Watch: Broken Bells cover the Beatles on 'Letterman'

By Mikael Wood

Feb. 4, 2014 3:28 PM PT

The demands of promotion and commemoration came together Monday night on “Late Show With David Letterman,” where Broken Bells performed a cover of the Beatles’ “And I Love Her.”

The L.A.-based alt-rock duo (featuring James Mercer of the Shins and A-list producer Danger Mouse) was making the late-night rounds in support of its brand-new album, “After the Disco.”

And the Beatles, of course, are approaching Sunday’s 50th anniversary of their groundbreaking appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” which was broadcast from the same New York theater that Letterman now occupies.

Sounds straightforward (and potentially snoozy) enough.

True to their record-nerd roots, though, Broken Bells took the opportunity to tweak tradition, layering their performance of “And I Love Her” over a loop of Ringo Starr’s drumming from “I Am the Walrus.”

The result reminded you, in case you’d forgotten, that before he formed Gnarls Barkley and hooked up with Beck and the Black Keys, Danger Mouse made “The Grey Album,” his 2004 mash-up of Jay Z’s “The Black Album” and the Beatles’ White Album.

Watch Broken Bells’ performance below, and check back with Pop & Hiss for an upcoming feature on the band and “After the Disco.”