Car Seat Headrest is an American indie rock band formed in Leesburg, Virginia, and currently located in Seattle, Washington. The band consists of Will Toledo (vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizers), Ethan Ives (guitar, bass, backing vocals), Seth Dalby (bass), and Andrew Katz (drums, percussion, backing vocals).
Beginning as a solo recording project by Toledo in 2010, Car Seat Headrest self-released 12 projects on the music platform Bandcamp between 2010 and 2014 before signing to Matador Records in 2015. They began touring as a full band the following year.
History
2010–2014: Lo-fi and solo releases, from 1 to How to Leave Town
Car Seat Headrest began as the solo project of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Will Toledo (born William Barnes)[1] shortly after he graduated high school. Toledo had previously released music under other aliases, including "The 63rd Fret" and "Nervous Young Men", and played in a band in high school called Mr. Yay Ok, but after struggling to establish an audience, he decided to change tactics, choosing to try and release more experimental songs anonymously.[2] Toledo chose the name "Car Seat Headrest" as he would often record the vocals to his early albums in the back seat of his family's car for privacy.[3]
Throughout the summer of 2010, Toledo released his first four albums under the Car Seat Headrest name: 1, 2, 3, and 4.[2]1 and 2 incorporated less traditional song structures, with stream-of-consciousness lyrics, whereas 3 and 4 would begin to cement his lo-fi indie rock style. Following the numbered albums, Toledo began attending classes at Virginia Commonwealth University, releasing the Sunburned Shirts EP during his first semester.[4] The Sunburned Shirts EP would later be semi-combined with his fifth LP, 5 (now removed from their Bandcamp),[5] to create his first titled album, My Back Is Killing Me Baby, released in March 2011.[6] Songs culled from 5 and Sunburned Shirts were moved to the B-sides compilation album Little Pieces of Paper with "No" Written on Them.[7]
After a difficult and lonely semester at VCU, Toledo transferred to the College of William & Mary, where he would release his next project, Twin Fantasy,[8] a concept album centering around a relationship he was in at the time. Twin Fantasy would later be followed up by 2012's Monomania[9] and Living While Starving, also known as Starving While Living.[10]
Around this time, Toledo began performing live shows with fellow students Adrian Wood, Austin Ruhf, and Christian Northover, recording and releasing a short live album in July 2013 entitled Live at WCWM: Car Seat Headrest at the university's studio.[11] Toledo would release his next project the following month, a two-hour-long double album entitled Nervous Young Man, described on its Bandcamp page as "a collection of songs written between ages 17 and 21". Three of the songs, and the title of the album, were taken from his high school solo project, Nervous Young Men, but had been heavily reworked and re-recorded. Released alongside Nervous Young Man, for those who paid $5 or more, was the outtakes compilation album Disjecta Membra.[12][13]
Toledo's final solo release was 2014's How to Leave Town, an hour-long EP with rock and electronic instrumentation, and more ambitious song structures.
2015–2017: Matador Records, Teens of Style and Teens of Denial
In September 2015, Car Seat Headrest announced on Facebook that they had signed an album deal with Matador Records.[14] Toledo, who had recently graduated and moved to Seattle, recruited bassist Jacob Bloom and drummer Andrew Katz through Craigslist to record and tour his next album. The next month, Car Seat Headrest released the compilation album Teens of Style, consisting of re-recorded material from Toledo's solo discography and was their first record to not be self-released exclusively via Bandcamp. Shortly after the album's release, Bloom left the group to attend medical school and was replaced by bassist Ethan Ives, who met the band at an open mic.[15][16]
Ives played bass throughout most of the recordings for the band's following release, but would later switch to guitar and other instruments, with Seth Dalby taking over on bass. Ives and Dalby would subsequently be cemented in these positions during live shows and future releases.[17] The new album, created with traditional studio processes, Teens of Denial, was released on May 20, 2016.[18]
In August 2017, Car Seat Headrest released an alternate mix of their single, "War Is Coming (If You Want It)" through Bandcamp for one day, with profits going to the Transgender Law Center. The original mix of the track was released ten days later.[19]
On December 13, 2017, the band released a re-recorded version of "Beach Life-In-Death", the second track on Twin Fantasy, through Spotify without prior announcement. This sparked fan rumours that the album would be re-recorded and released the following year.[20] On December 27, 2017, an Amazon listing detailing a re-recorded version of Twin Fantasy was found by fans, and subsequently uploaded to the Car Seat Headrest subreddit.[21] This was followed up by a listing on SRCVinyl.com with the date February 16, 2018.[22][23]
2018–2019: Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) and Commit Yourself Completely
Will Toledo performing as Car Seat Headrest in Australia, 2018
On January 9, 2018, Matador Records formally announced the release of the re-recording, entitled Twin Fantasy (Face to Face), alongside a re-release of the original album. Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) was released via Matador on February 16. The original, which has been re-titled Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror), was released on vinyl as a part of Record Store Day on April 21. On February 15, 2018, the band released a cover of "Fallen Horses" by Smash Mouth, who had previously covered "Something Soon" (from 2011's My Back Is Killing Me Baby).[24] Around the same time, Car Seat Headrest would begin touring with fellow Seattle-based band, Naked Giants, as a part of the group's expanded live lineup.[25][26] Toledo would also produce and feature on Midnight, the sophomore album by Stef Chura.[27][28]
