Faster Pussycat

The Sunset Strip’s kings of sleaze rock, Faster Pussycat blended chugging chords with glam-rock swagger in their early years and later played with hard-edged electro. Formed in 1985 by frontman Taime Downe, Faster Pussycat released their self-titled debut, which was full of single-entendre lyrics and references to the notorious L.A. club Cathouse, in 1987. Wake Me When It’s Over, the follow-up, was the band’s commercial and artistic peak, with the childhood lament “House of Pain” hitting the U.S. Top 20 and songs like “Poison Ivy” and “Slip of the Tongue” combining sex appeal with sped-up blues strutting. Grunge took hold of mainstream rock’s consciousness before the 1992 release of the solid Whipped, and the band went on hiatus shortly afterward. Downe shifted gears and put out a collection of techno remixes, Between the Valley of the Ultra Pussy, in 2001, then led various lineups that included original members. In 2006 Faster Pussycat, now consisting of Downe and a new collection of musicians, released The Power And the Glory Hole, which put an industrial spin on Downe’s black-leather-clad rock. The glammy stomp “Nola,” released in 2021, was the band’s first new studio release in 15 years.