Hey everybody! And welcome to what will likely be the last new release Tuesday of 2009, particularly in light of the fact the next new release release date marked on my calendar is in January 2010. But let's not get off track before we even start. Instead let's get right down to business and declare what I believe to be the first official missive unleashed upon the world by the maniacal five headed musical monster that is Jeff Clayton And The Mongrels, in the form of this self-titled debut EP, to be added to our ever growing yet ever humble catalog of full contact rock & roll. Yay! More details can be found here or via a visit to the catalog page, here.

But, before you go there, I'll fill you in on one detail: this particular release is a bit different from the 45s we've done in the past, as it includes one of those new fangled download cards. Well, actually, the download cards themselves aren't all that new fangled. They're basically the same as a business card. Except instead of having boring, useless information like the phone number of someone you never plan on calling, this card has a code which, when entered into the website also listed on the card, will allow you to download the three songs on the record plus two bonus tracks.

And in case that sounds too technologically advanced for you, I was able to successfully download this EP, without any help from Mr. SCR I might add, and I've never even used iTunes. Hell, I don't even know how to use our iPod that well. Although I can push the play button and have figured out how to play solitaire on it. But I digress.

I am unaware of whether or not there's a record release party / show planned to honor this record's release; I'll have to check on that and get back with you. However I am aware that Clayton's "other" band, ANTiSEEN, will be out and about this weekend, bringing the Destructo Rock - and, in the case of Saturday night, Ramones covers - to select venues in the Carolinas. So I thought I'd mention it. See ye olde shows page for more info. on these and whatever other shows I know about as of today.

'til next update,
xo,
leslie

So... a few days, many, many angry phonecalls and at least one night spent in the Horsham UPS depot (for the CDs, not me) later I am pleased to report the euphemistic eagle has landed and I now have the honor of being able to declare the St. Valentine's Day Massacre CD by Niagara & The Hitmen officially added to our slowly expanding roster of full contact rock and roll. YAY! (Truly, even in all caps the word yay does not quite fully express my excitement about this release. But, that's how we do things here.)

As always, more information can be found on ye olde catalog page, here, or by clicking on the title up there in the last paragraph.

And while we're still on the subject - not that I would ever use this forum to spread rumor and / or innuendo - I have heard both rumor and innuendo these two forces may join for another show (possibly even shows) corresponding with the CDs "down under" release on Savage Beat in October. Naturally, I will post details on this event here if / when details are given to me. (By the way the Aussie version has the same tracks, packaging, etc.; it's just coming out on two labels. Truthfully I don't know the backstory behind this but my initial thought is Larry & Dave Laing like to make things confusing for people.)

In the meantime, should you be looking to go to a show, feel free to peruse the shows page; updated this very day to include breaking news about Phil "Thee Whiskey Rebel" Irwin's November appearance at the San Marcos Public Library. (This is not a show per se, it's a "meet the author" event sponsored by whatever entity is responsible for Texas Writer's Day; either way I think it's pretty damn cool they invited Phil to participate.)

Anywhoo, I better get back to finishing up the sleeve for the Mongrels 7", lest our next new release Tuesday meet a similar fate.

'til next time,
xo,
leslie

Unfortunately I have to postpone today's new release Tuesday update, as I have no new release to release today. Because the UPS shipment containing our portion of the Niagara / Hitmen CDs has gone missing. Seriously! (And, seriously, WTF!?!) According to the not so handy UPS tracking page they were on the truck and scheduled for delivery today, yet the UPS guy was just here and the CDs weren't. Although a book Larry bought me for my birthday was.

Anywhoo, I'm going to leave the office for the day, go flip through my birthday present and let Larry & Walt try to figure out what the hell happened to our CDs. And as soon as I find out what happened I will tell you. Okey dokey?

'til then,
xo,
leslie

Hello people! And welcome to a sweltering summer new release Tuesday update; possibly the first ever heat wave new release Tuesday to date. (I'd check on that but I'm fixin' to get out of this attic office as quickly as humanly possible today.)

Seriously, it's been so hot in Philly the past few days I half expected to find melted piles of shrink-wrapped black and silver goo in our UPS shipment but I am happy to report the newly minted pressing of ANTiSEEN's The Best Of... collection arrived on our doorstep safe and sound. So let's go ahead and consider this double CD set - in all of it's digipacked, 12 page bookleted, liner noted, silver foil stamped glory - added to our ever growing yet ever humble catalog of full contact rock and roll. Yay!

