Car Seat Headrest Reimagines ‘Teens of Denial’ as ‘Teen of Denial: Joe’s Story’

Car Seat Headrest ‘s Teens of Denial was released 10 years ago today, and to celebrate main man Will Toledo has made a “reimagined” version of the album with new songs, updated arrangements and alternate lyrics. Teen of Denial: Joe’s Story out now digitally and will be available on vinyl and CD on October 16 via Matador.

Will explains:

> Sometime last year, it was suggested to me that we do something for the ten-year anniversary of ‘Teens of Denial,’ so I started looking back on the album to see what we might do. In spite of some of its songs being a regular part of my life for the past decade, it wasn’t a record I’d thought much about as a whole since it came out. Most of the songs I’d come up with over a two-year period at the end of my college days, when I was struggling a lot with cynicism and misplaced aggression. But by the time the songs were done, I was living in Washington, Car Seat Headrest was a full band with a record label, and in spite of the turmoil of the writing process, the final album was pretty enjoyable for everyone to work on. This time, looking back at the songs, I started to feel like there was a story being told through the album, though I’d never imagined it as being a narrative work. On ‘Hi, How Are You?’ Daniel Johnston had used the name “Joe” in the titles of a few tracks –“No More Pushing Joe Around,” “Keep Punching Joe” – as a sort of joke, a stand-in for himself. I borrowed the idea, and the name, for titling songs on ‘Denial.’ This time, I started thinking – who is Joe? And how do the songs, in the way they’re sequenced on the album, reflect what he’s going through? As I started asking this question, a story emerged with startling wholeness and clarity, like finding the foundations of an ancient city while digging in my backyard. As I kept digging, certain songs from the original album fell by the wayside, as they seemed misplaced in this new context; others asked for new lyrics, to fully give birth to the story contained in the music. The resulting work feels more like the album ‘Teens of Denial’ was meant to be. When you’re writing from a dark space, it’s hard to have perspective on where you’re at. This time, I could pull from memories of that darkness, and use the distance and additional perspective of ten years of life to shed a fuller light on the experience. Joe is a character going through some of what I experienced, and some of his own problems. Telling his story, and not just my own impressions of life at the end of the teen years, brought a new level of compassion and wholeness to the album. It gave us the opportunity to write new material in “Denial style”, embracing a snappy and simple(ish) rock aesthetic, and in an additional blessing, we were able to team up once with Steve Fisk, a joy and inspiration to get back into the studio with after ten years. We mixed the material at his house in Tacoma, and were constantly amazed at the lack of divide between past and present, as we’d punch in vocal overdubs ten years later into the same gear, hearing my voice now running alongside a 2015 Will. For someone coming across this album or this band for the first time, this is how they’d hear the record, not as a relic of the past but as a new piece. It was immensely rewarding to experience that on our side. For anyone familiar with ‘Teens,’ comparisons with the original will be inevitable, but I do hope that as much as possible, people can come to this album on its own terms, approaching it as a teen, hearing the music and story for the first time. I believe music is an ongoing story, and albums don’t always do justice to its dynamic, ongoing nature. What gives it life is the new ears that hear it, and the new hearts that engage with it. I’m so grateful that this is a work that people have kept coming to, and I hope that this presentation does them honor with a fresh offering to the conversation. We’ve known that “it doesn’t have to be like this”; now we can wonder – “what it if were like this?”

Listen to Teen of Denial: Joe’s Story below.

Unsurprisingly, all the changes — including the removal of all profanity from the lyrics — has angered some fans, who have been posting about it on the CSH fan subreddit and Discord. As Stereogum notes , a representative for Toledo shared a brief note from him on Discord that was reposted, saying, “when I was making this my only concern was making something for people who had never encountered the album and were hearing it for the first time, I didn’t make it for anyone who already knows the album.”

Teen of Denial: Joe’s Story 1. Fill In The Blank 04:10 2. Vincent 07:44 3. Destroyed By Hippie Powers 05:04 4. (Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs With Friends (But Says This Isn’t a Problem) 05:36 5. Optimistic Son 03:39 6. Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales 06:10 7. 1937 State Park 04:02 8. Joe Drives Again 04:06 9. Cosmic Hero 08:29 10. The Ravenous House 11:31 11. Connect the Dots (Song of Secretariat) 06:01 12. Joe Goes to School 01:19

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/car-seat-headrest-reimagines-teens-of-denial-for-new-10th-anniversary-edition-teen-of-denial-joes-story-listen/)._