Matador Records recently announced their signing of Car Seat Headrest, and today share a new single off the forthcoming album Teens Of Style (out October 30) titled “Times To Die.” The almost 7-minute track applies breakbeat cut-ups and lowrider-style horns to a neo-psych jam filled with lyrical meditations about the Book of Job, Judaism, Hinduism, and the record business (he rhymes “devil” with “demo!”). The artwork seen in the “Times To Die” lyric video (as well as the Teens of Style album art) was inspired by William Blake’s “The Grave.”
Car Seat Headrest (né Will Toledo) comes to Matador having already crafted an 11-album catalog of staggering depth, all self-released on Bandcamp, which has gained him an obsessive following and over 25,000 downloads – all without the muscle of a manager, label, agent, or publicist – until now.
Car Seat Headrest began in 2010 in Toledo’s hometown of Leesburg, Virginia. Needing a place of solitude (and soundproofing) where he could record vocals undisturbed, a 17-year–old Toledo set up shop in the family car. Toledo’s catalogue is sharp, literary, and culturally omnivorous as it touches upon youth and death, love and depression, drunken parties and 2nd century theologians. Ever surprising, his lyrical imagery ranges from playful to sexually frank to sorrowful, often within the same song.
After relocating to the Seattle suburbs in 2014, Toledo assembled a lineup with bassist Ethan Ives and drummer Andrew Katz. Teens of Style is the first Car Seat Headrest album recorded with a full band, and the sound is vibrant and powerful, with a wide stylistic range.
On Teens of Style, Toledo has taken material from the first three years of the band’s existence and reworked it to generate some of the most realized arrangements to date. Drawing material from 3 (2010), My Back Is Killing Me Baby (2011), and Monomania (2012), Teens of Style provides a concise overview of the band’s many sonic and emotional facets, with the songs ranging from electronic psychedelia to punky anthems to melancholic acoustic numbers.
Car Seat Headrest’s conceptual ambition and stunning songwriting has been apparent since its early days of laptop recording, the scale of Toledo’s vision going far beyond the constricting “lo-fi” term. Now on his Matador Records debut, Teens of Style, we witness Toledo presenting his intricate ideas with more clarity and refinement than ever, delivering an enthralling collection of songs destined for wide acclaim.
“A major new talent” – NME
“Lo-fi teenage symphonies to the great unknown, with catchy hooks and strikingly personal lyrics” –Rolling Stone (10 New Artists You Need To Know)
“Anxious, ruminative and scratchy pop, some short and some long, made with increasing confidence during his passage from teenage years to young adulthood” –New York Times
“Toledo’s commitment to giving listeners a direct line to his inner monologue is the kind of thing that inspires hardcore fanhood—the ability to get lost in Toledo’s work is the entire point.” –Pitchfork
Car Seat Headrest – Teens Of Style
Out 30th October 2015 on Matador Records
Brought to you by Rhythmethod in New Zealand
Pre-order Teens Of Style on iTunes now or from your favourite record store.
Tracklisting:
- Sunburned Shirts
- The Drum
- Something Soon
- No Passion
- Times to Die
- psst, teenagers, take off your clo
- Strangers
- Maud Gone
- Los Borrachos (I Don’t Have Any Hope Left, But the Weather is Nice)
- Bad Role Models, Old Idols Exhumed (psst, teenagers, put your clothes back o)
- Oh! Starving
