NEWS : FRI, JUN 26, 2026 at 6:00 AM
Downtown Boys’ Public Luxury Is Out Now Worldwide
Today, Friday, June 26th, Downtown Boys have released Public Luxury, their enthralling new album, out now worldwide from Sub Pop. The band is celebrating the album’s entry into the world with a poignant new video from animator Romy Matar for album standout “Yellow Sun,” which The Skinny notes, “there’s a melodic softness that reveals a fragility under the surface, something which might even appeal to fans of The Killers.”
Band member Joey La Neve DeFrancesco elaborates further on the song and visual: “‘Yellow Sun’ is a song for Lebanon, written as Israel’s ongoing invasion and occupation of the country began in 2024. The lyrics were inspired in part by the work of Lebanese poet and painter Etel Adnan, especially the poems “Beirut 1982” and “The Arab apocalypse,” which she wrote during Israel’s earlier occupation of Lebanon from 1982-2000. As with Ednan’s work, the song is meant to name the horrors (“phosphorous skies,” “every day an angel explodes”) while also insisting on the possibility of a new day: “The trees grow in every direction / I’m still heavy with love…
“The accompanying video by Lebanese animator Matar is a fable-like tribute to the decades of displacement and hostility faced by the indigenous shepherds and rural communities of Palestine and Lebanon since 1948. It also contains visual references to Adnan’s paintings.”
Downtown Boys are announcing a new UK and EU late fall/winter headlining tour, which begins on December 4th in Amsterdam, NL at Paradiso, and runs through December 21st in Rome, IT at Monk. Tickets for these shows are on sale now.
Downtown Boys’ previously announced US live dates for summer and fall 2026 are underway, with an album release show and benefit tonight, June 26th, organized by Willimantic Records for the Covenant Soup Kitchen & Food Pantry at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in the band’s second “hometown,” Willimantic, CT. The band’s US touring schedule continues through Saturday, September 26th in Mississauga, ON at Second Summer Festival.
Please find a current list of dates below.
Fri. Jun. 26 - Willimantic, CT - St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Sat. Jun. 27 - Portland, ME - State Theater*
Sun. Jun. 28 - East Greenwich, RI - Odeum*
Wed. Jul. 15 - Columbus, OH - Spacebar #
Thu. Jul. 16 - Detroit, MI - Third Man Records #
Fri. Jul. 17 - Chicago, IL - West Fest Chicago
Sat. Jul. 18 - Cleveland, OH - Happy Dog #
Sun. Jul. 19 - Pittsburgh, PA - Bottlerocket Social Hall #
Tue. Jul. 21 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s #
Wed. Jul. 22 - Washington, DC - DC9 Nightclub #
Thu. Jul. 23 - Brooklyn, NY - Baby’s All Right %
Fri. Jul. 24 - Somerville, MA - NICE, A Fest
Sat. Jul. 25 - Burlington, VT - Foam Brewers
Fri. Sep. 25 - Buffalo, NY - Rec Room
Sat. Sep. 26 - Mississauga, ON - Second Summer Festival
* with Gang of Four
# with Pop Music Fever Dream
% with Ratas en Zelo
UK/EU, Late Fall/Winter 2026
Fri. Dec. 04 - Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
Sat. Dec. 05 - Nijmegen, NL - Zeitgeist Fest
Sun. Dec. 06 - Diksmuide, BE - 4AD
Mon. Dec. 07 - London, UK - Moth Club
Tue. Dec. 08 - Cambridge, UK - Portland Arms
Wed. Dec. 09 - Edinburgh, UK - The Mash House
Thu. Dec. 10 - Glasgow, UK - Stereo
Fri. Dec. 11 Nottingham, UK - The Old Bus Depot
Sat. Dec. 12 - Bristol, UK - Exchange Bristol
Mon. Dec. 14 - Paris, FR - Le Chinois
Tue. Dec. 15 - Brussels, BE - Botanique
Wed. Dec. 16 - Trier, DE - Mergener Hof
Thu. Dec. 17 - Düdingen, CH - Bad Bonn
Fri. Dec. 18 - Ravenna, IT - Bronson
Sat. Dec. 19 - Verona, IT - Kroen
Sun. Dec. 20 - Busto Arsizio, IT - Gagarin
Mon. Dec. 21 - Roma, IT - Monk
Downtown Boys have pushed relentlessly forward as an artistic and political project since their founding. Singer Victoria Marie and guitarist/singer Joey La Neve DeFrancesco first met at union meetings while working together at a hotel in Providence, RI, writing many of the band’s early songs about labor organizing and exploitative workplaces. The quintet is completed by Joe DeGeorge (sax/synth), Mary Jane Regalado (bass), and Joey Doubek (drums). Over years of touring and three acclaimed albums, including Full Communism in 2015 and Cost of Living, their Sub Pop debut in 2017, Downtown Boys have continued to grow as artists, musicians, and organizers.
Now, the band has arrived with Public Luxury, an enthralling album that keeps politics front and center while summoning the band’s most urgent and powerful sound to date. The definition of Public Luxury falls very much in line with that of the title of the band’s second LP, Full Communism. Straight up, Public Luxury means, “everything for everyone.” It’s the stubborn insistence that a better world is possible, while fully recognizing the horrors we witness daily, and the individual and collective responsibility to resist the nihilism and hopelessness we can all feel.
Public Luxury was co-produced by DeFrancesco with recording engineer and longtime Downtown Boys supporter Seth Manchester (Lambrini Girls, Lightning Bolt, Model/Actriz) at the Pawtucket, RI studio and arts space Machines With Magnets. The album was mastered by Heba Kadry.
Read more about Public Luxury here.
“A decade in the making, Public Luxury is an unashamedly political exercise that never strays into preaching to the converted. Delivered mostly in Spanish, it’s a blast of heat and light in dark times. Imagine early Pixies but they’re only playing Isla de Encanta and Kim isn’t letting Black Francis near the mic.” ★★★★ The Skinny
“Recalling the late, great Poly Styrene at times, frontwoman Victoria Marie radiates fearsome charisma, switching between English and Spanish on several tracks, from the thunderous garage-punk beast “No Me Jodas” to the feverish tropical synth-metal jam “Mi Concha”. The fury running through these songs is mostly the joyous, exhilarating kind, while the incongruously melodic guitar-jangler “Yellow Sun” already sounds like an arena-rock anthem. Anger is an Energy.” UNCUT
“There’s a tangible concerted effort from all involved, bursting with frivolity and passion that it’s hard to not get swept away with the waves. Downtown Boys are a band whose lived experience says a lot about the state of where we are now, backed by an evolving sound that’s throttling down other colorful avenues to bring their causes to light.” Treble
“The guitar-driven ferocity of ‘Sirena’ is intermittently cracked open by a synth line used perfectly and unexpectedly, illuminating a new dimension. ‘Yellow Sun’ reveals a tender core and a different kind of strength that sparkles from the vibraphone. A gargling version of a ‘Neat Neat Neat’ bassline, crazed saxophone and feral drumming run riot in ‘You’re A Ghost’. This album is essential listening for any music venue looking to correctly prepare to host this kind of energy.” Electronic Sound
Public Luxury
1. No Me Jodas
2. The City Begins
3. Sirena
4. Yellow Sun
5. Viva La Rosa
6. Enemy Without
7. You’re a Ghost
8. Albuterol
9. Mi Concha
10. Public Works
11. Public Luxury