Car Seat Headrest is the American indie rock project Will Toledo started in Leesburg, Virginia in 2010, self-releasing a dozen-plus Bandcamp albums before signing with Matador. Teens of Denial (2016) and the re-recorded Twin Fantasy are modern indie rock canon — start with either. Dig into Car Seat Headrest vinyl, CDs, and reissues at Wax Trax Records.
Car Seat Headrest is the indie rock project of Will Toledo, who began releasing albums on Bandcamp in 2010 (the project name comes from his early practice of recording vocals in the back seat of his car for privacy). After more than a dozen self-released Bandcamp albums, Toledo signed with Matador Records in 2015. The project has since operated as a full band, with Ethan Ives, Seth Dalby, and Andrew Katz forming the touring and recording lineup.
Car Seat Headrest's sound combines indie rock, lo-fi indie, power pop, and post-punk influences with literary, often self-examining lyrical content. Toledo's songwriting frequently builds long-form structures with extended instrumental passages and dense layered arrangements. The 2018 re-recording of Twin Fantasy reworked the 2011 Bandcamp original into a polished full-band statement.
Matador pressings of Teens of Denial, Twin Fantasy (Face to Face), and Making a Door Less Open have been issued in multiple color variants and limited editions.
Listeners new to Car Seat Headrest typically start with Teens of Denial (2016) or Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) (2018).
