Downtown Boys have released Public Luxury, their enthralling new album, out now via 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 Live Dates
June
26 – Willimantic, CT – St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
27 – Portland, ME – State Theater*
28 – East Greenwich, RI – Odeum*
July
15 – Columbus, OH – Spacebar #
16 – Detroit, MI – Third Man Records #
17 – Chicago, IL – West Fest Chicago
18 – Cleveland, OH – Happy Dog #
19 – Pittsburgh, PA – Bottlerocket Social Hall #
21 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s #
22 – Washington, DC – DC9 Nightclub #
23 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right %
24 – Somerville, MA – NICE, A Fest
25 – Burlington, VT – Foam Brewers
25 – Buffalo, NY – Rec Room
26 – Mississauga, ON – Second Summer Festival
* with Gang of Four
# with Pop Music Fever Dream
^ with Perennial
% with Ratas en Zelo
December
4 – Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
5 – Nijmegen, NL – Zeitgeist Fest
6 – Diksmuide, BE – 4AD
7 – London, UK – Moth Club
8 – Cambridge, UK – Portland Arms
9 – Edinburgh, UK – The Mash House
10 – Glasgow, UK – Stereo
11 Nottingham, UK – The Old Bus Depot
12 – Bristol, UK – Exchange Bristol
14 – Paris, FR – Le Chinois
15 – Brussels, BE – Botanique
16 – Trier, DE – Mergener Hof
17 – Düdingen, CH – Bad Bonn
18 – Ravenna, IT – Bronson
19 – Verona, IT – Kroen
20 – Busto Arsizio, IT – Gagarin
21 – Roma, IT – Monk
For more information on Downtown Boys please check their instagram and bluesky.