Some of the more astute members of the audience may wonder if this is the same collection TKO put out last year, and the simple answer is yes. I wish I had a scandalous story to share with you all behind this label switcheroo, like Clayton made Mark and Larry arm wrestle each other and then the winner had to wrestle an alligator but truthfully it's a pretty boring, uninteresting story. Basically the first pressing came out on TKO, then it sold out / went out of print and now the second pressing is out on Steel Cage. And I think we are putting out a vinyl version at some point in the next 6 months or so but, since I don't quite have all the details yet, I'll have to get back to you on that.

Anywhoo, more info. on this fine release can be found here or via a visit to the catalog page, here; and those who wish to take in the power and glory of the Kings Of Destructo Rock in person can consult the updated-as-often-as-peope-send-me-dates-to-add shows page. Or stalk the band on MySpace, assuming people still use that.

'til next update,
xo,
leslie

Hello people! I realize I've been a bit neglectful of ye olde SCR news page as of late; not so much because I have no news to report... um, well, actually... I haven't had any real news to report. Mainly because Larry & Liza made me swear I wouldn't tell anyone about the Hammerlock European tour until the band bought their plane tickets. Then once the band did book their flight I got distracted working on posters for their upcoming weekend's worth of shows with Hattiesburg, Mississippi's most famous export, Before I Hang and finishing up the design of The Hitmen / Niagara CD and forgot.

So yeah - did you know Hammerlock are going overseas in the next couple weeks to, among other things, play this huge festival called the Bulldog Bash? It's true! More information can, as always, be found on the shows page. But you might wanna also check their MySpace page for the most up to the minute info.; as I won't be updating this site until we're home from vacation.

I have a couple of other excuses for not updating this page more frequently. For one, I started yet another business late last year - this - and it's been keeping me busy. (I realize the majority of visitors to this page are of the heterosexual male variety and therefore don't give a shit about fabulous vintage dresses or hand dyed slips but, you know, you may need to buy your chick a present at some point and then you can come see me.)

Also, on a more relevant topic, I mostly use this page to talk about new releases and we haven't had one since the Lime Spiders CD came out in April. The Fall release schedule is looking a bit more active than our Spring / Summer schedule though. In fact, according to those little boxes below this entry, I will be updating this page at least once a month for the next three months.

And on that note I'll see you back here on August 18th when I will wax non-poetically (unless you have a very loose definition of what counts as poetry) about the Destructo Rock stylings of ANTiSEEN.

'til then,
xo,
leslie

Hey everybody - as much as I would like to be my normal jovial, longwinded self, this particular new release Tuesday finds me a bit under the weather and, as excited as I am about today's new release, it's kind of hard to be wordy or witty when you feel like you're about to vomit into your trash can - something I truly hope does not actually happen while I'm doing this update because I just realized the trash can in my office is made of mesh.

Anywhoo, since I'm pretty sure no one reading this is interested in the state of my tummy but I'm almost one hundred percent sure, based on the reception the CD has gotten prior to it even being released, there are plenty of people interested in hearing one of Sydney Australia's most beloved and infamous bands rip through a 22 song set of originals, covers and songs you've never heard unless you had a bootleg copy of this live show as they have never properly been released, I officially declare Lime Spiders Live At The Esplanade CD added to our impressive but still humble catalog of full contact rock and roll. And I saved enough energy for one more enthusiastic word - YAY!!

PS: If you have never owned at least one record by this band, or at the very least know most of the words to "Slave Girl," you need to go back to rock and roll high school! Or consult your local Trouser Press Record Guide, assuming that thing still exists. And now that we're at the point where I'm making references to relatively obscure reference books we're gonna call this update updated and I'm going back to bed.

'til next time,
xo,
leslie

Well, we all thought this day would never come - at least I know I did! - but now that it has, prepare to duck, cover and lock up your daughters (and while you're at it you may as well lock up the mothers, grandmothers and possibly even your pets; I can't be held responsible for Lenny Mental's actions and I'm not sure he can either) because The Besmirchers Skankenstein 7" EP is officially about to be unleashed on a not completely unsuspecting world. (Especially if you read this page because I've mentioned it here a few times already.)

