benjamin Orr shared vocal duties with guitarist Ric Ocasek and played bass guitar on the group's self-titled 1978 debut as well as the hit albums "Candy-O," "Panorama," "Shake It Up," and "Heartbeat City." He also released a solo album, "The Lace," in 1986.

More recently, Orr has performed with Big People, an Atlanta-based group which has included current and past members of the Ted Nugent Band, Damn Yankees, .38 Special, the Pat Travers Band, and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among others.

• The Cars
• Ric Ocasek

November 14 [10:00 EDT] -- Onetime Cars frontman Ric Ocasek recently released his latest solo album, and is about to kick off his first ever solo tour to back it up.

As we first reported in February, Ocasek turned to Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan for help on the album, titled "Troublizing." Corgan produced and played guitar on five tracks after meeting the former Car backstage at a club.

Ocasek also got some help from Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, Bad Religion guitarist Brian Baker, and Nada Surf drummer Ira Elliot, as well as former Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes.

"I chose the band members because I had just recently produced all their albums, the bands that they were in," Ocasek told MTV News about the musicians on the album. "When I sat down with them individually to kind of go over their parts and everything, and I made a mental note of... I thought, 'Oh, Brian Baker would be really good if he played on some of these songs I'm going to do on this record, and I think Melissa would be great on bass.'

So that's kind of the way it happened. I kind of looked at it like a party that I would have where you would invite people that really don't know each other, but once they got there they would become instant friends." [650k QuickTime]

Ocasek and his new instant friends will hit the road (with the exception of Corgan) this Sunday.

• The Cars
• Hole
• Ric Ocasek
• The Smashing Pumpkins