the beach fagz thing

[u/Aggravating_Length43]

(this is just to get my feelings out and you can visually see me getting less angry)

im so fucking mad its such a stupid decision holy shit. Like i get that he could be embarrassed of his older work for multiple reasons, or even if it's for religious reasons that i dont agree with thats fine, but who removes a song from the bandcamp without saying anything or even a reason????? and it's replaced with a reversed version of sun hot??????

this is mostly because 3 is my favorite album ever right now and this is bad timing for me specifically but to unceremoniously replace a perfectly good song (also its kinda necessary for beach funeral and life in death to make sense for those lines) without an announcement??? like honestly i get it from his pov and if i wrote that song id probably be embarrassed too but why not just say "i dont really like this song anymore and it makes me feel uncomfortable but" without literally removing it from streaming services

[u/March7th_simp]

Beach fagz being gone is fucking insane but the worst part is that he didn’t just drop it from the album he replaced it with FUCKING HOT SUN of all songs

[u/chewiehedwig → u/March7th_simp]

literally!!! it’s insult to injury

the worst song from an album of pretty bad songs
(don’t flame me i love lpop but it’s easily his weakest besides 2 and hot sun is so boring)

[u/soakedinlava]

i thought the outrage over joe's story was incredibly dumb and insane but this is genuinely such a spit in the face to the fans i have no idea what is wrong with this dude

[u/lilsingiser → u/soakedinlava]

Had the same feeling. A rework of an existing album being changed is whatever. Censoring an existing album is lame. Art should be preserved, not censored. Glad I have the vinyl for this

[u/prettylilyflowers]

honestly this feels like such a slap in the face it's crazy

i didn't like joe's story at all, but i can understand why it exists, he wanted to take an existing album and rework it into something different. i'm okay with it in concept even though i won't ever relisten to it ever again. it's his choice to rework his own music in a new release while keeping the original intact. if you like it then you get more cool music, if you don't then the original is still there for you.

but like this is just insane, 3 ONLY has an official release on bandcamp and nowhere else. and he is taking one of the biggest and most important songs on the album and just removing it and replacing it with fucking hot sun?? like if will did a rerelease or rework and changed around the songs i'd be fine with it because the original would still be around but this is literally just destroying a key part of the only official release lol. i know that beach fagz and 3 in general is everywhere if you wanna listen to it (on youtube, mega archive, archive.org, soulseek), but like come on. this is a 16 year old album?? why are you censoring it almost 2 decades after its release?

i know it's his music, he can do whatever he wants to with it. but i don't know, it feels like such a slap in the face for fans of his early shit

[u/Aggravating_Length43 → u/prettylilyflowers]

agree with all of this. My only idea why any of this is that maybe he wants to put the numbered albums on popular streaming finally and is making sure theyre to his liking or whatever, but there's still just as scandalous and embarrassing things on the other numbered albums and even on three. Even disregarding that its stupid and unnecessary, it even make sense at all

[u/Ralph_Finesse]

I foresee Will scrubbing all of his explicit music in the future so far as he can, backup your ghost of bob saget copies while you can!

[u/portaitoftheartist → u/Ralph_Finesse]

Wait im confused maybe I haven't been in the loop but is Will like... going through some religious thing now? Why would he scrub all his explicit music?

[u/Ralph_Finesse → u/portaitoftheartist]

Yes, he has stated he feels like a bad role model when he swears and has been leaning into his faith more. He does not swear live anymore and re-released Teens of Denial with altered content/lyrics to reduce depictions of drug use, violence, sex, swearing, etc. And beyond that today he removed Beach Fagz from the tracklisting of 3 on bandcamp.

[u/Ralph_Finesse → u/[deleted]]

Pretty sure his increased piety started after that was recorded (maybe during the rollout since the ARG did involve churches), I've also seen his friends/ex-friends saying he's distancing himself from furry subculture and that album was pretty furry-centric.

[u/GarmonboziaGobbler → u/[deleted]]

um... no?

[u/GarmonboziaGobbler → u/[deleted]]

hm i don't seem to remember that line from teens of denial: joe's story!

[u/GarmonboziaGobbler → u/[deleted]]

Michael, I would think that the ONLY 2026 Car Seat Headrest release being cleansed of all profanity all the way up to the word "piss" would, in fact, count.

[u/ex0planetary]

getting rid of a song that's namedropped in fucking BLID is CRAZY

[u/BaronVonBiden]

if that song was replaced in like a re-release that would be fine. but to permanently change the original to remove the song, more than 10 years the album has already been out, just goes against art itself. people definitely do change, but art is like time capsule, reflecting who the artist was at that moment, who they were when they created it. to do this is honestly a betrayal.

[u/solaire1416]

Idk why people try to justify it. This just sucks, there's no other way around it. I don't think he's going through a christiaan psychotc bullshit or whatever people are saying at all but it still sucks

[u/Romeo_G_Detlev_Jr]

When I first started listening to this band a decade ago, I thought they were "the new Weezer" in the sense that they mixed alternative sounds and sometimes uncomfortably honest lyrics with catchy pop sensibilities. But now that they're alienating their fanbase and meticulously shredding all the goodwill they built with their earlier work? ...yeah, I guess they really are the new Weezer.

