Car Seat Headrest share a new song, ‘Martin’, today—listen and watch the lyric video, with bandleader Will Toledo in the character of ‘Trait’, HERE. The track is taken from the band’s forthcoming new album Making A Door Less Open, set for release May 1 on Matador Records/Rhythmethod.
Described by Toledo as “one of the favorite songs that he’s ever written”, ‘Martin’ is a soaring and majestic ode of life-affirming pop.
Created over the course of four years, Making a Door Less Open is Car Seat Headrest’s first set of brand new songs since 2016’s Teens Of Denial. The album, the result of a fruitful “collaboration” between Car Seat Headrest and 1 Trait Danger, a CSH electronic side project consisting of drummer Andrew Katz and Toledo’s alternate persona, ‘Trait’, sees Toledo embarking on new and imaginative roads to songwriting and recording, placing emphasis on the individual songs, each with its own “special energy”, resulting his most dynamic and open-ended work to date. In addition, the album will be available in three distinct versions for digital, vinyl and CD.
Read a statement from Toledo, as Trait, HERE.
‘Martin’ follows the first track released from the album, ‘Can’t Cool Me Down’, which The Guardian described as “a hard left into a new sound (…) drum machines, synths and bass arranged in a broad space around Will Toledo’s hungover croak”, and MOJO called “unexpectedly groovy robo-pop”, while the i surmised, “this first single hints that they are heading in a new, electronic direction”.
The band have postponed their MASS MoCA show originally scheduled for April to September 4, due to the spread of COVID-19. Read a statement from Toledo here.
Comprised of Will Toledo, Andrew Katz (drums), Ethan Ives (guitar) and Seth Dalby (bass), Car Seat Headrest has either released 11 or three albums to date, depending on the way you look at it. A prolific songwriter, Toledo took his moniker from making early recordings in the private environment of his family’s car, releasing a dozen self-recorded and produced albums on Bandcamp and building a tight-knit following. Toledo has since gone from an empty five-seater to selling out tours and filling festival main stages. 2015’s Teens of Style was a collection of songs from his early years. The band’s proper Matador debut, Teens of Denial, followed in 2016 and catapulted them to overnight commercial success and widespread critical acclaim, as well as highlighting Toledo as a prodigious lyricist. 2018’s Twin Fantasy, an epic re-imagination of an album originally released in 2011, demonstrated newfound scale, depth and ambition.
