Indie-rock outfit, Car Seat Headrest brought their sonic talents to the 9:30 Club in DC last week to revisit a moment from their past with a newer and more ambitious interpretation. What emerged was music that is impossible to walk away from.
In 2011, Car Seat Headrest’s frontman Will Toledo—a DC area local from Leesburg, VA who is now relocated to Seattle, WA—released one of his most admired albums to date, Twin Fantasy, later re-titled Twin Fantasy (Mirror to Mirror). The original album marked Toledo’s sixth solo album and was recorded in the classic low-fi, DIY fashion that Toledo has become known for.
The album was made when he attended school at Virginia’s College of William and Mary and is said to be the first album he viewed as a true full length effort. Twin Fantasy is a genius collection of songs—lyrically it immortalizes a relationship that Toledo was in at the time and touches on issues like depression, love, and homosexuality.
Toledo had released nearly a dozen albums on his own to Bandcamp before signing to Matador Records in 2015. In 2016 he began working to revamp, re-record, and re-release his Twin Fantasy album under its new name, Twin Fantasy (Face to Face), for its 2018 release. The new recording is one the most ambitious projects Toledo has undertaken and was positively received by music critics across the board.
In a live setting the album sounds bigger and fuller than ever. Toledo’s band, Ethan Ives, Andrew Katz, and Seth Dalby were complemented by three additional touring members and their hooks and big chorus’ sounded impeccable. We were at the club for night one of his two night stay in DC, and judging by the audience’s (and Toledo’s) dance moves, Car Seat Headrest is welcome in the nation’s capitol anytime.
Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) in available on 12″ black vinyl.
NAKED GIANTS
