Here’s a dirty little secret that’s apparently not so secret anymore: Legacy bands usually have a hard time getting anyone beyond their biggest fans to care about their new music. The All-American Rejects, Oklahoma-bred pop-punk hitmakers of the ’00s, know this better than most. AAR had a run in the spotlight that lasted about five years, yielding big hits like “Move Along” and “Gives You Hell.” There hasn’t been a new All-American Rejects album since 2012’s Kids In The Street, though they did drop a 2019 EP and a one-off 2020 single.

Last year, the All-American Rejects went out on their first headlining tour in a decade, bringing along MySpace-era veterans New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, the Starting Line, and the Get Up Kids. Now, frontman Tyson Ritter says that fans don’t really want new music from bands like his. A few days ago, AAR were guests on the Zach Sang Show podcast. One of Ritter’s bandmates astutely pointed out that a piece of that interview would make “a great fuckin’ TikTok,” and the podcast did indeed mine that part for content. It’s the bit where Ritter talks about the challenge of writing music about new things when plenty of fans regard them as relics of their collective youth:

I’m 40 years old, man? Do you think I’m gonna write music about fuckin’ heartbreak in high school again?… There’s a world that’s opened up, for me at least, having a lived experience that wasn’t just this fuckin’ band on the road. That feels like there could be something there, which to me is exciting and frightening. And also, half the people that love this band don’t fucking care to hear new music. All these things are real, right?…

Think about your favorite band that’s long-gone or that’s still around and you can still see them. But can you name their newest song? Probably nine times out of ten, you can’t. But the exciting challenge, I think, that we’ll do the service for your younger selves, is what if maybe we can find another one? What if maybe there’s something else to say? That’s such an exciting and fucking frightening thing that we’ve never got to approach before. I think a lot of other people don’t see it like that. They’re like, “Content! Music’s just fuckin’ content! Just get it out! What’s your narrative? What’s your story? Did you have a personal crisis that we can talk about, that we can capitalize on?”

@zachsangshow Do @All-American Rejects fans want new music? #aar #reject #theallamericanrejects #tysonritter #zachsangshow #zachsang #fyp #foryou @Amazon Music ♬ original sound – Zach Sang Show

Maybe the All-American Rejects really will find something else to say. In the meantime, though, they’re restating somebody else’s old thing, which is probably smart strategy. After teasing a possible new release, the All-American Rejects have dropped a brand-new cover of Harvey Danger’s 1997 power-pop banger “Flagpole Sitta,” a deeply clever version of the same kind of fired-up singalong that made AAR famous.

Harvey Danger, who broke up in 2009, infamously did not like playing “Flagpole Sitta” live, even though it’s the only hit they ever made. The All-American Rejects have played their “Flagpole Sitta” cover at a couple of shows this year. Now, they’ve got a studio version with its own video. Does the world want to hear 40-year-old Tyson Ritter — he looks great, by the way — singing about publishing zines and raging against machines? I guess we’ll find out! Watch the All-American Rejects’ “Flagpole Sitta” video and the OG Harvey Danger one below.