Car Seat Headrest Announces New Album & U.S. Tour Dates 

Car Seat Headrest has announced a string of U.S. headline dates that include shows at Los Angeles’ The Greek, Denver’s Mission Ballroom and Boston’s MGM Music Hall, along with details about its first studio album in five years.

The Scholars is due out May 2nd on Matador Records. An announcement from the label calls the LP a bold new rock opera and spiritual rebirth for the rockers. The album is set at the fictional college campus Parnassus University, with songs “populated with students and staff whose travails illuminate a loose narrative of life, death, and rebirth.” In addition to new about the tour and album, the band has released the music video for the 11-minute track “Gethsemane,” directed by Andrew Wonder (posted below).

Today’s announcement notes that while Car Seat Headrest started as frontman Will Toledo solo project, it is now fully a band.

“What we’ve been doing more of in recent years is just taking the pulses of each other. We’ve really been leaning into that sort of cocoon that started off with the pandemic years and just turned into this special space that we were creating all on our own,” Toledo said in a statement. “I was coming out of it as a solo project and it always just felt like it was in pieces. There’s the album we’re working on, and then there’s a live show that we’re doing, and then there’s everything in between. And it didn’t really feel to me like things got in sync in an inner feeling way until this record, with that internal communal energy. And it’s become that band feeling for me in a much more realized way. That’s been a big journey.”

The confirmed tour dates include appearances at Salt Lake City’s Kilby Block Party on May 16 and New York’s Governors Ball on June 7. The headline dates start July 12 at Denver’s Mission Ballroom. Check out the routing below.

An artist presale starts today (Wednesday, March 5) at 10 a.m. local time, followed by the public onsale on Friday, March 7 at 10 a.m. local time.

May 16 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party

June 7 – New York, NY – Governors Ball

June 28 – Washington, DC – The Anthem

July 12 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom

July 26 – Chicago, IL – Salt Shed (Fairgrounds)

August 8 – Los Angeles, CA – The Greek

September 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Highmark Skyline at the Mann Center

September 27 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall

November 1 – Oakland, CA – The Fox