Car Seat Headrest Trivia Quiz

Answer: Leesburg, Virginia

The band originally started in 2010 as a solo project of the lead singer Will Toledo after he left high school. He was joined by three other musicians: Ethan Ives (guitar, bass, backing vocals), Seth Dalby (bass), and Andrew Katz (drums, percussion) and the band moved to Seattle, Washington.

Answer: Will Toledo

Will Toledo is the brainchild of Car Seat Headrest. He started recording shortly after high school, at first under the name "Nervous Young Men" and then switching to the name Car Seat Headrest. He is a multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, solely responsible for several of Car Seat Headrest's albums. His songs are moody, experimental, unconventional and ambitious.

Answer: Privately recording vocals in the back of a car

Will Toledo has stated that the inspiration for the name of the band came from recording vocals in the back of a car for privacy! The first four albums by Car Seat Headrest were titled "1", "2", "3", and "4". Rather bland titles considering how imaginative and creative the songs are.

Influences of the band include Radiohead, Neutral Milk Hotel, Leonard Cohen, Queen, Pink Floyd and Daniel Johnston.

Answer: Matador Records

In October 2015, Will Toledo, now alongside bassist Jacob Bloom and drummer Andrew Katz, recorded an album called "Teens of Style" and released it on the record label Matador Records. This was the first album that was not self-released through online music company Bandcamp. Bloom left the group after the release of the album to go to medical school and was replaced by bassist Ethan Ives.

Answer: "Just What I Needed" - The Cars

Originally there was a track on the album called "Just What I Needed/Not Just What I Needed" for which the band thought they had received permission to use lyrics from The Cars song; however they had not received permission to take the lyrics and slightly change them, which is what they'd done.

The albums and CDs had all been printed so they were recalled and Matador Records destroyed them all. The track was then re-recorded and called "Not What I Needed". The album received a lot of praise from critics and a score of 86 out of 100 on the online review site Metacritic, gaining the band a lot of new followers.

Answer: Beach Life‐in‐Death

The song "Beach Life-In Death" is a fantastic song that changes style throughout. It is divided into three parts and was inspired by Pink Floyd, They Might Be Giants, Of Montreal, Destroyer and romantic poets that Will Toledo was reading at the time of writing this song. Amazingly, this complex and creative song was recorded and produced entirely by Toledo, along with the rest of the songs on the album.

Answer: Twelve

Will Toledo, using the name Car Seat Headrest, released twelve albums using Bandcamp between 2010 and 2015. It wasn't until 2015 that other members joined the band. Between 2015 and 2020 the band has released four studio albums and a live album called "Commit Yourself Completely" which includes songs from tours across the US, the UK and France and features mostly songs from the albums "Twin Fantasy" and "Teens of Denial."

Answer: Michael Stipe

Many Car Seat Headrest songs have references to other musicians. Other examples include references to Wolf Parade, Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen. Dan Bejar (singer from the Canadian band Destroyer) and John Entwistle (bassist with The Who) are both mentioned in the song "Cute Thing".

In live performances, Car Seat Headrest cover other musicians songs including Leonard Cohen, The Smiths and Smashing Pumpkins.

Answer: Smash Mouth

How did a relatively unknown indie band and a band most well known for their song on the "Shrek" soundtrack come to do covers of each other's songs? Apparently Smash Mouth tweeted a compliment about the Car Seat Headrest song "Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales", Car Seat Headrest appreciated the love, a fan suggested they do covers, and both bands were into it. So....Car Seat Headrest covered "Fallen Horses" from the Smash Mouth album "Astro Lounge" and Smash Mouth covered "Something Soon" from the Car Seat Headrest album "My Back is Killing Me Baby."

Answer: Making a Door Less Open

This album marked a bit of a departure from the indie rock, lo-fi sound the band had in previous albums as it is much more electronically inspired. All songs except one were written by frontman Will Toledo and the album was teased through a series of messages on Twitter and Instagram starting at the beginning of February featuring mysterious artwork and cryptic captions.

This culminated in the release of the album on February 26, 2020 when the album was announced and the first single "Can't Cool Me Down" was released.