Tales

Over at the Victims of a Bombraid blog, our main man Masken has posted a review of a Skitslickers gig that originally appeared in the Swedish fanzine Blaskan. The gig was on January 30, 1982, at a place called Rockers. 

Tony Gunnarsson translated it for me, in his words a "rough and ready translation":

Rawpunk at Rockers

A few years ago, when I posted about the pre–Anti-Cimex bands Kloak, Bombhot, Avfall, and Bohman Brinner, one of the things I said was that no Bohman Brinner recordings or photos seemed to be extant. Yet Bohmann Brinner was the band that was closest to Anti-Cimex in the genealogy. Now, thanks to Nillen, the original singer of Anti-Cimex, who later went on to sing in DNA, we finally have recordings of Bohman Brinner available. They are remarkable, particularly because we can hear embryonic Anti-Cimex tuneage in them. Nillen posted three songs on Soundcloud: "Heroindöd," which became a Cimex song on the first EP, "Fattiga och Rika," and "Kyrkan Är en Bluff." There is also an attached photo of a flyer, which appears to date to the days of Bohman Brinner. It's got classic adolescent punky artwork. By the way, Gösta Bohman was a Swedish politician who came to prominence in the 1970s. "Brinner" means "burns."

Well, this is hilarious.

Tom of General Speech wrote with some fascinating findings, thanks to, uh, nutso googling skills.

In a 1997 alt.punk usenet posting (if you don't know what that means, congratulations), someone reported having met a member (Jimmy) of The Shitlickers at a Johnny Cash concert. Jimmy offered proverbial words—"we're getting the band back together"—and discussed a planned tour, as well as new recordings.

Needless to say, neither actually happened. But we can all imagine what it would've been like. Oh wait, most of you probably weren't born yet and/or were listening to Green Day, not Shitlickers, in 1997. But now you have Shitlickers tattoos. The rest of us know what usenet means. 

One of the most memorable aspects of Anti-Cimex's oeuvre is the artwork for the 2nd and 3rd EPs. They are iconic. As a teenage punker in the 90s, long before I had heard the music, I knew the sleeves. I believe the first time I saw the artwork was in the old Havoc Records printed catalog of shirts and backpatches. It wasn't too long after that I discovered that R. Cobb, who made the artwork for the "Raped Ass" sleeve, was a well-known radical antiwar artist (and the artwork was not made for the sleeve--they reappropriated it!).

A few Cimex collectorscenti have been sending e-mails back and forth lately trying to confirm—but really propagating—the rumor of the existence of a band from Göteborg in the early 1980s called International Jailbreakers, featuring members of you know who.

Here is what is known:

Serious fans of Skitslickers and Anti-Cimex may already know that there were at least four bands that included Tomas Jonsson before the classic bands were formed. These bands were Kloak, Bombhot, Avfall, and Bohman Brinner. But only recently, to my knowledge, has any documentation of the existence of the first two—Kloak and Bombhot—circulated among collectors.

Tomas Jonsson, singer of Anti-Cimex, penned a brief autobiography of the band in the Raped Ass fanzine, which accompanied the first volume of the cassette compilation of the same name, which he and a member of Tatuerade Snutkukar released. Interestingly, Anti-Cimex did not appear on this cassette (or on the second volume). You can view the fanzine here. The Cimex piece is on the second, third, and fourth pages. Note the great photos of the band.

According to Disarm's webpage, Jonsson, singer of Anti-Cimex, made the iconic artwork for the front of the sleeve of their 2nd EP, "Dömd." A true artistic visionary.

The Shitlickers have an "official" Myspace page, on which is posted the following interview with singer Lasse, conducted by Christ of Driller Killer. I'm posting this interview here because many people do not have access to Myspace, and, beyond that, the interview is available only to their Myspace friends. In case anyone gives a shit, this publication is in accordance with fair use copyright laws.

I first tried to contact Lasse circa 2000. After multiple attempts, I gave up. Nevertheless, this interview is akin to what I would've hoped to have produced with him. It's remarkably interesting and actually contains more information than I'd expected. Some highlights are the description of line-up changes and the evolution in sound; the existence of a live tape (which Lasse says he won't share); the recording process for the EP (including a reference to Felix Havoc's fantasy); Lasse's positioning of the Shitlickers in the history of Swedish punk. I could go on. It's an awesome read, and, of course, it leaves me craving more information.

I have not edited the text in any way, except for the deletion of an emoticon.

Finally, Lasse, if you're reading, I'll give you a copy of the original record, which you need, if you'll dub the live tape for me.

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.