March 2025: The Scholars

Today is the official announce of the next Car Seat Headrest album, “The Scholars”! It comes out on May 2nd; its first single, “Gethsemane”, is out today, with a music video by Andrew Wonder. I'll just link to our website here, because I'm drafting this on Monday and I don't have any of the other links yet.

 I’m happy to have the first piece of this record out, and thrilled that we had the opportunity to share Gethsemane with all of you before the official drop, via the webs quest that has been going on the past few weeks. Having fans find out about a song or album when one DSP or another randomly uploads it the night before the release is no fun. We were all amazed at how fast you solved the puzzles we set out for you. I’m a bit disappointed that no fan made the trek to Wisconsin, but at least we were able to make some riddles that were guess-proof and AI-proof.

 There will probably be a lot of my blather about the record already circulating online, but I’ll see if I can say anything here that I haven’t said yet. In my head, it’s a bit of a theatrical piece - something you go into with the CD booklet (or vinyl booklet!) and enter into another world for an hour. It’s set in the fictional, time-ambiguous college campus of Parnassus University, where old rivalries and ancient forces lurk within the activities of the main characters who populate the album’s tracks.

 This is a culmination of several different threads of the creative process that CSH has had brewing for a decade - creating as a band, collaging and cutting up songs to see what works, and cultivating concepts to guide the structure of the album around. It was a pleasure to work with such talented friends throughout, and working on this album got me through some dark days in the past five years, especially with COVID. “Gethsemane” and other tracks reflect both that darkness and the light hidden underneath.

 The album’s design and art is the result of a year of collaboration with Cate Wurtz, whose work has adorned many a CSH album, and who recently finished their ten-year comic series ‘crow cillers’ in a truly masterful fashion. You can read the finale on her Patreon, and dig into the series if you haven’t yet. For “The Scholars”, Cate created a whole host of characters and setting designs based on some initial input on what the college and characters might be like, as we continued to work on the music. She was really tireless in her efforts to get every character right, and there’s a real trove of concept art behind the scenes now, in addition to the bounty of final art you get when you purchase the record.

 We will also be doing some more shows this year! Only in the US, unfortunately, and not a very widespread tour, as I have to plan conservatively to stay in healthy shape. Nevertheless, we’re all really looking forward to bringing these new songs to the stage. The dates are on our website.

 That’s all for now, but you will surely hear more from us soon! Thanks for making this rollout fun already; and thanks for the fan-art which you all have been so quick to start making of the album characters. (TOO quick? Give your hands a break; there will be plenty of time to enjoy this.) Here's some more art Cate did in celebration of the announce.