Oppressed By These Energies

Car Seat Headrest “Hollywood”

“Hollywood” is blunt and bratty in a way Car Seat Headrest haven’t been before, it’s like Sum 41/Blink-182 energy filtered through Will Toledo’s usual dry deadpan tone and indie rock aesthetics. The song is a duet with drummer Andrew Katz, who delivers his parts with a borderline obnoxious punk shout that is in deliberate sharp contrast with Toledo’s low-key cool guy monotone. The lyrics of the song play off this contrast in different directions – in some cases, Toledo is the chill introverted guy forced to respond to the attention-seeking extrovert Katz, and in others Toledo plays the cold, detached realist puncturing Katz’s delusional dreams of fame and success. It’s the id/ego dynamic of classic Sleater-Kinney blasted out to an extreme, and it comes out feeling like two guys suffering different forms of poisoning from the same source.

Buy it from Bandcamp.