When Will Toledo wrote the new Car Seat Headrest single, he originally called it “Fuck Merge Records” in response to that label’s policy of not accepting demos. Thankfully, someone at Matador appears to have a slightly more accepting policy regarding demos, and has capitalized by signing Toledo to a two-album deal. The news was broken last month along with the video for “Something Soon,” and now we have the sprawling seven-minute single “Times to Die.”
With the original chorus of “No unsolicited demos, no unsolicited demos” swapped out for the slightly more traditional “We’ve all had better times to die,” Toledo is toying gingerly with the big-time, putting all the pieces together for this album to potentially be his Propellor. Big shoes, that, but Guided By Voices was all about hand-me-downs anyway.
Teens of Style is out October 30 on Matador.
