From the depths of the mid 80s LA Glam rock scene, a bunch of attitude driven, misguided youth brought to the surface their brand of alley cat rock. Not glam, not punk but somewhere in between, with an attitude and swagger all their own. Fronted by the king of sleaze himself, Taime Downe, Faster Pussycat was his baby assembled piece by piece, that would, not unlike Frankenstein, rapidly grow into a monster and take the scene by storm, whether it was ready for it or not!

Before they knew it, this rag-tag team of miscreants consisting of Taime Downe (vocals), Greg Steele (guitar), Brent Muscat (Guitar), Eric Stacy (bass) and Mark Michals (drums) scored a record deal with Elektra Records and released their debut self-titled album produced by Ric Browde (Poison, Ted Nugent, etc.) who was also instrumental in securing the deal in the first place. The debut record featured instant classics "Babylon", "Bathroom Wall", "Cathouse" and "Don't Change That Song" , the latter of which, birthed their first music video directed by none other than "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" director Russ Meyer!

During this same time, the iconic documentary film, "Decline Of The Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years" was released and featured Taime and Riki Rachtman talking about their club the Cathouse and included Faster Pussycat performing "Cathouse" and "Bathroom Wall" live. The film, directed by Penelope Spheeris, was a dissection of the Los Angeles heavy metal scene from 1986 - 1988. The film also featured interviews with members of W.A.S.P., Motorhead, Aerosmith, Ozzy and more!). It, like it's predecessor, went down in history as an iconic, cult hit.

Never really fitting the mainstream mold, and always following underground sensibilities, if there's such a thing, Faster Pussycat found themselves in their early twenties and touring with artists like; Alice Cooper, Motley Crue, David Lee Roth, Motorhead, Whitesnake, Guns N' Roses, Kiss and Ozzy!

Faster Pussycat would soon release their second album, 'Wake Me When It's Over" produced by John Jansen (Lou Reed, Cinderella & Jimi Hendrix) which garnered their biggest hit of their career, the reluctant and out of character ballad "House Of Pain" which reached #28 on the US Hot 100 and #23 on US Main Rock charts. The single also lead to a video direct by Hollywood titan, Michael Bay! Wake Me When It's Over spawned a host of other memorable tracks such as "Poison Ivy" and "Where There's A Whip There's A Away" which saw them get more recognition and rotation on MTV.

In between albums, and touring, Faster Pussycat was asked to contribute a track to the upcoming, limited edition release of "Rubáiyát: Elektra's 40th Anniversary", which featured current Elektra artists covering historic Elektra recordings. The compilation featured; Metallica, The Cure, The Sugarcubes, The Georgia Satellites, among others, and of course Faster Pussycat's recording of Carly Simon's "You're So Vain". The track was a sleeper hit, that saw a lot of attention and even spawned a killer music video directed by Rocky Schenck (Alice in Chains, The Cramps, Devo).

With each album it was evident the band was adopting further darker imagery and themes, including Taime dying his platinum hair a midnight black. With the band all clad in black and leather they released their third album, "Whipped!" again produced by John Jansen. While darker in it's themes, Whipped! adopted a bit more of a streamlined, mainstream sound with it's signature hit "Nonstop to Nowhere" peaking at #35 on the US Main Rock chart and spawning a video also directed by Rocky Schenck. Another single off the album, "Body Thief" saw moderate traction with a video that would ultimately get banned from MTV. With all the attention Faster Pussycat was gaining, positive and negative, including appearances on talk-shows like The Sally Jesse Raphael Show (to which the track 'Cat Bash' refers) it appeared they were continually on the rise. But, ultimately, this would be the last album the band would record together with the current roster. After the Whipped! tour, Faster Pussycat disbanded....

With music still coursing through his veins, Taime kept his music motor running and moved to Chicago to meet up with Martin Atkinson of Pigface (Ministry, Al Jorgensen, Skinny Puppy) which ultimately lead into contribution to a new Pigface record as well. Eventually, Taime moved back to LA where he formed industrial rock act, The Newlydeads.

The Newlydeads was like Faster Pussycat's bitchy, insubordinate, no fucks left to give, bastard child. With moderate success in industrial and industrial rock scenes, the band featured Taime Downe (vocals, guitars & programming) and expanded with Kyle Kyle (Bass) and appearances by Tim Skold (Skold, Shotgun Messiah), Van Christie(KMFDM, Die Warzau) and Charles Levi(My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult).

With his finger on the pulse of the scene, Taime then opened The Pretty Ugly club with longtime best friend, JD Terzi

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