The Dirty Projectors have signed to Joyful Noise Recordings and are launching their own new imprint, Well-Tempered Zealot, with the new single “Jumbotron”, which is their first new music since early 2025. Subverting expectations, there is no guitar playing because David Longstreth here plays the piano, alongside Chris Bear (Grizzly Bear) on drums, Karl McComas-Reichl (Jeff Parker Trio) on upright bass with a sextet of Los Angeles’ finest sax and brass session players.
“Jumbotron” gives us a lens metaphor worthy of the band name, with Longstreth singing about two kinds of magnification: the enormity of the world experienced through a child’s eyes, and the paradox of new parenthood when life feels so small and so huge at the same time. “I was thinking about the big screen and the small screen. The big tent and the kind of tent you can make in the living room with a couple couch cushions and a blanket or two. Life and entertainment; attention and volume; focus and detail; quality and value. Listen to the song!,” says Longstreth.
In other news, Dirty Projectors’ Longstreth has announced a solo headlining spring tour, where he will play intimate venues in America, Europe and the U.K., as well as Knoxville’s Big Ears festival on April 2. See below for a current itinerary and ticket on-sale here.
David Longstreth Tour Dates
4/2 — Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
4/15 — Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center *
4/17 — Chicago, IL – Old Town School of Folk Music *
4/20 — Philadelphia, PA – Ethical Society *
4/21 — New Haven, CT – Firehouse 12
4/23 — Boston, MA – Museum of Fine Arts *
4/24 — Kingston, NY – Assembly *
4/25 — New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge *
5/08 — Los Angeles, CA – Sid the Cat Auditorium
5/14 — San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
5/15 — Point Reyes, CA – Dance Palace
5/20 — Portland, OR @- Polaris Hall
5/21 — Seattle, WA – The Triple Door
6/11 — Manchester, UK – Band On The Wall
6/12 — Glasgow, UK – Oran Mor
6/14 — London, UK – Kings Place
6/15 — Paris, FR – Café de la Danse
6/17 — Utrecht, NL – TivoliVredenburg Hertz
6/18 — Brussels, BE – Musée Botanique
6/19 — Hamburg, DE – Nachtasyl
6/20 — Copenhagen, DK – The Koncerthuset – Studie 2
6/22 — Stockholm, SE – Södra Teatern
6/23 — Oslo, NO – Kulturkirken Jakob
6/25 — Berlin, DE – Lido
* = w/ Otto Benson
