Singer-songwriter and guitarist MJ Lenderman has officially signed with ANTI-RECORDS, celebrating the announcement with a new single “Rudolph.” Warped pedal steels and skuzzed out guitar tracks give the song a distinct feeling of a laid-back summer hangout, not the snowy christmas adventure that the name implies. Speaking on the new song in a press release, Lenderman expounded, “’Rudolph’ was the first song I wrote after the release of Boat Songs. 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. I finished the lyrics with my friend one late night after a Wednesday gig in Atlanta.”
Such an honest and leisurely approach to songwriting is evident throughout the Wednesday guitarist’s discography, and at its core, a Lenderman song rings true. His music spans stories about everything from a relationship disintegrating outside a high-end butcher shop to a sighting of football star Dan Marino at his local supermarket; from a love song built around a t-shirt kiosk at the airport, to the malaise of a grill rusting in the rain.
His latest track comes on the back of the acclaimed 2022 LP, Boat Songs. The album was released to a wealth of praise and deemed one of the year’s best records by Rolling Stone, NPR Music, Paste, and Pitchfork, which applauded the songwriter saying “MJ Lenderman weaves together poetic hallucinations with unglamorous imagery of daily life.”
MJ Lenderman now embarks on a U.S. tour, with dates at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles, and a performance at Woodsist Festival.
Watch the accompanying music video for “Rudolph” and check out the full list of tour dates below.