Carpenter Ant/Race to Die - split

Artist: Carpenter Ant/Race to Die
Title: split
Release: 2003
Label: Coffin Fund Records

Track List:
1. Carpenter Ant - Intro...The Grill Is Off
2. Carpenter Ant - 7 Plys Forever
3. Carpenter Ant - Ode to C. Herman
4. Carpenter Ant - Mohawk Combover Fuck Yeah
5. Race to Die - Disaster
6. Race to Die - Bald Leading the Blind
7. Race to Die - Possessed to Skate (Suicidal Tendencies)

If you google "Carpenter Ant Lehigh Valley, PA" most of the results you get are about actual carpenter ants and pest control service in Lehigh Valley, PA. I guess carpenter ants are a real problem up there. I suppose then it kind of makes sense for a bunch of pesky skaters to name their band after wood eating ants. There's pretty much no info about Race to Die out there so I have no clue where they're from or what they're all about.

Anyways, as if the cover and song titles didn't give it away, what we have here are songs about skating and other punk things that do an excellent job of not breaking the two minute rule. Both sides of this split are thrashy and at times a little sloppy hardcore played with your typical adolescent attitude problem. Race to Die even does a pretty gnarly Suicidal Tendencies cover.

Download: Carpenter Ant/Race to Die - split (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Carpenter Ant/Race to Die - split (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire

Fudge/Totsugeki Sensya - split

Artist: Fudge/Totsugeki Sensya
Title: split
Release: 2002
Label: 625 Thrashcore

Track List:
1. Fudge - No Racism, No War
2. Fudge - Selfish Rock
3. Fudge - 生存 (Seizon, Existence)
4. Totsugeki Sensya - Reality
5. Totsugeki Sensya - Search for the Sun

Sometimes I like to go on eBay and search for records without anything in particular in mind. I'll often just go to the records section and filter out all the bullshit like easy listening and world music as well as everything that is over a few dollars (if I didn't know I wanted it before I started looking then it really isn't something I want to spend much on) and sort by ending soonest. Every once in a while I'll find a gem amongst a seemingly endless number of Sex Pistols represses and Jefferson Airplane records misclassified as punk. This split by Gunma bands Fudge and 突撃戦車 (Totsugeki Sensya, which transliterates to "assault tank" but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess it means "tank assault") is one of those gems. The best part about this record, for me anyways, is that I won the auction with a winning bid of $0.01. How's that for some luck?

Here's what 625 has to say about this record...

Gunma City hardcore fighters! My friend Mamada from SHIKABANE is always telling me about these bands from a small town outside of Tokyo called GUNMA CITY. By chance I got into contact with a member of TOTSUGEKI SENSYA and got their demo and it fucking floored me. I couldn't believe that they had been around for a few years without some kind of output. Mamada then told me about FUDGE and we started playing around with the idea of doing a GUNMA CITY comp of some type. This is the product. While FUDGE play a more traditional style of Japanese metallic hardcore (guitar solos, shouted choruses, etc), TOTSUGEKI SENSYA play a mix between CONFUSE and BASTARD. Putting Gunma on the map! (1000 pressed, all on black)

Speaking of Shikabane, expect a few awesome and related posts in the next few weeks.

Since I'm a bit of a dork and am always curious about places I've never heard of before I looked up Gunma City but couldn't find anything. It turns out, according to Wikipedia that "On January 23, 2006 Gunma, along with the towns of Kurabuchi and Misato, all from Gunma District, and the town of Shin, from Tano District, was merged into the expanded city of Takasaki.". So there was a Gunma-machi (town) in Gunma-gun (district) in Gunma-ken (prefecture) at the time this record was pressed but it has since been absorbed by Takasaki which is considerably larger.

The only pictures I could find that were definitely of Gunma-machi were of an old (probably neolithic) burial mound...





this western pasta restaurant...



and a snow covered field...



Not exactly someplace I can imagine as a breeding ground for great hardcore, but don't let the quaintness fool you, the bands on this 7" rip.

Download: Fudge/Totsugeki Sensya - split (LAME 3.98r V0) Multiupload

Download: Fudge/Totsugeki Sensya - split (LAME 3.98r V0) Mediafire