AJJ

For more than two decades, AJJ has been writing albums that attempt to make sense of an increasingly confusing world. And the Arizona band has repeatedly succeeded, somehow managing to find the small traces of hope and beauty buried in the wreckage of a decaying planet. But on their ninth album, Dirty Old Power (September 25, 2026), they are coming to terms with the fact that they may no longer have the words to express it all. In fact, the proper words of communication may not even exist anymore.

“A lot of Dirty Old Power is about how our language is failing us and how we need a new human mode of expression,” says frontman Sean Bonnette. “I see language as being sort of cheapened now that people have figured out how to mechanize it. Things like AI mean we’re not the only game in town as far as creatures that use verbal and written language go. Now we’ve got machines that do it. Humans need to find a new code.”

Dirty Old Power takes stock of this surreal moment in American history where the post-World War II power structures of capitalism have given rise to full-on techno-fascism, and where humanity is being displaced by data centers, VR headsets, doomscrolling, and artificial versions of our loved ones. It’s also, as the title track suggests, an indictment of the greedy old sadists who are inflicting all this hell upon us. “We’re seeing that the middle class turned out to be an illusion. There’s wealth being concentrated in the hands of the very few, and now it seems they’re just actively trying to kill us,” Bonnette says.

Lead single “Phlamethrower” is a literal barn-burner of a song, a cathartic rager about wanting to torch it all down. Opener “Beauty and Truth 2” takes a more nuanced approach. It’s an elegy of sorts, mourning the dissolution of our shared realities and the very idea of objective truth. Ultimately, the song sees Bonnette going down swinging at the notion that we must accept the inevitably of a post-truth world: “The nature of truth all depends on the what and the where and the why and the who / And deep down in your bones you know when they’re lying to you.”

Sonically, Dirty Old Power continues to expand the AJJ palate that has evolved tremendously over the years. With each album, the band has strayed farther away from their folk-punk roots, pulling from all sorts of broad influences and miraculously letting them coexist on the same album. “I think our greatest strength is not realizing what kind of band we are.” Bonnette says. “Someone recently called us a ‘mixtape band,’ which I think is pretty accurate.”

“Update” is a lonesome cowboy tune in the style of Willie Nelson or Roger Miller. It’s a traditional country-song take on a modern problem. “It’s a murder ballad about a heartbroken lover who commits an act of violence when a new line of code alters their soulmate irrevocably,” Bonnette explains. It’s a story of fiction, but a premise that seems entirely within the realm of possibility in the near future.

Later, on “Hungry House,” the band mashes a minimal classical arrangement against a crushing black metal assault within the span of just three minutes, like Philip Glass running headfirst into Bathory. “Window in Your Mind” transports listeners to the 70s and is an upbeat homage to AJJ’s love of glam rock artists like Bowie and T. Rex. There are also gentle lullabies like “No Home in This World” pressed right up against rock bangers like “Human Centipede.” None of it makes any sense on paper and yet it all somehow harmoniously flows together.

To capture this disparate array of unique styles that make up Dirty Old Power, AJJ returned to Animal Rites studio in Los Angeles to record with their pal, Grammy-winning producer John Congleton, who also produced 2014’s Christmas Island and 2016’s The Bible 2. And for the cover artwork, the band turned to Winston Smith, the legendary visual artist known most famously for his iconic designs and logo for Dead Kennedys. AJJ has previously released material through indie labels like Asian Man Records, Hopeless Records, and SideOneDummy Records, but is releasing Dirty Old Power on their own, via their label, AJJ Unlimited Ltd.

It has been said that to combat the imminent rise of artificial intelligence, humans need to make art that is weirder, darker, more flawed, and more personal. Dirty Old Power is AJJ’s attempt to rebalance the scales and score one for humanity.