Matador Records has announced that it will release Car Seat Headrest’s Teens of Denial on May 20th. Teens of Denial is the thirteenth album in Car Seat Headrest’s (aka 23-year-old Will Toledo) second on Matador, and first to be recorded in a proper studio with a full band and producer (Steve Fisk).

On Denial, Toledo moves from bedroom pop to something approaching classic-rock and huge (if detailed and personal) narrative ambitions, with nods to the Cars, Pavement, Jonathan Richman, Wire, and William Onyeabor. By turns tender and caustic, empathetic and solipsistic, literary and vernacular, profound and profane, self-loathing and self-aggrandizing, he conjures a specifically 21st century mindset, a product of information overload, the loneliness it can foster, and the escape music can provide.

After teasing Teens of Denial in February with the release of single “Vincent,” today Car Seat Headrest drops its second single off Denial, the hugely hooky “Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales.” Says Toledo, the song is about “post-party melancholia. Wishing to either be a better person or care less about the whole deal. Going home alone, in poor condition. The ‘killer whales’ bit is inspired by Blackfish, which is a depressing film.”

Car Seat Headrest is:
Will Toledo – vocals, guitar, songwriting
Andrew Katz – drums, backing vocals
Ethan Ives – bass (on Teens of Denial), guitar (live), backing vocals
Seth Dalby – bass (live)

Teens of Denial Tracklist:

1. Fill In The Blank
2. Vincent
3. Destroyed By Hippie Powers
4. (Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t a Problem)
5. Just What I Needed/Not Just What I Needed
6. Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales
7. 1937 State Park
8. Unforgiving Girl (She’s Not An)
9. Cosmic Hero
10. The Ballad of the Costa Concordia
11. Connect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra)
12. Joe Goes to School

UPCOMING LIVE DATES

May
28 – London Calling, Amsterdam
29 – Big Next @ DOK, Ghent
30 – L’Escape B, Paris
31 – Le Sonic, Lyon, France
June
2 – Primavera Sound, Barcelona
3 – This is Not a Love Song, Nimes
4 – Bad Bonn Kilbi, Dudingen
6 – Beaches Brew, Ravenna
8 – Le Saint des Seins, Toulouse, France
9 – Rock School Barbey, Bordeaux, France
11 – NOS Primavera, Porto
14 – Privatclub, Berlin
17 – Beatpol, Dresden
18 – Molotow, Hamburg
20 – The Hope, Brighton
21 – 100 Club, London
22 – The Deaf Institute, Manchester
23 – Broadcast, Glasgow
26 – Down the Rabbit Hole, Beuningen
28 – Mejeret, Lund
29 – Debaser Strand, Stockholm
30 – Pustervik, Gothenburg