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Taime Downe in 1997

Taime Downe was the lead singer of 1980s Sleaze Rock band Faster Pussycat and co-owner of The Cathouse club with Riki Rachtman. He sang for The Newlydeads and Switching Babies and was involved with Pigface.

Born on September 29, 1964, Taime Downe(Thomas Merager) grew up in Seattle, Washington. He was the oldest of four children; his three younger sisters were Lisa, Michele, and Marnie (his half-sister). He got into music at a very early age. In high school he formed a band with two of his brothers [??? If there were four siblings, and he had three younger sisters, where did these two brothers come in? ???]; the band was called The Bondage Boys. Sometime after this he left Seattle for San Diego, then on to Los Angeles.

Before coming to musical fame, Taime worked for Retail Slut in Hollywood, he also modeled for Lip Service. In 1985 he formed the band with Brent Muscat Faster Pussycat, who released their debut the same year Guns N' Roses shot to fame (1987).

Faster Pussycat were signed to Elektra Records and sold in excess of 500,000 copies of 1989s Wake Me When It's Over. They toured with Y&T, Ace Frehley, Alice Cooper, Mötley Crüe, KISS, David Lee Roth, and others. Their next album Whipped!, released in 1992, faced the surging popularity of alternative rock and was less popular. The band broke up that year, with Taime moving to Chicago to work with Pigface.

Taime returned to Los Angeles shortly after and put together his own industrial rock band called The Newlydeads, Taime played all the instruments, did the artwork, and mixed the bands debut himself. Around 1998, he opened his own club, called The Pretty Ugly Club with co-owner JD Terziu. The club had the same success as The Cathouse. (JD died in a fatal car accident in 2005.) Taime has also been the promoter of other clubs In LA such as Thunder Pussy and Pretty Pussy. He also was the DJ at Metal Skool with Josh Richman as the MC.

The Newlydeads released a remix CD called Re-Bound and in 2001 released Dead End. The same year Downe reunited for a tour with original Faster Pussycat members Brent Muscat and Greg Steele joining him. The newly re-formed band opened for Poison in 2002.

In 2006, Full Effect Records released Dreams from a Dirt Nap, a Newlydeads best-of album, in May, and the new Faster Pussycat album The Power And The Glory Hole in July. Taime toured with Faster Pussycat throughout the summer with a whole new lineup. Bang Tango, Adlers Appetite were on the same bill.

• Taime on MySpace
• Newlydeads on MySpace
• Full Effect Records, their record label