Rum Jungle – Coal Dust: Salt-Stung Nostalgia and Alt-Rock After Dark

Rum Jungle hail from the coastal backstreets of a steel city, crafting raw alt-rock anthems and late-night ballads that live somewhere between chaos and comfort. Their sound pulls from surf-punk grit, indie-sleaze swagger, and hook-heavy songwriting, capturing the haze of youth, nostalgia, and the strange beauty of things falling apart with style. The band’s name itself is a hand-me-down from Benny’s dad’s 1970s band—a quiet reminder that music was never a choice, but something baked into their DNA. For Rum Jungle, being a band is instinctive: a shared outlet for processing life, chasing connection, and pushing noise into the night together.

From backyard parties to sold-out rooms across North America, the UK, Europe, and Australia, Rum Jungle’s rise has been driven by sweat-soaked shows and genuine momentum. Festival appearances at The Great Escape, Reeperbahn, and SXSW (Sydney) have further cemented them as a band whose appeal travels far beyond their hometown roots.

“Coal Dust” distills the band’s ethos into a single, smoky snapshot. The track leans into grit, memory, and emotional residue, pairing driving guitars with a worn-in sense of longing. There’s a lived-in quality to “Coal Dust”—like stories carried home on skin and clothes after a long night—where nostalgia isn’t polished, but heavy and real. Equal parts anthem and afterthought, the song captures Rum Jungle at their best: unfiltered, emotionally charged, and built for moments that only exist when everything’s a little bit messy.

Band Page: https://www.instagram.com/rumjungleband/