Crate Digging asks artists to dig into their record collection to find the LPs that everyone should hear. This time, The All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter curates a list of 10 songs to soundtrack your next house party in celebration of their new album, Sandbox.
After 14 years away, The All-American Rejects are finally making their return to the spotlight with Sandbox, out on Friday, May 15th. But the band, comprised of singer and bassist Tyson Ritter, guitarists Nick Wheeler and Mike Kennerty, and drummer Chris Gaylor, aren’t using the new album as a chance to get back in front of the largest audiences possible. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Get The All-American Rejects Tickets Here
For The All-American Rejects, they’ve opted to support the new record with as many intimate and non-conventional concerts as possible. We’re talking rowdy shows in Wawa parking lots and in vacant community centers; potent performances in bowling alleys, churches, college quads, and yes, backyards. Dubbed “The House Party” tour (get tickets here), Ritter and the group are keen on celebrating both new songs and old in venues where the crowd and band can meet as one, where the machine of the live music industry gets left at the door and fans can come one and all.
The energy of a house party was a major catalyst for Sandbox, and Ritter feels these unconventional shows over the last year have helped shape both the album and the band’s identity. “It didn’t seem like we had a way into the vacuum of modern-day music,” Ritter tells Consequence at Gold-Diggers in Los Angeles. “But lo and behold, a pipe dream cast into the backyards of the willing hosts woke up the giant for us.”
Ritter, who remains well-spoken and deeply enthusiastic about music, feels that a house party lives or dies by its soundtrack. So, in an effort to celebrate both Sandbox’s journey and the connective power of a great party, Ritter has designed a 10-song playlist to soundtrack your next house party, whenever that may be. In addition to their great new track “Easy Come, Easy Go,” Ritter’s playlist features party-starting picks from OutKast, The Clash, The Beastie Boys, and several more.
Check out Ritter’s full Crate Digging video above (or via YouTube), and read about each of his picks below. You can also pick up or listen to the songs and their corresponding albums below; plus, pick up your copy of The All-American Rejects’ new LP Sandbox here.
OutKast — “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad)”
I lived alone since I was 15 in a trailer house, and I had the luck of having a community of people that would always drop in on me, and that turned into fun Friday nights. I set up my band’s PA in my living room, and every Friday night we would just have a house party, and the record that is just so seminal to that time for me was this record, Stankonia by OutKast, and there was a song called “Bombs Over Baghdad.” When I heard it, I hadn’t listened to a lot of hip-hop, and this to me wasn’t a hip-hop record; this was like a rock fusion Atlanta sound that I’d never heard. I mean, I was in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and this lifted the veil for me. When that song starts, it starts at a ruckus, and I think it would kick your house party off at a fevered pitch, no doubt.
Listen to “B.O.B. – Bombs Over Baghdad” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
Get OutKast’s Stankonia on Vinyl
The Knife —”Heartbeats”
Next, we’re kind of going into my Los Angeles introduction, which was my lost weekend, like Lennon, I guess. I had a friend who had a pound of mushrooms, and I would buy an eighth off of him, probably three times a week, and there was a melee of records that I was digesting at the time. This duo called The Knife had a song called “Heartbeats,” and I think it’s just 2011 on the nose. The sounds in that, there’s like some Lauper sounds, and she was just so boisterous. I didn’t even know what she was talking about, but once the rototoms kick in on that first chorus, you’re sucked into this groove. It’s a peak of mushroom love.
Listen to “Heartbeats” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
Murray Head — “One Night in Bangkok”
“One Night in Bangkok” is an ’80s throwback that I just fucking love. It so bucks the typical pop song archetype, and it broke through the noise in the ’80s, and I don’t think the band had anything else that sounded like this. It’s probably controversial lyrically now, but it’s just about this one night in Bangkok that makes a hard man humble, which I don’t know what that means, but that’s the lyric, and the chorus is infectious. If you’re not singing that at the top of your lungs at this house party, then you can kick rocks.
