The Anemic Boyfriends hailed from Anchorage, Alaska and there were three enigmatic sisters in the band, Maggie Johnson, Ellen and Louise Disease. The band was first called The Blond Bitches from Hell and Their Anemic Boyfriends.
Their family moved to Anchorage in 1963, when Louise was 4, Ellen 6 and Maggie 16. Maggie moved out of the house at 17 to go to college and then lived in Berkeley from 1969 to 1970. In 1979 Maggie and he husband John Firmin returned to Alaska to visit their families and when they were hanging out with John Lee they were talking about the male dominated rock scene, and their comments on, attitudes about and activities with women and Maggie made the comment "Guys are not proud, they'll stick it anywhere". Maggie did the lyrics and was recorded in the basement of a fur store in downtown Anchorage in the winter of 1978-1979. The guitarist, drummer and bass player were people that played in bands around town. Louise did the vocals. Ellen and Maggie did the minimalist cover art and lettering and the record came out on Red Sweater Record in 1980.
The B side was a song that John Firmin did called Bad Girl in Love. The single was a small hit on college radio and John started trying to form a band to perform in San Francisco.
In the summer of 1980, they got a band together consisting of guitarist Dave Jones, drummer Dave Tremper, guitarist Chris Goddard, Louise Disease on vocals, saxophonist Miriam Cutler and back-up singer Nancy Bromberg they played some punk festival in San Francisco and they recorded a full album on cassette tape. They also released another single, Fake ID.
The band played The Mabuhay Gardens and The Stone in San Francisco, opening for Flock of Seagulls in 1982 and after that the group fell apart and disbanded in 1983.
