The All-American Rejects believe that if an idea survives a hangover, it’s probably a good idea. After fooling around with Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta” after a few drinks on the bus, the band found that not only was it a good enough idea to immortalize, but it might just serve as more than just a silly idea.
Nostalgia is one of, if not the strongest currency on the pop culture market.
When we think of the movies of the ‘90s, a lot of us imagine Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta.” If it wasn’t actually on the movie soundtrack in question, it spiritually feels like it belongs, doesn’t it?
If you want to call Harvey Danger a one-hit wonder, you can. Plenty of people would point to other songs of theirs as overlooked bangers that didn’t get their due like “Flagpole Sitta” did. It’s just that “Flagpole Sitta” was everywhere. It was on the radio. It was in TV shows. It was in movies. It was on at parties. In cars. In malls. It permeated every touchstone of late ‘90s and early ‘00s pop culture.
As the first major launch on SPIN Records, the new partnership with Virgin Records and Greater Than Distribution, which kicked off with a party at SXSW this year, SPIN Records is putting out The All-American Rejects’ cover of “Flagpole Sitta.”
“Flagpole Sitta” served as the vehicle for the All-American Rejects, a band no stranger to nostalgic endeavors as part of the When We Were Young festival stable—to get back in the groove of things together. They had taken some time off of touring in recent years, but after goofing around with the idea of covering and recording “Flagpole Sitta,” the band realized it could be a way to shake things off, record together again without all of the pressures of being a multi-hyphenate pop rock darling decades into a career, or without the contention that can come with the creative collaborative process. The song was already there. It was already a hit. It was already in the collective conscience. So the band ran through it and committed it to tape. It not only survived the hangover, it’s permanent.
SPIN caught up with AAR’s Tyson Ritter and Nick Wheeler via Zoom to talk about the choice to record “Flagpole Sitta,” nostalgia, one-hit wonders, and more.
SPIN: I read your story behind the scenes of this cover, how it survived the hangover. Tell me about how the idea struck you, and how the idea survived to immortalize it beyond the tour bus that one night.
Nick Wheeler: Well, we started touring again last summer for the first time in several years, and since then, we’ve just really enjoyed being around each other and hanging out. And one night on the bus, we were having one of our nostalgic playlist listening parties and this song came up. Andmaybe even as a joke at first, Tyson was like, ‘We should cover this, because we never we never cover songs.’ We’ve never been a band to cover a song,not since we were basically a bar band in our hometown in the late 1900s when we had to play cover songs to get gigs. We were all kind of like, “Oh, yeah, sure.” And then, “No, we should cover it. And we should record it. That’s hilarious.”
The next day, we were actually all kind of stoked on the idea. And we actually followed through, and we did it, and everybody came to my studio in Nashville, and we produced it ourselves. And it was a fucking blast just to all get in a room together recording live. It’s something we haven’t gotten to do in a very long time and it wasn’t only a great experience, but just a fun excuse to get in the studio and kind of see how that felt.
There’s obviously a market for nostalgia right now with, you know, the When We Were Young festival marketing heavily on that.
NW: We took it back an extra decade with this.
Was a ‘90s choice?
NW: I saw a meme the other day that was like, “I’m offended that the 2000s is now far back enough that it’s an acceptable party theme.” I haven’t accepted that yet. But yeah, we’re still nostalgic for the ‘90s. I mean, shit, I was nostalgic for the ‘80s until about five years ago. Honestly, the nostalgia of the 2000s is kind of what got this thing on the tracks again, because we did the first When We Were Young in 2022, and after coming off several years of just, you know, kind of playing weekend stuff, playing some corporate gigs and some fairs and festivals and stuff. But When We Were Young was like, “Oh shit,” actually having an opportunity to play like a legit, high-profile festival and seeing people enjoy our music, seeing ourselves enjoy our music, it just felt important and it felt exciting and inspiring.
Tyson Ritter: I think there was sincerity in the songs that kind of shaped our childhood in a way that, coming from Oklahoma, the only escape we had was music and a car. And I remember when “Flagpole Sitta” came out, I remember it is kind of one of those songs that stopped you. There are those songs throughout music that are jarring and timeless. And I think lyrically, so rich, even in today’s climate.. The song was simple to walk into because: A) It was a huge part of just sort of our growing up and, B) You know, a song that still resonates today. So we were really excited.
NW: Yeah, and on the car comment, I remember I would have burned CD’s of just like, you know, I guess CD mix tapes. And this was definitely on a lot of them. And I think we can all vividly still see the movie trailer that this song was a part of.
So many movie trailers, too. It was in every movie and every TV show. It was one of those songs that was just absolutely everywhere, or at least felt like it was.
TR: And we couldn’t believe that nobody had covered it. It was just really surprising.
What do you think makes a good cover?
