Matador Records is excited to announce that it will release Car Seat Headrest’s Teens of Denial on May 20th. Teens of Denial is the thirteenth album in Car Seat Headrest’s (aka 23-year-old Will Toledo) oeuvre, second on Matador, and first to be recorded in a proper studio with a full band and producer (Steve Fisk).
After teasing Teens of Denial in February with the release of single “Vincent,” today Car Seat Headrest drops its second single off Denial, the hugely hooky “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales.” Says Toledo, the song is about “post-party melancholia. Wishing to either be a better person or care less about the whole deal. Going home alone, in poor condition. The ‘killer whales’ bit is inspired by Blackfish, which is a depressing film.”
On Denial, Toledo moves from bedroom pop to something approaching classic-rock grandeur and huge (if detailed and personal) narrative ambitions, with nods to the Cars, Pavement, Jonathan Richman, Wire, and William Onyeabor. By turns tender and caustic, empathetic and solipsistic, literary and vernacular, profound and profane, self-loathing and self-aggrandizing, he conjures a specifically 21st century mindset, a product of information overload, the loneliness it can foster, and the escape music can provide.
Praise for Will Toledo’s work:
“One of the most exciting records we have ever heard, hands down” –NPR
“The kinds of perfect, instantly familiar pop songs that echo in the background of your dreams” –New Yorker
Teens of Style Accolades:
American Songwriter – Top 50 Songs of 2015 – #7
Esquire – 2015’s 10 Most Overlooked Songs – #2
Newsweek – Top 20 Albums of 2015 – #4
Noisey – 50 Best Albums of 2015 – #42
NPR – 100 Favorite Songs of 2015
Pitchfork – Album of the Year Honorable Mentions
Rolling Stone – 50 Best Albums of 2015 – #30
Stereogum – 50 Best Albums of 2015 – #39
WATCH: NPR Tiny Desk Concert HERE (Includes live acoustic version of “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales”)
Car Seat Headrest is:
Will Toledo – vocals, guitar, songwriting
Andrew Katz – drums, backing vocals
Ethan Ives – bass (on Teens of Denial), guitar (live), backing vocals
Seth Dalby – bass (live)
Teens of Denial Tracklist:
- Fill In The Blank
- Vincent
- Destroyed By Hippie Powers
- (Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t a Problem)
- Just What I Needed/Not Just What I Needed
- Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales
- 1937 State Park
- Unforgiving Girl (She’s Not An)
- Cosmic Hero
- The Ballad of the Costa Concordia
- Connect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra)
- Joe Goes to School
Produced by Steve Fisk at his studio in Seattle, July-September 2015.
Out May 20th on Matador via Rhythmethod in all good record stores near you. Pre-order the album on iTunes here.
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