Car Seat Headrest is an American indie rock band formed in Leesburg, Virginia, and currently located in Seattle, Washington. The band consists of Will Toledo, Ethan Ives, Seth Dalby (bass), and Andrew Katz.
members: Andrew Katz, Will Toledo, Jacob Bloom, Seth Dalby, Ethan Cossett
formed in: Leesburg
labels: Matador Records
genres: alternative rock, progressive rock, lo-fi music
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
In September 2015, Car Seat Headrest announced on Facebook that they had signed an album deal with Matador Records. Toledo, who had recently graduated and moved to Seattle, recruited bassist Jacob Bloom and drummer Andrew Katz through Craigslist to record and tour his next album. The next month, Car Seat Headrest released the compilation album Teens of Style, consisting of re-recorded material from Toledo's solo discography and was their first record to not be self-released exclusively via Bandcamp. Shortly after the album's release, Bloom left the group to attend medical school and was replaced by bassist Ethan Ives, who met the band at an open mic.
AllMusic biographer Mark Deming wrote that Car Seat Headrest created "moody and introspective lo-fi pop tunes that are melodic but structurally ambitious at once". Writing for Pitchfork, Jeremy Gordon stated that on Teens of Denial, "Will Toledo reaffirms that he is ahead of the pack as an imaginative singer-songwriter, capable of crafting dynamic indie rock." Ian Cohen of Pitchfork also described Toledo's music as "dense, confounding music that most often captures the giddy thrill of having access to recording equipment, of finally putting a sound to the voice in your head." Rolling Stone described Making a Door Less Open as "an immersive and adventurous album that sounds polished, but never slick, a well-executed experiment in...
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Hollywood" is a song by American indie rock band Car Seat Headrest. It was released on April 16, 2020, by Matador Records, as the third single from their twelfth studio album, Making a Door Less Open (2020).
The song was written and produced by bandleader Will Toledo and drummer Andrew Katz.
The song was described by Spin as Car Seat Headrest's "aim to make a big leap into alternative rock". The staff further described the song to feature "familiar heavy riffs", "a big hook" and "heavy grooves". Toledo commented that the song was "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". In Pitchfork's review of the associated album, critic Ian Cohen described the lyrics as "Eephus pitch" and called it "something that destabilizes through counter-intuitive simplicity".
Writing for Pitchfork, Ian Cohen compared the song as Toledo's "version of Weezer's 'Beverly Hills'" and described the concept as "catchy" and "banal". Upon reviewing the associated album, Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone called the track as one of the most "divisive". Writing for The Observer, Emily Mackay wrote that the song is "pleasingly punchy, but brought down by facile lyrics".
The release of the track was accompanied by an animated music video. It was directed by Sabrina Nichols. In the animated music video, Toledo appears as his alter ego, Trait, wearing a gas mask, as he takes a journey through Hollywood.