With a new record just two weeks away, Car Seat Headrest have released their third single from Making A Door Less Open, titled “Hollywood”. On the track, Will Toledo, paired by a shouty vocal performance from the band’s drummer Andrew Katz, dissects the false allure of Hollywood and its abhorrent, not-so-secret underbelly that makes Toledo and Katz “want to puke.”
In the upcoming record’s press release, Will states he made each song with “a special energy, each one unique and different in its vision.” With the reveal of the album’s latest track, the frontman’s vision for this collection of songs is becoming more and more apparent. With lead single “Can’t Cool Me Down” leaning into the realm of indietronica and “Martin” into the warm embrace of jangle pop, “Hollywood” sees CSH diverge once more. Through a haze of glitchy feedback, “Hollywood” finds its groove as an unashamedly rock n’ roll cut with simple, vigorous drum beats and sharp, overproduced guitar riffs, which, though off-putting at first, add to the track’s charming palatability. For CSH die-hards who fancy the band’s lo-fi, indie rock roots, “Hollywood” may be a considerably polarizing cut, but one they’ll inevitably take a liking to. Regarding the track, Toledo says:
“This song is about Hollywood as a place where people go to make their fantasies come to life, and they end up exploiting other people and doing terrible things to maintain their fantasy. There’s this terror you’re going to lose the fantasy, and you’re going to have to face the facts, and some people will do anything to avoid facing that. It’s about that fear, and the pain of being subjugated to someone else’s fantasy against your will, and it’s all tied together under this banner of this physical location of Hollywood that we all know about and dream about, but none of us really want to think about what is going on behind the scenes there.”
Accompanying the release is an animated lyric video, above, which encounters Will’s hazmat wearing alter-ego, Trait, walking through the deteriorating mirage of Tinseltown. Near the video’s end, Trait can be seen hovering over the town in amazed disgust, only to profusely vomit over it all, hence the track’s screaming hook.
Making A Door Less Open is out May 1, via Matador, which you can preorder here. Don’t forget to give Will and the gang a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
