Anti-Cimex Archive

This is likely the rarest sleeve variation of "Raped Ass." (Next would be the Really Fast Rec. pressing without the drawing of the violin on the inside of the sleeve.)  Instead of the price "10 Kr.," which appears on the two normal sleeves of "Raped Ass," this one says "Swedish Punk." The two-piece sleeve is printed on the thin paper commonly considered the second pressing. The paper stock is similar to that of the domestic version of the Skitslickers EP. Notably, this pressing includes an insert, which is not included with any other pressing. (A later pressing of "VOAB," on Hardcore Horror Rec., includes an insert, unlike the earlier pressings.)  

Again, thanks to the information superhighway!

Check these photos. I've never seen them before. Wow. Lasse looks crazed in the fourth photo--reminds me of Wretched's singer, who was better documented in photos. (Also, in case you somehow missed it, check my review of the recent bootleg of the Shitlickers EP here.)

EDIT Sept 11, 2008 The original site where these photos appeared has been taken down, so here are the photos:

The internet's bounty overfloweth.

Go here for some photos of Discharge and a gig poster for Discharge and Anti-Cimex in Göteborg in 1982. Photos of Anti-Cimex from these gigs have been circulated widely by Distortion Records and bootleggers.

But is there a live tape?

Here's a rather typical interview of an '80s hardcore band (Anti-Cimex, in this case) from the Swedish fanzine Punk and Disorderly. Thank you to Patrik Sjosten for the scan and Peter Jidling for the translation. The introduction is included.

I should be embarrassed to post something that looks as poor as this, but I'm feeling shameless today. I can't remember where I found this tiny scan. It appears to be a listing of a week's worth of Swedish hardcore gigs at Cafe Ceasar (yes, that's how it's spelled). My guess is it was in April 1984. What a week: Rattus, SOD, Anti-Cimex, Existenz, TA.S.K., etc.! Punk not Rasism forever!

Flyers from early '80s Anti-Cimex gigs are tough to find for some reason. I have a few actual flyers, but I found a miniature reproduction of this one in Obituary zine #7, from England, in an interview with Arroganta Agitatorer. The zine was published in November 1984. The print quality wasn't so hot, but you can see all the relevant information. Maybe Cimex flyers are rare because they had boring artwork, so no one kept them! If you have a flyer to contribute, please get in touch.

This is one of a series of "tribute" posts for Kawakami of Disclose, who died June 5, 2007. As you likely know, Kawakami was one of the greatest fans of Anti-Cimex and Skitslickers, and his music itself was a perpetual tribute to the these bands' method of using Discharge's template but "extreming" it. Kawakami shared with me a great deal of memorabilia that he had collected. I don't think he ever saw this archive, as I never sent him the URL. It pains me to no end that he will never see the progress of this project, which owes so much to him.

Janne from Selfish was a nephew, I believe, to the singer of Vaurio, who died a few years ago. Janne inherited his collection, including a flyer and newspaper clipping from Anti-Cimex's first gig in Finland. Vaurio was the only Finnish band that played with four Swedish bands at the gig in Naantali--known as Finland's most popular holiday destination! I talked to Vote Vasko about this gig, and he did not remember it having happened. He thought the first Cimex gig in Finland came much later. But here's the proof (anyway, Vote lived in a different town, hundreds of miles away). My Finnish is a little rusty, but I think the newspaper clipping expresses revulsion at these hellions' music and behavior. Killer line-up at this gig, no? Thanks very much to Janne for this material.

1/13/11 post correction: This video is not from Leeds. See this post for more information.

I had heard this video existed a year or two ago, but no one seemed to have a copy of it. Youtube to the rescue. This video displays some pretty fascinating aspects of mid-'80s Cimex. Their detractors always claimed that they were Discharge clones, changing their style as Discharge did. This video seems to substantiate that claim: check out Jonsson's fashion choices. Luckily his vocals remained intense as ever. (One wonders if Cal ever beat himself in the head with the microphone.) Musically, the band is strong, playing the same songs it seems they played--or attempted to play--at all the UK tour dates. "Game of the Arseholes" is particularly great in this video. But how many of those gigs ended like this one? An intro and not even three songs into it, the drummer walks off stage, perhaps because Jonsson had too disappeared. Maybe they were both annoyed at the guitar cutting out. Or maybe someone off screen was offering free drugs and booze. Another highlight is that there are two drummers, which was supposedly true at all the UK tour dates. The back of the "s/t" 12" depicts the second drummer and says that he was a member of the band, in charge of percussion. A great photo, possibly from the same gig, was printed in Maximum Rocknroll's photo zine Welcome to Cruise Country, which is below. Anyway, not much else to say here, except that this video is awesome. I've also been informed that the gig in this video was not in Leeds, but that's what the Youtube video title says, so I'll leave it like that here to avoid confusion.

Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2MBUo2j7W0

Late in 2006, an auction on eBay revealed the existence of yet another variation of the Skitslickers EP's sleeve. This one is on Bullshit Records, which released Anti-Cimex's first EP and Absurd's EP. The auction description tells a story about Bullshit Records intending to release the record but running out of money so that "Malign Massacre/Studio Lane" had to step in to release the record. I do not believe this story. What is important to note is that Mats Boldenmalm had his hand in nearly everything relating to Skitslickers and Anti-Cimex, and was also responsible for creating some of the rare sleeve variations, such as this one. One such variation he did not remember having made until it was shown to him many years later. For this and other reasons, I take all stories about "pressings" and amounts of records/sleeves made with a great deal of skepticism (the seller also told me that someone had told him 3 or 4 copies of this sleeve exist). Mats was quite kind and forthcoming to me in 2001 when I wrote to him asking many questions on the subject in the process of writing an article for Maximum Rocknroll about Swedish hardcore, but a great deal of minutia remains to be clarified. In that article, I wrote that Jonsson, bassist of Skitslickers, was the proprietor of Bullshit Recordz, but I don't remember the source of that information.