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Asheville, North Carolina rocker MJ Lenderman is back with a new single, “Rudolph,” which marks his first offering for his new label, Anti-.
“Rudolph” pairs pure guitar crunch with swooning pedal steel as Lenderman conjures scenes of discarded, destroyed Christmas ornaments and surreal visions of Pixar outtakes (“Deleted scene of Lightning McQueen/Blacked out at full speed”). There’s even a cheeky Bob Dylan interpolation for good measure, with Lenderman nodding to “Blowin’ In the Wind” as he sings, “How many roads must a man walk down til he learns/He’s just a jerk who flirts with the clergy nurse til it burns.”
Along with being his first song for Anti-, “Rudolph” is the first song Lenderman has released since his acclaimed 2022 album, Boat Songs (which landed on our list of the year’s 100 best albums). “I had been sitting on the guitar part for a long time and slowly worked out the song whenever I could in between tours in 2022,” he recalled. “I finished the lyrics with my friend one late night after a Wednesday gig in Atlanta.” (Lenderman also plays guitar in the Asheville outfit, which released the acclaimed Rat Saw God earlier this year.)
Lenderman is set to release “Rudolph” as a seven-inch single this fall. The single is available to pre-order now, though there is no word yet on what will feature on the b-side.
Starting tomorrow, July 19, Lenderman will launch a short North American tour in Nashville, with dates scheduled through Aug. 10 in Los Angeles. His itinerary includes a set at Pitchfork Music Festival this weekend, as well as sets later this year at Thing Fest in Port Townsend, Washington (Aug. 25) and Woodsist Festival in Accord, New York (Sept. 23 and 24).
