Car Seat Headrest

One Liner: Solo-ish guy dropped the DIY and now makes the best kind of confessional rock and roll.
Wikipedia Genre: Indie rock, lo-fi pop
Spotify Says Similar To:  LVL Up, Guided by Voices.
Home: Leesburg, Virginia, but now in Seattle

Poster Position: 10
Slot: ?

Thoughts:  I love this dude.  The backstory on the main guy (Will Toledo) is that he would go make his music in the back seat of his old car, and so he named the band after the thing that he looked at the whole time.  Makes for kind of a clunky band name, but if you just get over that and jam this most recent album, you'll be on board.  At first, he was self-releasing stuff on Bandcamp, but since then he's been putting out legit albums with a full band that sounds like R.E.M. or Replacements grew up listening to Black Flag or The Smiths.  The early tapes are not the stuff I'm in love with - very DIY and lo-fi - but the most recent two albums are the stuff you want to get in to.

2015's Teens of Style boasts "Something Soon" as its most listened-to track, at just under 2 million streams.

Those Beach Boys harmonies are killer, as is the entire tune.  I'm a fan of that thing.  When I originally looked at this album, I decided that the effects on his voice were annoyingly overused.  I'll still go with that, but I like the album more now with time.

The next album is the even better one, that made my top ten albums of the year list and still jams. Here was my review then.   2016's Teens of Style has many songs with over a million streams, an one with more than 4 million ("Fill in the Blank").  However, I'd rather give you the second place one with 3.7 million streams - "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales"

It's the second verse that kills me, before the harder tune kicks in at 3:18, which is also extra cool. "It's too late to articulate it, That empty feeling, You share the same fate as the people you hate, You build yourself up against others' feelings, And it left you feeling empty as a car coasting downhill, I have become such a negative person, It was all just an act, It was all so easily stripped away."  and then "IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS!"  I'm fully prepared to yell my throat raw to that line in concert.

This whole album is excellent.  "Unforgiving Girl (She's Not An)" was the first moment when I realized that this sounded very much like mid-80's R.E.M., mainly from the guitar strummage. "Destroyed by Hippie Powers" jams, especially when it breaks down into quiet at about 3:50 and then cow bell kicks in with full band roar to fire up the remainder of the song at 4:21.  "(Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (but Says This Isn't a Problem)" wins the title contest and also rocks out after the intro portion.  Just go queue this album up on Spotify and check it out.

Recommended: Yes.