Downtown Boys have announced a new album, Public Luxury, which will be out June 26 via Sub Pop. It’s their first in nine years, not counting their soundtrack for Miss Marx, and the band’s Joey La Neve DeFrancesco co-produced it with recording engineer Seth Manchester (Lambrini Girls, Lightning Bolt, Model/Actriz).
“This record is bigger and more expansive than anything we’ve done before,” says DeFrancesco. “In writing this music, I tried to get closer to the feeling and sound of our live shows, which is where Downtown Boys is best experienced. When we perform, the guitars, keyboards, saxophones, the singing and intros, and the crowd yelling along with us all blend into a beautiful, cathartic energy. We wanted these songs to carry the depth of that live experience onto the recording itself.”
Adds singer Victoria Marie on the album’s themes, “We as the people have the power – and we will have it all. The ultimate burn to injustice is taking the dirt, the shards, the smoke of it all in the struggle for freedom and liberation — finding power in the mundane — I think that is the story to be told.”
The first single from the album is the strident “No Me Jodas” (“Don’t Fuck With Me”) which comes with a video by John McKay that features Mariachi Internacional Tapatio De Alvaro Paulino. Victoria says the video was inspired by “the aesthetic of ‘chicha’ — a music culture out of Peru that is also about economics, work, partying, life, desire, and nightlife. The ethic, as put by one Chicha musician, Chacalón, is two words: chamba and vacilón (hard work and partying).” Watch that below.
Downtown Boys have a few Northeast dates this week and those are listed below.
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
Downtown Boys – 2026 Tour Dates
Thu. Mar. 26 – Providence, RI – AS220 *
Fri. Mar. 27 – Boston, MA – Deep Cuts ^
Sat. Mar. 28 – Portland, ME – Space 538 #
* w/ Black Eyes
^ w/ Whyte Lipstick
# w/ Red Eft, Bait Bag