Mouse Rat, the fictional Parks and Recreation rock outfit fronted by Andy Dwyer (Chris Pratt) are releasing an actual album – The Awesome Album – in August, some six years after the show itself wrapped up.
The collection is being introduced with ‘5,000 Candles in the Wind (Bye Bye Li’l Sebastian)’, which, as fans will remember, Dwyer and his bandmates performed at the memorial service for Pawnee’s beloved mini-horse. Listen to that below.
The rest of the record appears to be made up largely of songs either performed or alluded to on the show, such as Mouse Rat tracks like ‘Sex Hair’ and ‘The Pit’. There are also two songs by another fictional Parks and Rec band, Land Ho! – aka Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. There’s even an appearance from Ron Swanson’s moonlighting, sax-honkin’ alter ego Duke Silver.
The Awesome Album is out Friday, 27th August via Dualtone in “partnership” with – who else – Entertainment 720, the media conglomerate of Parks and Recs‘ Tom Haverford. In a press statement, Dualtone’s Paul Roper said he “discovered” Mouse Rat after seeing the band perform at the Snakehole Lounge.
Listen to ‘5,000 Candles in the Wind’ – and see an introductory video by Pawnee’s own Perd Hapley – below. You can pre-order The Awesome Album here.
