Car Seat Headrest – band vehicle for ridiculously talented and prolific songwriter Will Toledo – release much anticipated album “Making a Door Less Open” on May 1st, on Matador Records.
Ahead of the album, they’ve just released new single “Hollywood”. The single is accompanied by an animated video by Sabrina Nichols featuring Toledo’s alternate persona ‘Trait’.
An acoustic version of the song is also available to listen to here.
The song gets straight to it with intense vocals from Toledo that are part way between singing and rapping, but are damned angry: “I’m sick of violence, I’m sick of money, I’m sick of drinking, I’m sick of drugs, I’m sick of fucking, I’m sick of staring at the ads on the bus”.
The song is a pretty singular and focused attack on Tinseltown and everything about it that makes Toledo sick – “Hollywood makes me want to puke” is the constant refrain. You know the video for Bittersweet Symphony where Richard Ashcroft walks down the street and will not be diverted whatever comes his way? Well, “Hollywood” is like that – Toledo has a job to do and he will not be thrown of course. Toledo explains what that job is:
“This song is about Hollywood as a place where people go to make their fantasies come to life, and they end up exploiting other people and doing terrible things to maintain their fantasy. There’s this terror you’re going to lose the fantasy, and you’re going to have to face the facts, and some people will do anything to avoid facing that. It’s about that fear, and the pain of being subjugated to someone else’s fantasy against your will, and it’s all tied together under this banner of this physical location of Hollywood that we all know about and dream about, but none of us really want to think about what is going on behind the scenes there.”
In the animated video, the disdain is so great for Hollywood that the main animated character has to go about their business wearing a full protection suit and a gas mask – looking like a Coronavirus first responder.
‘Hollywood’ follows singles ‘Can’t Cool Me Down’ and ‘Martin’, both of which enjoyed critical acclaim, and the latter added to the BBC 6 Music playlist.
New album “Making a Door Less Open” is Car Seat Headrest’s first set of brand new songs since 2016’s awesome “Teens Of Denial”. The tracklist has also been released and you can also pre-order the album across all formats, with distinct track listings and mixes for digital, CD and vinyl, here.
Car Seat Headrest have cancelled their summer tour dates due to COVID-19, with plans to reschedule. Read a statement here.
“Making a Door Less Open” Tracklist:
1. Weightlifters
2. Can’t Cool Me Down
3. Deadlines (Hostile)
4. Hollywood
5. Hymn (Remix)
6. Martin
7. Deadlines (Thoughtful)
8. What’s With You Lately
9. Life Worth Missing
10. There Must Be More Than Blood
11. Famous
CAR SEAT HEADREST
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