Cat Seat Headrest

Set at the fictional college campus Parnassus University, the songs on The Scholars are populated with students and staff whose travails illuminate a loose narrative of life, death, and rebirth. Inspired by an apocryphal poem by "Archbishop Guillermo Guadalupe del Toledo," and featuring character designs from Toledo’s friend, the cartoonist Cate Wurtz, the first half of the album focuses on the deep yearning and spiritual crisis of the titular Scholars. They range from the tortured and doubt-filled young playwright Beolco to Devereaux, a person born to religious conservatives who finds themselves desperate for higher guidance. The second part features a series of epics detailing the clash between the defenders of the classic texts “and the young person who doesn't care about the canon, who is going to tear all of that up, basically,” Toledo says.

Making A Door Less Open, the new album from Car Seat Headrest and the first set of brand-new songs since 2016’s Teens Of Denial, is set for release on May 1.