New Lucy Dacus, Car Seat Headrest On Tap

The artists behind two of 2016’s best albums – both of whom cut their teeth in Richmond, Virginia and are now aligned with Matador Records – are poised to get 2018 off to an indie-tastic start.

First up is Car Seat Headrest, whose magnum opus (so far) Teens of Denial was 2016’s finest hour and ten minutes. Will Toledo and crew will unleash the similarly epic Twin Fantasy on February 16th. Like Car Seat’s 2015 Matador debut Teens of Style, it’s a revisiting of Toledo’s extensive teenage Bandcamp material – this time a full-band reworking of 2011’s Twin Fantasy.

Toledo reportedly made its release a condition of his Matador signing, and views it as a full-fledged new album rather than a catalog stopgap. Based on the 13-minute advance track “Beach Life-in-Death” the band is as ambitious and rocking as ever, and the Ray Davies comparisons remain well earned.

Toledo has since decamped for Seattle, but Lucy Dacus remains Richmond-based. A scant two weeks later, her sophomore album Historian arrives on March 2nd. Dacus’s 2016 debut, No Burden, began life on local Richmond label EggHunt, and soared despite its limited studio budget. Historian ups the ante markedly – even subtly working in a few horns – without sacrificing its predecessor’s warmth. Preview track “Night Shift” is a slow-burn stunner with the keeper line, “In five years I hope the songs feel like covers/ Dedicated to new lovers.”

Mark your calendars for March 9th, when Dacus and her band will play the EARL on the early end of her tour.