BLIND OWL RECORDS RELEASES
“SATURDAY NIGHT SAGE” SINGLE
FEAT. HOWLIN RAIN AND NOAH C. LEKAS
ANNOUNCE THE RELEASE OF
SOUNDS FROM THE SHADOW FACTORY
A COLLABORATIVE SPOKEN WORD EP
"When you read 'Saturday Night Sage,' you can hear glimmers of the Doors’ mysticism, Bob Dylan’s street-corner truth-telling, and Patti Smith’s punk rhapsodies." - The San Diego Union-Tribune
“Saturday Night Sage is an incandescent book of poetry.” - Please Kill Me
“An absorbing and transporting exploration of mysticism and menial labor in contemporary America.” - The Big Takeover
ARTWORK BY ALAN FORBES
“Saturday Night Sage” : HERE // WATCH
“At a time when society is beguiled by social media, and the veneer of perfection that it generates, writers such as Lekas who celebrate the imperfect and the overlooked offer a vital antidote to mainstream culture.” -Platen Review
"....a luminous book of poetry about the journey of the Sage from the back bone of the American Dream to the exaltation of enlightenment." - Listen SD
SAN DIEGO’s Blind Owl Records is continuing to innovate the art of rock n’ roll with the release of“Saturday Night Sage,” the lead single from the forthcoming EP Sounds from the Shadow Factory, due out February 19th, and available for pre-order via on Bandcamp and the Blind Owl Records website. The EP was inspired by the book of poetry and narrative prose Saturday Night Sage by Noah Lekas, released last year on Record Store Day. The book of poetry and narrative prose has garnered comparisons to Dylan, Patti Smith, Jack Kerouac, Nick Cave and Bukowski that came highly recommended by Punk Noir Magazine who called it called, “A brutal and brilliant poetry collection crowded with losers and loners, laments and lullabies, and booze and blood-stained torch songs for the twilight hours.”
The book is about a blue-collar mystic looking for God and his place in Modern Culture. Navigating whiskey-soaked revelations with religion, folklore and dwindling opportunity, a spiritual journeyman wades through Eastern philosophy, Western theology and the American highways and factories of the Midwest in search of resolve. More than just bar room tales of flagrant dispossession, Saturday Night Sage emerges from the shadows of crumbling factory-life; it gives voice to an often-undervalued American story. Examining the repetitive yet unstable duality of Midwestern life, Saturday Night Sage bets-it-all that a Blue-Collar work ethic is all you need to get out of the factory and Saturday Night.
The book's title poem, Saturday Night Sage was adapted by bay-area psych legends, Howlin’ Rain into a heady audio meditation. An improvisational piece of music, the track captures the exploration inherent in the poem, launching listeners across “utopian plains” and into the “slums of the shadow factory.” "The Howlin Rain music here was dug out of a rehearsal recording from one of our past jams. It was the kind of thing we play to warm up when we first reconvene, usually someone is still changing guitar strings or setting up an amp and whoever is ready begins an improv and everyone joins in eventually, says Howlin Rain’s Ethan Miller. “Dan Cervantes took what probably never would have been revisited, heard the spirit in it and brilliantly edited and overdubbed a few subtle elements to really make it 'a thing' and create a piece that could thread into Noah's fantastic Neo-Beat poetry. In the end, that off the cuff, 'found' music source is a really cool vehicle for Noah's words. “
Growing up in a working-class household, Lekas was introduced to the mystic almost as early as the menial. Surrounded by Catholics, Buddhists, Hare Krishna’s, Pentecostals, and Hippies, his introduction to the sage’s life of seeking was early and in depth. In Racine, Wisconsin ”The menial always lurked like a long rusty shadow” says Lekas. Eastern philosophy, Western religion, universal spirituality and blue-collar ethos became the inspiration for the sage character. “He’s sort of everything I dream of being, and everything I’m afraid of becoming” Lekas recounts. While the book isn’t autobiographical, it is rooted in a visceral experience that is so Midwestern and defiantly counterculture that it’s impossible to separate the story from the life of the writer.
The pre-order for Sounds from the Shadow Factory features a number of formats including vinyl, CD and a number of bundles, that include signed copies of the vinyl (by both Noah and Howlin Rain), the book and the incredible EP art and poster were designed legendary Alan Forbes (Faith No More, Queens of the Stone Age, The Melvins, Mudhoney etc.), who did the cover art for the book.
“Poetry plus music is not as easy a marriage as it seems like it would be,” says Miller, “but Dan and Noah managed to create a piece where the band isn't just murmuring in the shadows behind the poem and the music works to lift the poet up and serve, sometimes as transportation, sometimes as firepower and sometimes in dialog. A most handsome marriage of mediums in this case, and an honor to be an extended part of the excellent 'Saturday Night Sage' release.”
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Noah C Lekas is a poet, essayist, and journalist. His first book, Saturday Night Sage (April 13, 2019) is a collection of narrative prose exploring mysticism and menial labor in contemporary America. It was The Exterminator by William Burroughs and Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski. Noah found Burroughs through a recording of The ‘Priest’ They Called Him that he did with Kurt Cobain and Hank through the band, Hot Water Music. Since then, music and literature have been inseparable for Lekas. After calling all four corners of the country home, his work is as uniquely American as his perspective. The first literary release for San Diego record label Blind Owl, the collection gives voice to an often overlooked and undervalued, working-class experience. Hailed as “A punk séance for the beat spirit,” Saturday Night Sage weaves the unwavering ethos of post-industrial Wisconsin with the poetic tradition of New York City and the eccentric Rock ‘n’ Roll soul of San Francisco.