I've been listening to this album at least once every day for a week now, and it rocks, despite what the critics say.
Can't Cool Me Down is one track that just grabs my full attention every time it's played, and there are several more that can make the same claim. One word of advise for the nay-sayers out there - it works better as a whole album listened to all the way through, than just as one or two isolated tracks standing by themselves.
Unpopular opinion: Car Seat Headrest's latest album, last March's Making A Door Less Open, is not only not bad, but is actually a worthy successor to Teens of Denial.
A little background: although the album came out over six months ago, that release date was right at the beginning of the covid-19 lockdown pandemic, and concerned with other matters, I overlooked it, playing it once or maybe twice on Spotify and then moving on to other, more-pressing concerns. Only recently have I started re-listening to this album.
More background: After releasing a lot of self-produced music directly to Bandcamp, Will Toledo's big breakthrough as Car Seat Headrest occurred in 2016 with Teens of Denial, his major-label debut. The album became an instant classic, is a great culmination of the previous 10 years of indie rock music, and a towering achievement of that year. The album was adored by critics, popular with fans, and Toledo found himself playing to sold-out venues and major music festivals.
But although to most fans Teens of Denial was the debut of a promising young band (Toledo was only 24 at the time), it was actually the culmination of a decade of his Bandcamp recordings and used every song-writing technique he had learned over the years. It wasn't an opening statement by a new band, it was a Master's thesis by a seasoned songwriter.
Which is all to say that topping that record with the next album was a tough chore. Teens of Denial already represented the very best that young Mr. Toledo could do, it was the summation of everything he knew.
So instead of trying to top it, Toledo next re-recorded an earlier Bandcamp album that he felt was deserving of a wider audience. Twin Fantasy has it moments, but at least to me it had the hallmarks of an ambitious teenager still working on his songcraft. It was only interesting as a historical document of the development of his technique, particularly the way he often grafts two or more songs together into one composition. But the world was still hungry for the next Car Seat Headrest album.
The next album after Twin Fantasy also backed away from the challenge. 2019's Commit Yourself Completely was a fine live album of Car Seat Headrest performing songs from Teens of Denial and Twin Fantasy. It's a fun listen, but we were still waiting to hear what's next.
Toledo finally answered that question with Making A Door Less Open. But instead of a bunch of new Teens of Denial-style, guitar-based rock songs, Door represents a change in sound, with more electronics and more studio technology. Toledo wrote, "The songs contain elements of EDM, hip hop, futurism, doo-wop, soul, and of course rock and roll. But underneath all these things I think these may be folk songs, because they can be played and sung in many different ways, and they're about things that are important to a lot of people: anger with society, sickness, loneliness, [and] love."
The album appears to have poorly received. Pitchfork gave it a measly 6.6 and a condescending review of Toledo's entire career trajectory and personal idiosyncrasies (among other things, he's taken to wearing a gas mask in his videos). Door doesn't seem to have the impact that Teens of Denial had in its day, although it's hard to say how much the inability to tour in this year of the plague had to do with its lukewarm reception.
It's hard not to think of Door's song Martin not as a follow-up to Teen's Vincent, but they are completely different statements. There are horns heard in the bridge and studio tape manipulation toward the end, but there's also a catchy rock song in there, even if the video does consist simply of a masked Toledo washing dishes.
Four years after Teens of Denial, I hear Making a Door not as Teens 2.0 but as a statement from an artist interested in artistic growth and expanding his boundaries. And since that's exactly what Teen of Denial originally was, in that light it's a worthy successor.
If you're like me and your post-election anxiety and Trumpian depression are expressing themselves as insomnia, you may have stayed up late enough last night to watch Will Toledo re-invent the already terrific song Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales with The Roots on Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show.
Well, we're deep in in now, kiddo - five consecutive nights of good shows, starting with Thursday's 90-minute triumph by Car Seat Headrest. The killer combo of a day job and a show Friday night by Angel Olsen and Juliana Barwick meant I didn't initially have time to say much about Car Seat Headrest the day after his show, other than to share a few pics and post the obligatory video, but now through the miracle of next-day editing, here's the complete review.
But before getting to the review, let's first consult the I Ching for guidance (as we should with all things in life). Today's hexagram is Jian, Number 39, sometimes called "Hindrance." Water, a dangerous abyss, is in front and behind is a high mountain. One's way is blocked and the hexagram signifies that difficulties are sure to follow opposition and separation, and does not appear to be an auspicious start to this review.
Literally, Jian is the symbol for incompetency for the feet and legs, involving difficulty in walking. Jian did not seem to affect Thursday night's openers, Long Island's The Lemon Twigs. The Lemon Twigs are brothers Brian and Michael D’Addario from Hicksville, NY, who alternate on drums and guitar, backed by keys and bass. They play very simple, two-chord 4/4 rock, but the fun is watching the band's antics and Guitar Hero moves, doubtlessly perfected from years of bedroom air guitar practice. Here are some samples:
The whole thing was unintentionally hilarious and while the new Lemon Twists record was produced by ex-Foxygen co-founder Jonathan Rado, the D'Addario brothers still have a long way to go musically. However, you have to admire their commitment to classic rock posturing, totally unimpeded by Jian. As someone in the audience pointed out to us, if Jonathan Schwartzman and Jim Brewer had a baby and raised that baby on amphetamines, that baby would resemble the D'Addario brothers. They already have a stage act that's hard to look away from and here are some pics to prove it:
Will Toledo, who performs as Car Seat Headrest, seems very aware of the challenges of Jian. "I couldn't get the car to start," he sings in Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales, even though "I'm only trying to get home." The obstacles of Jian are all around, from drunk drivers to that voice in your head that always gives you shit about everything and yet we press on, and many if not most of Toledo's songs face head on the challenges Jian poses to getting through the mundane impediments of daily life.
Fortunately for us, Jian still allowed us to arrive early enough to get a front-row position, right in front of Will.
Teens of style: Toledo looked sharp in black shirt and tie, with the kind of jacket that only a millennial could find at the mall and pull off wearing.
Musically, Car Seat Headrest sounds at times like classic alt-rock bands such as Pavement, with a heavy influence by post-millennial indie-rock bands like Okkervil River. If I were forced to put a label on them, it might be something like "Alt-Rock Singer/Songwriter," but comparisons and labels like that are still meaningless and irrelevant, so please ignore this paragraph.
This was a great show, one of the best of the year, and Toledo's combination of thoughtful lyrics, meticulous craftsmanship in songwriting, and honest, soul-baring performance made for an unforgettable night.
The audience's respect and appreciation and even love for Will was evident throughout the set, and most of us sang along to many of his songs, and a few even sang along to most of all of his songs, and a fewer still even sang along to all of all of his songs.
So, yes, Jian exists, but if we all act like Will Toledo and practice acceptance instead of opposition and intimacy instead of separation, it does not have to be a hindrance.
What we all knew is now official - July 2016 was the hottest month ever recorded in the history of recording hottest months. So far, August hasn't been much cooler.
It's also been one of the driest, at least as far as shows go. I haven't heard live music since Swans' July 22 show at Terminal West (although part of the ringing still in my ears is continuing to hear them now).
As hard as it is to believe today, there's just a little over a month from the autumnal equinox. We're two weeks out from football season starting again. Ten weeks to Halloween, twelve to the end of this insufferable Presidential election season.
But my point is this - after a drought of biblical proportions, live music will soon be returning to the ATL. As you can see from the Upcoming Shows gadget over to the right, September will bring an insane amount of good music to town, starting with Car Seat Headrest at Terminal West on Thursday, September 8.
The next evening, Angel Olsen plays Terminal West and the night after that, Saturday, Quilt and Mutual Benefit will be at The Earl.
On Sunday, September 11, Joanna Newsom plays The Buckhead Theater and on Monday, September 12, The Album Leaf will be at Terminal West.
And that five-show/five-night run isn't even all of it for September. On Wednesday, September 21, Okkervil River and Landlady will take the Terminal West stage, and to close the month, Portland's Ages & Ages will be at Vinyl on September 30.
I'm not likely to make all of the shows (work, travel, old age, etc.), but there's not one show in that list that I want to miss.
Faced with fewer bands touring through the American South, club owners appear to have re-evaluated their own profit margins and the sources of their income. Why pay some band from New York a big fee to perform, when a local band can fill the room or at the very least cover the costs for the night at little or no money?
Local music is an important part of any city's music scene and part of the joy of living in a city with a thriving local music scene like Atlanta is watching our local favorites grow and mature as artists. But when the club owners no longer can pack the room with fans of the latest buzz band, they have to figure out how they can afford to keep the doors open with fewer customers, so with lower volume, they have to reduce their costs by paying the locals less and less, and before too long the music fan is faced with enduring whatever band the club can scrape together to play for free that night and with putting up with fewer and fewer comforts (AC, clean toilets) in the club itself.
In a perfect world, our fine local bands would rise to the occasion and fill the empty stages left by the touring bands that refuse to venture too far from home, but in the imperfect world in which we live, there's a downward spiral as owners realize they can make greater profits by paying the bands less, or even nothing at all, and the quality of the music on stage suffers as a result.
So, yes, I've been to fewer shows this year, partly because there's been fewer shows this year, in my humble opinion, worth seeing.
But then, suddenly, an oasis appears in the desert. Over the next week, Atlanta will get to experience Swans (Friday), Fear of Men (Monday), Marissa Nadler (Tuesday), and Boogarins (Wednesday), and then almost nothing for the month of August. But then, just as dramatically, we'll get another overload of shows on September 8, 9, 10, and 11, with Car Seat Headrest, (8th), Angel Olsen (9th), Quilt and Mutual Benefit (10th), and Joanna Newsom (11th).
So don't lose hope, Atlanta, there's still good music to be heard out there, and in the meantime we can support our local artists like Little Tybee at Terminal West on August 5, Takenobu at Eddie's Attic on August 13, and Hello Ocho and Jeffrey Bützer at The Earl on August 29 and September 3, respectively.
I mean, c'mon, there's no denying this guy's great, and here's the best song involving killer whales not written by Neko Case, although this song sounds more than a little like Okkervil River at their best.
Possibly the only thing better than the new Car Seat Headrest video for Vincent is the full-length version of the song, which can be streamed over at NPR's All Songs Considered.
I appear, at least to myself, to be under the impression that Car Seat Headrest, the Bandcamp sensation and recent subject of a fawning New Yorker review, will be at The Earl on December 10, but I might be wrong and you really ought to check for yourself if you're at all curious.
"Not knowing is the most intimate." - Luohan Guichen (867-928)
