Anti-Cimex Archive

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.

"We had no hotels or anything, so would face long drives back to my apartment to crash after most shows. One night we got back about 3am, quickly loaded the equipment inside, parked the van up on the (quiet, suburban) street, and got some zzz's. No one realised Jonsson didn't enter the house, figuring he went off searching for beer (or drugs), next morning I wake up early to get ready to head off to the next show, I see Jonsson lying spread-eagled face down on the fucking road! I thought he was dead...fuuuuuck!

Anti-Cimex appeared on some cassette compilations released in Sweden in the period after the release of their first 7", before their second, when Jonsson took over vocal duties and the lyrics were in Swedish. This period is when the compilation LP tracks ("Really Fast" and "Vägra for Hëlvete") and "Anarkist Attack" demo were released. The tracks on these compilations were unique, whereas tracks appearing on later, foreign-released cassette compilations were duplicated on records. 

Here is a brief review of "Victims of a Bombraid" from Stepping Stone to Insanity zine #2 from UK 1985.