Car Seat Headrest | Photo by Julia Leiby | http://julia-leiby.squarespace.com/
Your next favorite band is Car Seat Headrest
Seattle’s Car Seat Headrest is the musical project of Will Toledo. He’s been releasing music since 2010, and this writer’s words describe his music best:
Toledo’s music is all at once lo-fi, epic, ambitious, heartbreaking, head-scratching, thought-provoking, fun, psychedelic, excessive, and beautiful in it’s meticulous density and conceptual unity.
How To Leave Town is billed as an EP, however clocks in at 61 minutes. The first track alone, the 14 minute “The Ending Of Dramamine,” would be enough for you to get the point of Toledo’s sprawling weird genius, but then comes the almost 7 minute Kinks-meet-“Let Love Rule” jam of “Beast Monster Thing (Love Isn’t Love Enough).” Seriously, this young man is just working on a completely inspiring music making level that I haven’t heard in a long time, save for maybe Beck or Jeff Magnum or Sufjan.
It’ll be interesting to hear how he pulls this off live when he plays the Petting Zoo on Monday, May 11th.
Below, stream or download for a pay-what-you-want How To Leave Town. if you make it through this collection, be sure to download some of his other records (and leave him a tip!).