Fresh Rotation | 3 new songs we’re listening to this week

Each and every week the JME team handpicks the juiciest new tunes from local, regional, national and international artists to add into our tasty, tall-glass-of-a-listening-experience that is our monthly Fresh Squeeze playlist. Each song is chosen with intention. And so we often feel like they are worthy of a broader discussion (or at least a bit of context).

Here are three new songs that the JME team is listening to this week (all of which appear on our March Fresh Squeeze playlist).

“Tidal River” by Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever

Since 2013, the Melbourne, Australia indie-rock band Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (also known by their football-club-style handle, Rolling Blackouts C.F.) have been delivering tasty songs, in part fueled by their three-guitar attack. “Tidal River,” the debut single from their third, forthcoming Ivy League Records/Sub Pop release, Endless Rooms, swims along on a hypnotic current of interlocking guitar motifs, an art-punk bass-and-drum groove, all paired with pointillistic lyrics that keep the whole thing flowing. While the Aussie five-piece are not as well-known in the U.S., in their homeland they are routine award winners and critical faves. Rightfully so: hopefully “Tidal River” (and Endless Rooms) will change that.–Daniel A. Brown

-Stream on Apple Music

-Stream on Tidal

-Stream on Spotify

“Nakanegh Dich” by Mdou Moctar

Prodigious Tuareg rock sensation, Mdou Moctar, shepherds the music of his people into a world of dizzying, wah-wah heavy, Hendrix-esque guitar solos on “Nakanegh Dich,” a single from the deluxe edition of his sixth album Afrique Victime. Hypnotizing, rhythmic drums join forces with the frenetic energy of Mdou’s strings, which keep pace with the song’s spiraling tempo before the tune melts under the heat of the guitar great’s altered tone. Pioneering Tuareg guitar music into a more secular sound, Moctar promotes Niger’s youth and in turn designates the world a beneficiary.–Rain Henderson

-Stream on Apple Music

-Stream on Tidal

-Stream on Spotify

“God Is A Reptile” by JayWood

Winnipeg musician and songwriter Jeremy Haywood-Smith, aka JayWood, humbly shows off his laidback dynamism on the subtly angst-ridden new single “God Is A Reptile.” Over an enjoyably madcap soundscape, JayWood explores his insecurities, his voice moving from soulful confidence to emo catharsis as the track becomes more dissonant en route to a tripped-out horn-centric climax (a part of the narrative explored in the song’s accompanying music video via a psychedelic sax-playing lizard).–Matthew Shaw 

-Stream on Apple Music

-Stream on Tidal

-Stream on Spotify

Want a full glass of Fresh Squeeze? Drink down all the best new music from local, regional, national and international artists via the tall glass of a monthly listening concoction we call Fresh Squeeze.