Car Seat Headrest Announce New Album, Share Single “Can’t Cool Me Down”

Car Seat Headrest return this year with the new album Making a Door Less Open, out May 1st via Matador Records. Listen to the first single “Can’t Cool Me Down” below via a lyric video. (The track may sound familiar if you've caught the band live over the past few years, but this marks the first time it's been recorded for a release.)

Making a Door Less Open marks the project's first LP of new music since 2016’s Teens of Denial, and it's also the introduction of a new persona for frontman Will Toledo. The album is being cited as a “collaboration” between Toledo and 1 Trait Danger, a Car Seat Headrest electronic side project consisting of drummer Andrew Katz and Toledo’s alternative persona, “TRAIT.” 

"This is something Andrew started doing on tour — recording ideas for his own songs as they came to him, and forcibly enlisting everyone else to participate," Toledo explained in a press statement. "It appealed to me because it was nothing like Car Seat Headrest, and the ideas cracked me up. Before we knew it we had two albums released, a video game that was almost impossible to beat, and a growing number of people who seemed to be enjoying it all. It’s been a great outlet for weird and untenable musical experiments, and the live performances have been a blast. I play a character called TRAIT, and we’ve been working out the backstory as we go. I think he spent a lot of time in classified government facilities before getting into the music business."

TRAIT, as you can see in the photo above, wears a mask, somewhere between Daft Punk and a human fly. "I decided to start wearing a mask for a couple of reasons." Toledo explains. "One, I still get nervous being onstage with everybody looking at me. If everyone is looking at the mask instead, then it feels like we’re all looking at the same thing, and that is more honest to me. Two, music should be about enjoying yourself, especially live music, and I think of this costume as a way to remind myself and everyone else to have some fun with it. I don’t think it changes anything else about the songs or how you feel about them to be able to drop it for a second and have fun with it. If you can’t do that then you’re in a bad place…"

TRAIT will most likely make its Seattle debut on July 11th when Car Seat Headrest plays the Paramount. Check out the rest of the upcoming tour dates below, along with the track listing for the album. 

CAR SEAT HEADREST LIVE
April 25—North Adams, MA—MASS MoCA
May 27—St. Paul, MN—Palace Theatre
May 28—Milwaukee, WI—Pabst Theatre
May 29—Chicago, IL—The Vic
May 30—Chicago, IL—The Vic
June 2—Detroit, MI—The Majestic
June 3—Toronto, ON—Danforth
June 4—Toronto, ON—Danforth
June 6—Boston, MA—House of Blues
June 7—Portland, ME—State Theatre
June 9—New York, NY—Brooklyn Steel
June 10—New York, NY—Brooklyn Steel
June 11—New York, NY—Brooklyn Steel
June 13—Philadelphia, PA—Franklin Music Hall
June 14—Washington, D.C.—Anthem
June 16—Raleigh, NC—The Ritz
June 17—Asheville, NC—Orange Peel
June 18—Columbia, SC—The Senate
June 19—Atlanta, GA—Tabernacle
June 20—Nashville, TN—Brooklyn Bowl
July 9—Vancouver, BC—The Commodore
July 10—Vancouver, BC—The Commodore
July 11 —Seattle, WA—Paramount
July 12—Portland, OR—Roseland
July 14—San Francisco, CA—The Warfield
July 17—San Diego, CA—Observatory North Park
July 18—Los Angeles, CA—The Wiltern
July 19—Phoenix, AZ—Van Buren
July 22—Austin, TX—Stubb’s
July 23—Houston, TX—White Oak
July 24—Dallax, TX—Granada
July 25—Oklahoma City, OK—The Tower
July 26—Kansas City, KS—The Crossroads
July 28—Denver, CO—The Ogden

CAR SEAT HEADREST
MAKING A DOOR LESS OPEN

VINYL TRACKLIST
1. Weightlifters
2. Can’t Cool Me Down
3. Hollywood
4. There Must Be More Than Blood
5. Hymn
6. Deadlines
7. Martin
8. What’s With You Lately
9. Life Worth Missing
10. Famous

CD TRACKLIST
1. Weightlifters
2. Can’t Cool Me Down
3. Hollywood
4. Martin
5. Hymn (Remix)
6. There Must Be More Than Blood
7. Deadlines
8. What’s With You Lately
9. Life Worth Missing
10. Famous
11. Deadlines (Alternate Acoustic) [Bonus Track]
12. Hollywood (Acoustic) [Bonus Track]

DIGITAL TRACKLIST
TBD