All-American Rejects Title New LP "When the World Comes Down"

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"If the world ended, I'd want to be listening to our record," says a confident Tyson Ritter, the All-American Rejects frontman on the band's follow-up to 2005's double-platinum Move Along. AAR spoke exclusively to Rock Daily about their new record (entitled When the World Comes Down after its first single), Barack Obama, and the wackiest gig they've ever played from backstage at Nike's Human Race on Sunday, where the band headlined a concert on New York's Randall's Island.

"You guys have the nicest asses ever," Ritter yelled to the crowd before diving into a power-packed set that included "Swing, Swing," an acoustic "It Ends Tonight" and a track off the new record called "Mona Lisa." Afterward, swigging a beer on the band's tour bus, Ritter said, "We just played the world's biggest [one-day] race — that's something I can use to pick up chicks!" After playing to a sea of athletes, the boys began to recount another wacky show they recently played: a million-dollar budgeted bar mitzvah, complete with Yankees players and a Cold Stone creamery. "The kid had a AAR cover band that opened for us. It was nuts!" guitarist Nick Wheeler says.

Reiterating what the band told Rock Daily in July, they said the new record has taken over three years to produce because "We don't like to shit out a record," Ritter said. "We craft our songs, not rush them." Guitarist Mike Kennerty adds that AAR is cooking up a Website revamp to get fans amped for the release. "It'll just say, 'The World Comes Down 11/18.' Our own viral thing."

Ritter, who's been extremely vocal about his Obama endorsement, didn't hesitate to talk about the nominee — even showing pictures he snapped on his iPhone of a car that sported "Choose Life" and anti-Obama bumper stickers in his Destin, Florida hometown. "It's so hate-filled," Ritter said of the stickers. "In reality, Obama is making us stoked about the upcoming election."

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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