The band tested new material at various live shows in December 2018, debuting the tracks "Weightlifters", "Hollywood", "Stop Lying To Me", and "You Know There's Someone Out There", soon followed by "Can't Cool Me Down" in February and March 2019 performances.[29][30][31]
On June 12, 2019, Car Seat Headrest announced a new live album titled Commit Yourself Completely, featuring official recordings of performances from the Twin Fantasy tour from 2018.[32] It was released the following week on June 17.[33]
2020–2022: Making a Door Less Open
On February 26, 2020, Car Seat Headrest announced their first studio album consisting of wholly new material since 2016's Teens of Denial, Making a Door Less Open. This announcement coincided with the release of "Can't Cool Me Down", the first single and second track off the album, and a release date of May 1, 2020.[34] It marks a stylistic divergence from previous material, Toledo describing the album as containing elements of EDM, hip hop, futurism, doo-wop, soul and rock and roll.[35] Three more singles were released to promote the album between March and April of that year: "Martin", "Hollywood" and "There Must Be More Than Blood".[36] The release also coincided with the introduction of Trait, an alternative persona of Toledo's, featured prominently wearing a modified gas mask with blinking LED lights for eyes, and floppy, rabbit-like ears.[36][37] The character had originally been created for the group's "comedic" side project, 1 Trait Danger, featuring Toledo alongside drummer Andrew Katz.[38][39]
Making a Door Less Open was released with three separate versions across different formats: vinyl, CD and streaming, each with variations in track-list and specific musical elements.[40] The album received a mixed reaction from fans, who pointed out the many divergences from the band's previous works,[41] but received an overall score of 77 on review aggregate site Metacritic.[42] Toledo noted that he and the band were working on a companion album for their latest release, while also looking for ways to improve the Trait mask to incorporate it into live performances.[41][38] Shortly after the album's release, Ethan Ives would release his debut solo album, Life for Cowards, under the name Toy Bastard.[43] Due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, the band's planned North American tour was cancelled, with shows later being rescheduled to the spring of 2022.[44][45]
In 2021, Toledo produced the album My Head Hz by Naked Days, with Andrew Katz and Seth Dalby credited for providing drums and bass respectively.[46] On June 22, 2021, Car Seat Headrest released two EPs: MADLO: Influences, a collection of four covers, including one of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill, and MADLO: Remixes, consisting of five remixed versions of tracks from Making a Door Less Open.[47] In the same year, Toledo produced the album How to Drive a Bus by New Jersey–based band I've Made Too Much Pasta. Katz is also credited alongside Toledo for mastering the album.[48]
In April 2022, Toledo was diagnosed with COVID-19 while on tour, resulting in many of the band's performances being rescheduled, and later cancelled outright.[49][50] Toledo later revealed he had developed a histamine intolerance as a result of Long COVID.[51]
2023–present: Faces from the Masquerade and upcoming studio album
On October 12, 2023, Car Seat Headrest released a double A-side single with the Beths in support of Death Cab for Cutie and the Postal Service's 2023–2024 joint tour, covering "We Looked Like Giants" for the single.[52] One week later, the band announced their second full length live album, Faces from the Masquerade, featuring recordings from their residency at Brooklyn Steel during their 2022 tour. The album released on December 8.[53] Ethan Ives' second solo album under the alias Toy Bastard, The War, was released on July 15, 2024.[54] Since 2023, Car Seat Headrest have been working on a new studio album that was finished in Fall 2024, anticipated to be released in mid 2025, and have slowly begun returning to live performances following Toledo's health issues.[55][56]
Style
AllMusic biographer Mark Deming wrote that Car Seat Headrest created "moody and introspective lo-fi pop tunes that are melodic but structurally ambitious at once".[57] Writing for Pitchfork, Jeremy Gordon stated that on Teens of Denial, "Will Toledo reaffirms that he is ahead of the pack as an imaginative singer-songwriter, capable of crafting dynamic indie rock."[58] Ian Cohen of Pitchfork also described Toledo's music as "dense, confounding music that most often captures the giddy thrill of having access to recording equipment, of finally put a sound to the voice in your head."[59]Rolling Stone described Making a Door Less Open as "an immersive and adventurous album that sounds polished, but never slick, a well-executed experiment in cross-genre pollination that heightens Toledo’s best songwriting impulses."[60] Toledo has been open about his musical influences, which include, but are not limited to, Radiohead, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, The Monkees, R.E.M.,[61]Nirvana, Green Day, The Who,[62]Pavement, Kendrick Lamar,[63]Daniel Johnston,[64]Sufjan Stevens,[65]Destroyer, Frank Ocean[66] and They Might Be Giants.[67]
Members
Current members
Will Toledo – vocals, guitar, keyboards (2010–present), drums, bass (2010–2015)
↑ Nora Knight provided vocals for "Misheard Lyrics" from Monomania (2012)
↑ Originally released as 5, but was re-released with an updated tracklist and new title in late 2011.
↑ Sunburned Shirts was deleted from Bandcamp in 2011. The songs from the EP were moved to Little Pieces Of Paper With "No" Written On Them and My Back Is Killing Me Baby.
↑ Originally titled Starving While Living on bandcamp, but renamed when put on streaming services.
↑ Re-released in late 2011, adding some songs that were removed from My Back Is Killing Me Baby and Sunburned Shirts.
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References
↑ Martin, Robey (June 27, 2017). "Q&A: Car Seat Headrest". richmondmagazine.com. Retrieved November 16, 2020.
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