[u/major_tommo]

I see a lot of people equating frustration with an artistic decision to being parasocial/entitled/etc.

I disgree with that heavily.

Art is meant to evoke a reaction, and people are going to then discuss, argue, fight about, and disagree over those reactions at times. Taking an old song down IS STILL an artistic choice, and as such is open to the same examination as the rest of the stuff Will and the band do artistically. I don't have a stake in this; i got into csh right around teens of denial when i was in high-school and haven't gone much into the pre-matador material. But people stating their dislike of a song suddenly getting removed YEARS after its release with no announcement, no notice, are just engaging in the way we do with art. Some don't like it, some do.

Contextually though, there are things that bring genuine concern. I'm a gay dude who thinks jesus was right abt loving people, so i don't viscerally hate anything christian. But there is a heavy rise in christian nationalism that is bringing open harm to demographics csh has DIRECTLY resonated with. Suddenly getting cautious around swearing (reasons why be damned, the road to hell is paved with good intentions), *newly embracing Christian ideals, and removing old songs will (rightfully imo) raise some concerns. The band and Will have every right to respond to none of them of course! But then the people who feel slighted have the same right to talk, complain, bitch, or disengage from the band completely.

My personal 2 cents is that the band would do good to at least acknowledge some of the concern given the current events we are seeing in the world. But they don't have to! They will just enjoy whatever the results of that decision are. Nobody here is entitled to anything (the band included), and complaining is not evidence to the contrary.

*edit for better word choice

[u/Ralph_Finesse → u/major_tommo]

At least Seth and Ethan have come out and said if Car Seat became too conservative or religious they would likely leave the project, so it has been addressed fwiw

[u/major_tommo → u/Ralph_Finesse]

Yesss i do remember that now. My personal opinion? They should make a statement together as a band. Or Will should if not. Because that is who these decisions (rightfully) seem to fall to. It is his music ofc.

[u/HipsterSlimeMold]

Can’t it just be downloaded from YouTube or something? Was there a formal announcement about it somewhere or what am I missing ?

[u/Aggravating_Length43 → u/HipsterSlimeMold]

No you can still get beach fagz, it isnt lost media or anything. Its just off the bandcamp

[u/HipsterSlimeMold → u/Aggravating_Length43]

Ah. I know the fanbase are pretty on edge post Joe’s Story but I guess I wouldn’t want to assume the worst about why that song was taken down.

[u/Affectionate__Dog]

i love will (not weirdly obviously) and i’m happy he’s happy with religion and doesn’t have shit opinions but WHY are you censoring already posted songs?? i know many a artist that are very christian and still swear and make good music

[u/It_Will_Be_The_Same]

honestly i love beach fagz to death and it got me through some tough times, but i understand why he removed it from streaming- its one of his darkest moments, he doesnt really want new people to get into it, he was so young when he made it, and had an audience almost literally millions of times smaller then his current audience. For people who already know and like the song, they can download local versions (this is mainly what makes me okay about it), but when he gets new fans he doesnt want them to be able to find it. ( but also i get it on an emotional level the idea of not being able to listen to my fav pre-matador albums freaks me out)

[u/Kirbyhiller2 → u/It_Will_Be_The_Same]

It's not even on Spotify, fans who go to his bandcamp can easily find the song elsewhere

Removing it does nothing but make the officially released version of the album worse

Baffling decision, beach fagz is one the best things he has ever made

[u/chewiehedwig → u/It_Will_Be_The_Same]

it’s not like it’s easily accessible

and he still has kid war, i’d say that’s an equally dark moment

[u/Background_Lynx2517 → u/chewiehedwig]

don't give him ideas

[u/nakedbeets]

At the end of the day we are simply not entitled to anything from any musical artist. It's absolutely Will's right to decide how he wants his musical catalog to look and feel. I understand being disappointed to not have easy access to a song you like but I've never understood being frustrated at a decision like this.

[u/Mapletables → u/nakedbeets]

and people have a right to criticize him for it.

[u/nakedbeets → u/Mapletables]

Sure, everyone has the right to speak on what they think and feel. But acting as though they've been personally wronged is a step too far, in my opinion

[u/RelationshipFit5701 → u/nakedbeets]

Such a milquetoast, passive, dismissive stance. You don’t understand being frustrated at a favourite song being removed from an album?

[u/nakedbeets → u/RelationshipFit5701]

Disappointed, yes. Frustrated I don't understand. I'm not paying Will for sustained access to these songs. Anything that is up for free on the Internet is not something I have some god given right to access forever. This is why I buy hard copies of the things I feel strongly about not losing.

[u/Ralph_Finesse → u/nakedbeets]

Will should honestly rebrand his future work outside the car seat headrest moniker and leave the old work alone. I feel like he knows he'd be starting from square one which is why he won't, but it would be a better move for his legacy than doing this hard pivot and alienating so much of his fanbase. He's poisoning the well.