Car Seat Headrest announce The Scholars, a bold new rock opera that isn’t just a new chapter for the premiere standard bearers of young internet rockers but also a spiritual rebirth, and the band’s first studio album in five years. 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. The band's rebirth did not come easily. In May of 2020, Car Seat Headrest (frontman Will Toledo, lead guitarist Ethan Ives, drummer Andrew Katz, and bassist Seth Dalby) released their experimental, beat-heavy album Making a Door Less Open, right as the world shut down. This led to a long period of enforced inactivity. When they were finally able to tour in 2022 they were delighted, if surprised, that their audience was now younger than ever, thanks to the surprise viral success of their songs ‘It’s Only Sex’ and ‘Sober to Death’ and a new generation discovering their coming-of-age classics Teens of Denial and Twin Fantasy. The production-heavy Masquerade tour brought forth no shortage of challenges, as the band pushed the limits of their abilities. “It felt like a very technically challenging set because we had spent so many years doing this loud, fast, dirty rock music,” says Katz. “And now we're doing this more precise, large production type of set. Eventually, it came together, and then we all got sick.” Both Katz and Toledo came down with COVID-19, an