Category: Music

“Car Seat Headrest’s The Scholars is the band’s most cohesive album to date, an equal effort from a bicoastal four-piece band that, even though they’ve been based in Seattle for over a decade, have a sound that isn’t rooted in any one region. If anything, Car Seat Headrest is 21st century Americana, putting out anthemic earworms and epic-length epics of survival during these [fill-in-the-blank] times. The Scholars is the Triumphant Return for a band felled by Covid-19 mid-tour in 2022.”

–Katie Kurtz on Bandcamp, May 15, 2025

“Julie Bee, host of Amplified on Marfa Public Radio joins NPR Music’s Stephen Thompson to talk through Car Seat Headrest’s return…”

–NPR’s All Songs Considered, May 2, 2025

“Car Seat Headrest Drop Epic New Song ‘CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)'”

–Eddie Fu on Consequence, April 2, 2025

“Car Seat Headrest have shared another selection from their forthcoming new studio album, a self-described rock opera entitled The Scholars.”

–Walden Green on Pitchfork, April 2, 2025

“‘CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)’ is another fruitful indie rock adventure with a sweeping buildup and an in-depth storyline.”

–Danielle Chelosky on Stereogum, April 2, 2025

“Self-produced by Toledo, the band have never sounded more fully realized or assured of themselves. And while Car Seat Headrest started as Toledo’s solo project, it is now fully a band.”

—The Fire Note, April 2, 2025

“Rev those engines: Car Seat Headrest are back. Will Toledo and company have announced their new rock opera album The Scholar…”

–Abby Jones on Stereogum, March 4, 2025

“Car Seat Headrest Come Back from the Brink”

—Rolling Stone, March 4, 2025

“Car Seat Headrest Announce Tour and First Album in Five Years”

—Pitchfork, March 4, 2025

“This is Car Seat Headrest rebirthed—and Car Seat Headrest as we’ve never seen them before.”

–Casey Epstein-Gross in Paste, March 4, 2025

“It was a homecoming of sorts, as Toledo called DC his hometown, having been raised in suburban Virginia and starting his musical career, as he said, sitting with a guitar playing songs.”

—David LeMason on Parklife DC, April 4, 2022

“Car Seat Headrest has hit the road—again redefining how rock is made and played.”

—Sarah Smith in Washington City Paper, April 1, 2022

“Prolific indie-rock band Carseat Headrest makes its way to The Pabst Theater in belated support of the May 2020 album Making A Door Less Open.”

—Milwaukee Record, March 17, 2022

“Seven years since they broke big in indie-rock terms with the clever lo-fi garage-rock album ‘Teens of Denial,’ Virginia bedroom rocker Will Toledo and his now-Seattle-based band lived up to the hype with their most ambitious album yet, 2020’s ‘Making a Door Less Open,’ which incorporated more electronic and new-wave influences but maintained a rocking spirit. They’re finally out promoting it with Bartees Strange opening.”

—Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Ten Concerts to See in the Twin Cities This Week,” March 9, 2022

“Will Toledo and the band hit the road behind 2020’s Making a Door Less Open starting in March, and the dates go through May.”

—Pitchfork’s 62 Most Anticipated Tours of 2022, Jan. 5, 2022