Here’s something to brighten up your Friday. With Tweedy, the father-son duo of Jeff and Spencer Tweedy, releasing their first album Sukierae this week, they’ve now joined forces with Parks and Recreation star Nick Offerman to bring us a terrific video for the song “Low Key.”
The gist here is that the Tweedys are told by their label boss, played by John Hodgman, that the “recording industry is in the toilet” so they’ll have to sell their LP themselves. Hodgman’s henchman is played by iron-jawed Boardwalk Empire actor Michael Shannon, who gives the fellas the keys to a sidecar-adorned motorcycle and sends them on their way to sell Sukierae door to door. Along the way they encounter a number of celebrities, including Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter, Steve Albini, Chance the Rapper, Mavis Staples, and a host of others. We won’t spoil the twist at the end, but it does bring to mind the old saying, “There’s always money in the banana stand.”
We have to give credit to the Tweedys for playing their stonefaced parts so well — Jeff comes across like a combination of Silent Bob and Jake Blues, while Spencer bears a resemblance to Elijah Wood when he’s not playing a Hobbit. Of course, we’ve seen the elder Tweedy’s comedic work before, when he appeared on Parks and Rec as the leader of fictional band Land Ho! We need more of that next season, OK NBC?
