Car Seat Headrest has announced The Scholars, their first studio album in five years, which will be out May 2 via Matador. It’s an ambitious double-LP rock opera (is there any other kind?): “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,” is the album’s official log line.
The band have shared “Gethsemane” from it, an 11-minute song suite. The band say: “Rosa studies at the medical school of Parnassus University. After an experience bringing a medically deceased patient back to life, she begins to regain powers suppressed since childhood, of healing others by absorbing their pain. Each night, instead of dreams, she encounters the raw pain and stories of the souls she touches throughout the day. Reality blurs, and she finds herself taken deep into secret facilities buried beneath the medical school, where ancient beings that covertly reign over the college bring forth their dark plans.”
You can absorb all that via the song’s equally epic music video, which was directed by Andrew Wonder and you can check out below.
Car Seat Headrest’s 2025 schedule includes headline dates and festival appearances, including NYC’s Governors Ball and Salt Lake City’s Kilby Block Party. All dates are listed below.
The Scholars
1. CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)
2. Devereaux
3. Lady Gay Approximately
4. The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man)
5. Equals
6. Gethsemane
7. Reality
8. Planet Desperation
9. True/False Lover
CAR SEAT HEADREST – 2025 TOUR DATES
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