Listen to “One Night in Bangkok” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz
Queen — “Don’t Stop Me Now”
We’re going to go into maybe expectation land, but I think maybe it was Shaun of the Dead that made me see “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen in a new light when they’re beating in cadence, the zombies to death. That was actually my introduction to that song. I didn’t know Queen for that song until I saw Shaun of the Dead, and it’s now my favorite Queen song. We’re keeping tempo here, we’re still cruising with Queen.
Listen to “Don’t Stop Me Now” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
The Clash — “Lost in the Supermarket”
We need a break after that one; we’re sweating now. So, we’re gonna spill into The Clash’s “Lost in the Supermarket.” It makes you feel sexy, and we’re talking about just being lost in a supermarket. This is what I love about great songs is that they don’t have to just sing to you about love or give you some candy lyric. Like, this was just such a vibe. This is off of my favorite Clash record; it’s just such a great song. When I was writing my third record, my A&R guy was like, “Why don’t you just write a song about a sandwich?” and of course I was like, “fuck you.” But when you’re all lost in the supermarket, you can actually get what you need to make that sandwich, and I probably should have taken that a little bit more to heart.
Listen to “Lost in the Supermarket” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
Focus — “Hocus Pocus”
This is an absurd song. This is a song to break up the seriousness, if there is any in this ridiculous list so far. There’s a song called “Hocus Pocus” by Focus. It’s the most absurd, operatic madness. If you can get through the song, you are a champion. If you skip after the first chorus, I won’t hold it against you. But that this song exists, it deserves the audience of a house party.
Listen to “Hocus Pocus” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
Beastie Boys — “No Sleep Till Brooklyn”
Of course, we’ve got to get one for the meatheads. “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” feels like a classic that makes any house party just rise up to a guitar riff that is iconic. And, you know, when you think of the Beasties, it was Intergalactic — that was my sort of era when the Beasties were a cultural artifact for my youth. But “No Sleep Till Brooklyn,” this was them making records with Rick Rubin in a dorm room, I think this was just cassette tapes and popsicle sticks and yarn and making iconic records. This was independent artistry at its finest, and they’re a great band. A lot of people don’t know the Beasties aren’t just this hip-hop group with Mike on the turntables; this was like when they were playing their own instruments on SNL and making a ruckus. I love that era of the Beasties.
Listen to “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
The Blow — “True Affection”
This reminds me of my wife; this was us on a beach, like falling in love. And I know, why are you playing this song at a house party? But everyone has that one that kind of doesn’t play well, but the dude who played it is living his life in the middle of the dance floor while it’s vacated for the bathroom break, and it’s a song called “True Affection” by The Blow. I love this duo. I think they make really opiate-sounding lullabies. It’s a great song about a girl who’s too good for the person they’re talking to, and I love it.
Listen to “True Affection” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on CD
The All-American Rejects — “Easy Come, Easy Go”
I’m going to do a shameless self-promotion here. We had a song that was born out of the backyards of America last year in our house parties, and it didn’t seem like we had a way into the vacuum of modern-day music. But lo and behold, a pipe dream cast into the backyards of the willing hosts woke up the giant for us, and it was on the back of a song called “Easy Come, Easy Go,” which is a rattlesnake in two and a half minutes. I’m really proud of this song because I don’t think it’s something you’d expect from this band.
Listen to “Easy Come, Easy Go” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD
Sigur Rós — “Svefn-g-englar”
We’ve got to close this out, and no, it’s not going to be “Closing Time” as much as you might want it to be. There’s a song by Sigur Rós called “Svefn-g-englar.” It is a siren song that maybe God himself wrote, herself wrote. There are some songs where lyric doesn’t have to be your connection. It’s a song that evokes feeling above all, and it feels like life and death and rapture and majesty all in one purge of a siren’s bellows. It’s a special song, especially a good one to pick people up off the floor to look around, assess the damage, maybe call an Uber because you’re too drunk to drive home. And that is my 10 songs for your house party. Try it out. Disappoint your friends.
Listen to “Svefn-g-englar” via Apple Music | Amazon Music | Qobuz | Buy on Vinyl/CD