Late
80s/early
90s heavy metal band named after the
Russ Meyer film "
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" Made up of
singer Taime Downe (born Gustave Molnik, picked up the
stage name in a band called "The Bondage Boys");
guitarists Brent Muscat and Greg Steele,
bassist Eric Stacy (who replaced Kelly Nichols, later of
L.A. Guns), and original
drummer Mark Michaels. These guys met in
Los Angeles, performed for a year or two, and got signed by
Elektra Records. Taime was rooming with
Riki Rachtman at the time, and Rikki did some
DJ scratching on the rap-metal song "Babylon." The two also decided to open a
club, which they named "The
Cathouse" (also the title of a Pussycats song).
The self-titled album comes out, the band tours supporting Y&T, Frehley's Comet, and Guns n' Roses. The song "Bathroom Wall" has the number that was supposedly written on the bathroom wall in the lyrics, and the band sets up an answering machine at that number, 261-7668 (in the 213 area code) which was originally meant to be an aid to getting bookings, but became a place for fans (and non-fans) to leave messages for the band. The first album is moderately successful and gets them a lot of comparisons to Poison and Guns 'n Roses.
They record their second album, "Wake Me When It's Over," hiring and firing 8 producers in the process. Around this time they also appear in Penelope Spheeris' documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years." While touring in November 1990, Mark Michaels is arrested for having drugs FedExed to him. (I saw the band in concert on Thanksgiving Day 1990, and the fans hadn't even heard the story yet; Frankie Banali from Quiet Riot was filling in for Mark.) Eventually Mark is kicked out of the band and Brett Bradshaw is hired as the new drummer. The power ballad "House of Pain," their biggest hit, is popular at this time.
By 1992, the band was ready to release their third album, "Whipped." However, the music scene is turning to grunge (and to be honest, this album wasn't nearly as good as their previous two, in the opinion of a dedicated fan like myself). Elektra drops them, and not that long afterwards Taime leaves the group. Taime is now in a band with Kyle Kyle from Bang Tango, called "The Newlydeads," and Brent and Eric are in "Bubble" with Bam from Dogs D'Amour and Share Pederson from Vixen and Contraband.