Young and prolific, rocker Car Seat Headrest enters studio

INDIE rock sensation Car Seat Headrest is putting out his 13th album at a mere 23 years old — but this time, it's a professional recording.
Car Seat Headrest is the alter ego of singer and guitarist Will Toledo, who has won underground acclaim for his dark jam rock that often meditates on his depression.
Toledo began recording albums in his bedroom as a teenager, putting them out on his own before being signed last year by New York-based Matador Records, one of the most influential indie rock labels.
Matador last year put out Car Seat Headrest's first conventionally released album, "Teens of Style," which brought together tracks from his earlier albums, and he followed up with a tour of North America and Europe.
The label announced Thursday that he would release a new album, "Teens of Denial," on May 20, his first to be recorded in a traditional studio.
Car Seat Headrest also released a song from the upcoming album titled "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales," a lyrically bleak examination of personal despair and alcohol.
Like much of his earlier work, "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales" gradually builds in intensity and is relatively long for a rock song at more than six minutes. Still, the track — which features a tight back-up band — is instantly recognizable as a more professional recording.
Car Seat Headrest said in a statement that the song is about "post-party melancholia" and that he wrote it after watching the documentary "Blackfish," about SeaWorld's controversial breeding of killer whales, which the theme park recently agreed to end.
The album is being produced by veteran sound engineer Steve Fisk, who is based in Seattle like Car Seat Headrest and has worked with a range of small bands from the city including the then-little-known Nirvana. — AFP