Now is probably the best time to be a Parks And Recreation fan since the show was actually on the air with new episodes. A month ago, it was announced that the show’s fictional, Chris Pratt-led band Mouse Rat will be releasing an actual album, The Awesome Album. Aside from Mouse Rat themselves, the tracklist features appearances from Duke Silver (aka Ron Swanson, aka Nick Offerman), Scott Tanner (a character played by Jeff Tweedy), and Tanner’s band Land Ho.
Now “Cold Water,” the Tanner song which also features Silver, has been shared. Silver plays soxophone on the very Wilco-esque song, and it might actually be Offerman performing, as he plays the sax in real life. In a 2011 interview, Parks And Rec creator Michael Schur noted, “The Duke Silver saxophone playing is also a real-life Nick Offerman thing. Nick really plays the saxophone, that’s really him playing in the episode from season two. […] We could probably just base episodes around Nick Offerman’s real-life skills and have a long and happy run.”
It appears Tweedy and Offerman have struck up a friendship since Tweedy’s time on the show. In 2014, Offerman directed the video for “Low Key” by Tweedy’s band Tweedy. In 2019, Tweedy told a story about a recent hike he and Offerman had enjoyed together, saying, “People that hike is really his demographic and it was not necessarily mine, so a lot of people came up to him and talked about his show and they totally neglected me, even though it’s my show, too.”
Listen to “Cold Water” above.
The Awesome Album is out 8/27 via Dualtone/Entertainment 720. Pre-order it here.