Dirty Projectors are back with new music, a new record label home, and a fresh creative venture. The band has signed with Joyful Noise Recordings while launching its own imprint, Well-Tempered Zealot, kicking things off with the new single “Jumbotron.” It’s their first new music since early 2025.
In a move that shakes up expectations, there’s not a guitar in sight. Instead, David Longstreth takes to the piano, joined by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Bear on drums, Karl McComas-Reichl of the Jeff Parker Trio on upright bass, and a six-piece horn section featuring Los Angeles session musicians.
“Jumbotron” explores the contrast between the enormous and the intimate, with Longstreth reflecting on childhood wonder and the strange scale of new parenthood, where everyday life can feel both incredibly small and impossibly big.
Longstreth describes the song as a meditation on big and small screens, grand experiences and makeshift living-room forts, and the relationship between attention, detail, quality, and value. It’s an appropriately thoughtful return from a band that has never been particularly interested in taking the predictable route.
Alongside the new single, Longstreth has announced a solo headlining spring tour, with intimate performances planned across the United States, Europe, and the U.K. The itinerary also includes an appearance at Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival on April 2.
Dirty Projectors (Solo) 2027 Headlining Tour:
04/02/27 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
04/15/27 – Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Center *
04/17/27 – Chicago, IL – Old Town School of Folk Music *
04/20/27 – Philadelphia, PA – Ethical Society *
04/21/27 – New Haven, CT – Firehouse 12
04/23/27 – Boston, MA – Museum of Fine Arts *
04/24/27 – Kingston, NY – Assembly *
04/25/27 – New York, NY – Le Poisson Rouge *
05/08/27 – Los Angeles, CA – Sid the Cat Auditorium
05/14/27 – San Francisco, CA – The Chapel
05/15/27 – Point Reyes, CA – Dance Palace
05/20/27 – Portland, OR – Polaris Hall
05/21/27 – Seattle, WA – The Triple Door
06/11/27 – Manchester, UK – Band On The Wall
06/12/27 – Glasgow, U.K. – Oran Mor
06/14/27 – London, UK – Kings Place
06/15/27 – Paris, FR – Café de la Danse
06/17/27 – Utrecht, NL – TivoliVredenburg Hertz
06/18/27 – Brussels, BE – Musée Botanique
06/19/27 – Hamburg, DE – Nachtasyl
06/20/27 – Copenhagen, DK – The Koncerthuset – Studie 2
06/22/27 – Stockholm, SE – Södra Teatern
06/23/27 – Norway, OS – Kulturkirken Jakob
06/25/27 – Berlin, DE – Lido
* w/ Otto Benson opening