[3][4] As a song, "New Moon Rising" was first revealed as part of Cosmic Egg's track listing following a listening party in the United States in late-July, where it was shown to be positioned third between "California Queen" and "White Feather".

[6][7] The song received its first radio play on Australian network Triple J on 13 August 2009, described as "a thumping, ripping slice of optimistic future-blues.

[10] Canadian radio station The Edge revealed, according to an interview with lead vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, that the song "was inspired by some very odd encounters he had after work," quoting him as saying the following: When I'd drive home, like at the end of the night, I'd see all these like native animals that I'd never seen in my entire life.

The song was also featured in the trailer for Due Date starring Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis In a pre-release review of the album, American music magazine Spin offered the following background and description of "New Moon Rising": The lyrics for this track were handed out to all the guests at the listening party, so I guess we're supposed to take them as some sort of statement of intent.

"New Moon Rising" was released as a digital download-only single in August 2009 internationally; the specific dates were as follows: 21 August in Ireland; 24 August in Kuwait, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan,Qatar, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, the Syrian Arab Republic, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen; 25 August in Australia, Canada, China, Iceland, Portugal, Taiwan and the United States; and 28 August in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Greece, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.