If you ask the founding members of the Seattle-based rock band Thunderpussy, they’ll tell you that the past year has been about rejuvenation and recalibration. Always on-brand, the band’s vocalist and front woman Molly Sides calls the band’s recent stint away from the public eye a “cat nap.” And lead guitarist Whitney Petty says that the time away has offered perspective, both inwardly and outwardly. But now the propulsive quartet is back, planting its proverbial flag in pop culture yet again with the release of a new music video and the announcement that the band’s track, “Never Know,” will be featured in the new ABC television show, Rebel, tonight.
“The whole world has changed,” says Petty. “In really positive ways, I think. I believe everything happens for a reason and the pandemic is what we deserved as a race of people, to be told to shut up and receive for a minute, to just listen.”
Personally, Petty says, the band has always been driven. But with this constant push forward, the band, if not for the pandemic, might have “driven ourselves into the ground,” she notes. In addition, Thunderpussy, which released its latest EP Milk It in late 2019, has stayed out of the public spotlight intentionally so that the world might catch up with their ethos and ethics, Sides and Petty both say. Once signed to a major label, the band is now happily “free agents” after a long, drawn-out, though successful bout to trademark the band name, which landed at the bench of the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Our label never knew what to do with us,” Petty says. “Just the reaction to our name, the lack of respect for the trademark, and the questioning about it. The constant sexualization from men and the common misunderstandings you get being women in the industry. At some point it felt like, ‘You know what? Maybe the world is not quite ready.’”
It’s appropriate that the band’s muscular single will appear on ABC’s Rebel, which is about another trailblazing woman, the famed reporter, Erin Brockovich. The show, which stars Katey Sagal, premiered in April and is already making industry waves. The partnership also represents a possible new phase for the band, which, the members say, would like to be a part of more scores and soundtracks like this one in 2018 moving forward. “It was really nice to open that email,” Sides says. “And breathe new life into the song that has been under the sheets for a while. Now she’s blossoming! And I love Katey Sagal.”
To accompany the song’s placement in Rebel, Thunderpussy completed the video for the track—posted above—which features the limber Sides strutting while Petty shreds on her six-string. Bassist Leah Julius and drummer Lindsey Elias also feature prominently, keeping the low-end rhythms booming. Shot at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, Ontario, the video is glitzy and powerful, exemplary of the band’s sonic prowess and live show oomph.
“I don’t feel like this song got enough love when it came out,” Petty says. “Then we all got distracted and weren’t able to tour in support of the EP. Now it’s interesting to look back and hear the time capsule again.”
With several albums and single releases in their rearview mirror, Thunderpussy is ready to get back out on the metaphorical (and literal) highway, to write and record more music and connect with fans in what many might consider to be the new world, post-pandemic. While there is still much left unknown about the state of touring and live shows, no matter what, when things do come back to normalcy, Thunderpussy will again be right back in the middle of the action.
“We can still be loud and take charge and be dominant and in your face,” Sides says. “But we can do so with an air of responding to the nature of the atmosphere instead of reacting to it. We’re excited and feel positive about moving forward. This is an evolution, a new knot in the long thread of Thunderpussy.”