TR: I think flipping it totally and owning it in a completely different way is kind of refreshing when you actually achieve it. I think it can be really beautiful and unique. I think, what was it, Nada Surf did the Pixies’ “Where is my Mind?” That was a really lovely version of it, and I think they kind of really flipped it. Or there’s paying homage and not bastardizing it. You know, we could have made it a half-time piano ballad. But I think that really wasn’t what the song wanted.
NW: The somber movie trailer version.
TR: Yeah, we’ll leave that to Lana Del Rey.
NW: Yeah. And honestly my most vivid memory of covers that I enjoyed was the Kiss cover album that came out in the ‘90s, I think it was called “Kiss My Ass.” It had really awesome covers. Garth Brooks did “Hard Luck Woman.” Every single one was the perfect homage to the original because it didn’t stray too far. But also like had the vibe of each individual artist that was covering it, which I think is what we set out to do, like Tyson said, not bastardize it and make it something completely different. But, you know, the All-American Rejects set up in a room and played this song. And I think we just injected our instincts into the original.
What are some of those instincts? What are some of the things you think made its way into this version?
TR: The song is so adrenalized that I think we just wanted to embellish that a bit and also not turn it into just some sort of like hardcore cover of it. Vocally, I just really kind of swung for the fences on it and tried to bring in some of the things that I love about what I love to do vocally, which is just sort of play around with what isn’t there. There’s not really a lot of background, that sort of wildness in the song, but it feels like it’s there. And so yeah, we just, we just kind of brought it into a bit of a different focus, but within the same scope I guess. Honestly, I think it was just about putting it on the floor and making it feel real and alive and not like a 2024 direct signal, no atmosphere kind of cover. We wanted to make sure that the live room was in there. I think we achieved that.
Do you consider Harvey Danger a one hit wonder?
TR: They have one hit and everybody wonders what happened to them. That’s probably definitive and I mean that with all due respect, because I know [vocalist Sean Nelson] is amazing. And honestly, I went down a little bit of a listening spree because NPR did a retrospective on Harvey Danger and the singer. It was really interesting to see. The guy is just a beautiful lyricist and melody maker. And he never tried to chase that. And I respect that band a lot for it. To brandish somebody with “one hit wonder” can feel like it’s like a slap in the face. But I don’t think that that was their intention to go do fucking Flagpole Sitta 15 times. .
Have you heard anyone in the band after doing this cover or have you reached out?
NW: I think we tried to find [Nelson.] He lives in Nashville from what I hear. I have some mutual friends, but nobody knows how to get a hold of them.
TR: Yeah, we tried to find him cause I really wanted to send him the song before we put it out. As of now, no. We have not been able to find him. I believe he lives a bit of a hermitage existence.
Maybe this will stir him out of it.
TR: Yeah, I’m sure it’ll piss him off.
What do you kind of hope for for everyone who hears this, whether they remember the song from when it was out in the first place or even kids now who have only heard it when their parents show them movies or old CD’s?
NW: I mean, shit, honestly, I think some of our fans have come from the most interesting places, whether they heard our song in a video game or, you know, they heard our acoustic version of a “Nightmare Before Christmas”song on some soundtrack. I think it’ll be interesting to see how and who receives this song. Because I meet young people who find our band just on playlists on Spotify that have no idea that the songs are 20 years old. It’s like those kids that are watching Friends now and think it’s a new show based in the ‘90s. I don’t know. It’ll be really interesting. I think our fans will dig it, but I’m more interested in just seeing who might find our band because of this song. Because it’s familiar and maybe they won’t know exactly where they heard it, but…
TR: Yeah, we’re out to gentrify the song. I don’t know. We’ve never done it before
Do you think you’ll do it again after this?
TR: No.
Why is that?
TR: This was a beta test to see if we could all really get along in the studio again. There were no stakes. “Oh, is it my song, is it your song or what? We need to write this song and we need to finish it. Is it good enough?” All that shit. Well, it was already done. So for us it was just walking in the studio, catching a vibe, finding a wave to kind of flow on, and did it feel comfortable for us after all these years to be in a space without a coach? Everything we’ve done has been through a major label system fostered with five other distilled opinions about who we should work with or where we should record, etcetera, and this was really pure in the regard that we could just walk in together, find trust again and lay it down. And I think it was really refreshing that no blood was spilled.
Did it feel like you rewired the collective machinery of the band to where you think it would be more efficient rolling forward here? Like do you feel like you can snap back to a place of creativity together?
NW: I think it was a successful test. Like Tyson said, we’ve always had a major label system where there is A&R there’s a producer, etcetera. And this time we just had to trust each other and trust ourselves, which is something that we’ve never done in this setting before, but I think after decades of making records with amazing, talented producers and engineers, it was easier than I thought it was going to be to really just listen to ourselves and to each other and just trust the process.
Is there anything else about the cover about the process of working with SPIN that I haven’t asked about that you’d like to add?
NW: I mean, I think it’s cool that SPIN’s testing a record label thing and you know, yeah, we’re stoked to be the first release on it.
TR: It was a safe bet.
Yeah? How so?
TR: A cover of a hit by a band that had more money spent on them than some cities.