Anywhoo, technically the records won't be here until tomorrow but, considering how long this has taken & how cursed Besmirchers release dates seem to be, we're gonna say that's close enough to call this record added to our still humble yet ever expanding catalog of full contact rock & roll. Sigh! It's been so long since we had a new release Tuesday I barely remember what else I'm supposed to do at this point... oh that's right, the record is not officially released until I say yay. Yay! Then it's time to plug the record release show and mention the shows page...

Did I mention the band is having a record release show to celebrate? Well they are. It's next Saturday, AKA April 11th @ the Vaudeville, AKA the only club in Tucson they've been invited to play more than once, and they will be joined by Chainsaw Justice, Flying Donkey Punch, Limbless Torso and fellow Steel Cage-ians Bricktop. And, of course, this information and info. on any other shows I've been told about - like the second leg of that ANTiSEEN / Joe Buck Yourself tour that starts next week in Hattiesburg - can be found on the aforementioned shows page.

In other news, we are officially in search of a new place to run our vinyl. (Because, in short, the two pressing plants we have worked with to date are shadier than the day is long and staffed by lying scumbags.) So any suggestions from the readers of this page - assuming there are any and out of those people one of you has knowledge in this area - are welcome and appreciated!

Fortunately we're still in the honeymoon period with Imprint, the plant that runs our CDs and DVDs; and I know our next record release Tuesday is definitely not in any jeopardy cause I've got boxes of Lime Spiders CDs literally all over my house. (Boxes Mr. Steel Cage better be moving to the basement today!) So we - meaning me - will see you back here two Tuesday's from now for more on that topic.

xo,
leslie

Hey everybody! Again, I have no real news to share with you today but I did want to jump in and mention the Steel Cage "staff" (yes, both of us) will be out of town, and therefore unable to mail packages, during the week of March 15th. So - all orders placed before noon on Friday, March 13th will be sent before we leave; orders placed after noon on Friday, March 13th and before whatever time we download our email on Sunday, March 22nd will be mailed Monday, March 23rd. Okey dokey? And I'll see you back here March 31st for a proper new release Tuesday update.

'til then,
xo,
leslie

Hello people! I don't have any really exciting news to share with you today but we did get some not exciting news which caused me to have to change one of the release dates in the little boxes below (the one farthest to the left) so I figured while I was here I'd type in the reason.

To make a long story slightly less long, this morning we learned the master of The Besmirchers 7" was damaged and needs to be re-run - essentially meaning the entire job is starting over from scratch. News we found particularly frustrating since we submitted the job in the beginning of January and it's supposed to be a three - four week turnaround from the day the pressing plant receives the materials necessary to run the job and boxes of finished vinyl on our living room floor. For those of you who don't have a calendar handy, this means we actually should have had the record back three - four weeks ago; which would have been approx. four weeks in advance of the March 3rd release date. Now we will have them back, at the earliest, four weeks from today which is why I had to change the release date to five weeks from tomorrow. (Did you get all that?) Sigh.

On the bright side - the Vaudeville was already booked up on Saturday nights until April so, even with this adjusted release date, the band will still have 45s on hand at their record release show. And of course you can find more info. on this show, the upcoming ANTiSEEN / Joe Buck Yourself dates and whatever other shows people have told me about on the aptly named shows page.

'til next time,
xo,
leslie

Hey everybody! As you can see there hasn't been much action around this page as of late. Which isn't to say there hasn't been anything going on here at the Steel Cage compound. It's more that, generally speaking, none of the behind the scenes aspects of running a record label are particularly newsworthy. Especially things like updating the shows page; archiving last year's news; changing all of our release dates by two weeks because there was a shake up at our distributor and a bunch of nice people lost their jobs the first week of January, etc. Of course, these things still need to be done so... here we are.

Anywhoo, over the past couple of weeks I have heard some SCR related rumor and innuendo that might make for a good multi-faceted news post one day so I will make an effort to get enough concrete information to turn these bits of gossip into legitimate news and report back to you. Okey dokey? In the meantime I'm gonna go back to working on changing the "artwork under construction" icons seen below to actual cover art.

'til next update,
xo,
leslie