diff --git a/.noserc b/.noserc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..27e7aacb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.noserc
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+# this file's explicitly loaded from setup.cfg (.noserc isn't a
+# standard config path), separated out due to '%(...)s'
+[nosetests]
+verbose=True
+verbosity=1
+detailed-errors=True
+with-coverage=True
+cover-erase=True
+cover-package=autopush
+cover-tests=True
+logging-format=%(asctime)s,%(msecs)03d %(name)s: %(levelname)s: %(message)s
+logging-datefmt=%H:%M:%S
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 9ae96eb9..42d501e0 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,8 +1,4 @@
 [nosetests]
-verbose=True
-verbosity=1
-detailed-errors=True
-with-coverage=True
-cover-erase=True
-cover-package=autopush
-cover-tests=True
+# configure nose in a separate file to avoid distutils mishandling its
+# '%(...)s' logging format (raises InterpolationMissingOptionErrors)
+config=.noserc