After rising to fame with the rollicking but rootsy band Alabama Shakes, lead singer and guitarist Brittany Howard was eager to cut loose with some looser and leaner rock & roll, and that's just what she did with her side project, Thunderbitch. Along with Howard, the group features members of the Nashville-based rock bands Fly Golden Eagle and Clear Plastic Masks, though the band's official website identifies the lineup only as "Thunderbitch, Matt Man, B Bone, ThunderMitch, Char Man and A Man." Thunderbitch began playing low-profile live shows in 2012 at small clubs and hot wings shops in Nashville, Tennessee, and received their first national press in December of that year, not for their music but for being robbed at gunpoint by two teenagers while relaxing on the porch of a friend's house in Nashville. (One of the victims stated that the kids only got a few bucks in cash and some cell phones for their troubles, and that the musicians were not too rattled to go bar hopping afterwards.) In 2013, Howard posted two Thunderbitch tracks online, but little was heard from the group from that point on, presumably due to Alabama Shakes' busy schedule. However, just a little more than four months after Alabama Shakes' second album, Sound Color, debuted at number one on the sales charts, the self-titled debut album from Thunderbitch appeared, streaming online and with a vinyl edition available from the Alabama Shakes website. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi