Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel’s divorce became official earlier this month, but chances are the Death Cab for Cutie frontman — who just released solo debut Former Lives — won’t be able to escape the New Girl star’s name for a while. Deschanel lends a backing vocal on the studio version of “Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke),” a Three Amigos-style waltz about an endless-summer place where “something’s rattling somewhere inside / And it sounds like it’s broken, but in a place I can’t find.” She didn’t join the crisply haircutted Gibbard last night on Conan, but the mariachi outfit Trio Ellas did. It was a poised, polished performance of a poised, polished song, where the broken heart is hidden beneath a stoic exterior. If you look closely at Gibbard’s face, though, you can imagine him listening, searching endlessly for the source of that infernal rattle. (Maybe we’d all better listen to Transatlanticism one more time today, just in case.)
Ben Gibbard Sings Mariachi-Backed ‘Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke)’ on ‘Conan’
