Rebecca and Megan Lovell aka Larkin Poe appeared on Jimmy Kimmel the other night for a barnstorming performance of their track Bad Spell.
The track was debuted back in May 2022, alongside the announcement of their recent album Blood Harmony and was pitched as a response to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put A Spell On You.
“[Since I heard it] the first time I’ve wanted to write a female response to it,” Rebecca Lovell said upon its release. “I’d had the title Bad Spell in my journal for years, and it was so fun to create a song where the riffs and guitar tones have that singular purpose of nastiness and swagger.”
We liked the studio version, but in the Kimmel appearance you can really hear that swagger. The four-piece band sounds monstrous in the clip and Rebecca’s HSS Strat is particularly potent.
Lovell also does that thing where you ping the strings on the headstock right before the riff drops. There should be a term for this – please send your suggestions.
The song’s centerpiece, however, comes in the solo section, which sees the Lovell sisters sparring between Strat and slide guitar, before it bleeds into some killer, hooky lead licks and Megan’s slide hits histrionic pitch.
Their recent record, Blood Harmony, was partly named so as a reference to the unique effect of related vocalists performing together (a la the Beach Boys) – and there’s something to be said about that in the Lovells’ unique chemistry as guitarists, too.
Either way, the band looks to be in great shape to resume their world tour at the end of the month, kicking things off in Nashville on March 31, before they head to Australia and New Zealand in April.
For more information and tour dates, head to Larkin Poe’s site.
