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Finally, The Last Dancers on Wax! 



BIG NEWS!
The Last Dancers release their first vinyl record at SXSW on American Icon Records Friday March 14th 10pm. The release party is being held in the middle of a 70 band show at The Spider House. On the bill are several other label mates releasing either vinyl or CD including DRC3 from Portland, Oregon. This is a legendary milestone for all of us who worked so hard to make this record and we are honored to be able to present most of the full-length released in Spain on Alone Records Pre-Revolution at our show. We will be showcasing 3 of the songs off that release that are on the new vinyl (and sound great!) as well as one new unreleased single "Sad Girl".   



In other news, The Last Dancers have found themselves in living in Chicago as of 2014 writing a new album with a highly versatile group of rockers. Brett Whittacre of The Legendary Shack Shakers is on drums, Barrett Sellers on guitars, keys and atmospheric generators and Greg Roitek is holding down the bass at our upcoming performances. After SXSW we will begin booking shows in Chicago and the surrounding region as well as doing a few more release parties in Portland (May 3rd) and of course here in Chicago this Summer. If you want more info on getting the vinyl please contact: https://www.facebook.com/AmericanIconRecords

Thank you fr continuing to listen! -Love, The Last Dancers.

03/08/2014

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The Last Dancers to release vinyl EP on American Icon Records 

Exciting news for us analog audiophiles this month at Last Dancers HQ...all be they digital audio files that we will be creating the vinyl from due to time and money constraints, we will nonetheless be pushing the acetate into the vinyl in Austin, Texas with our excellent new American underground label American Icon. We're deliberating over the 4 Pre-Revolution tracks that will make the cut now and Jamie Zuverza will be doing the cover art. His work is great.



There is a good chance Adam (I) will fly into Austin and do a release show with some of my Austin brethren backing me up. Perhaps importing an actual Last Dancer as well from Portland. Dony Wynn and John Birch would be in that gang otherwise. If there is a release show it might likely be at The Spider House as American Icon does a lot of shows there. After party at Justine's for sure. Regardless of time, date, locale, we/I will have attained a tiny portion of a true lifelong dream. To make records. I hope anyone who loves vinyl and good time Rock and Roll will come out and celebrate with us as the records will most likely not be distributed anywhere but through us directly. If we sell them all at the show or on a tour in Europe we will press up some more right quick and let you know. If you dig the record samples on this page, write to me at adam.mackintosh@gmail.com and I will hook you up with a bunch of tunes. More news to come when the needle hits the record! 

American Icon Records

 

08/12/2013

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Steel Bridge Songfest 2013 The Last Dancers and Ruby James 

I attended Steel Bridge Songfest 7 years in a row 2000-2007. I was exposed to something most would call magical in that time and it is a great honor to be invited back as a performer this year with The Last Dancers and Ruby James, We play somewhere in the tiny town of Sturgeon Bay Saturday night. It won't be hard to find us, and if you don't, you will find something remarkable. This is the only US performance The Last Dancers will play before our tour in Spain this Fall so catch us if you can. I know you have no reason to trust a blog post on the internet, but I can tell you if you don't go, you will regret it. 

http://www.sbsf5.com/fr_home.cfm


06/02/2013

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Music News and Steel Bridge Songfest 2011!!! 

 Wow, an absolutely insane time in my music career folks! I've spent the last couple of months flying back and forth to Austin to record the album I have been writing with Ruby James and the results are already blowing us away. We have been recording at Tequila Mockingbird with Kyle Crusham and have had the honor of having the legendary Dony Wynn (Robert Palmer, Charlie Sexton) on drums. Let's just say he showed up with 5 cymbal bags and 20 flight cases of different snares, kicks and toms....Amazing to watch that man work. There will be more posts about this in the future as the songs become mastered and released.
However, if you are attending Steel Bridge Songfest this year you will be able to get a live preview of all of the new tracks on Saturday at Andres' Ballroom. 


Meanwhile, back in Hollywood...The Dearest shot a new video for "Undone" this month at The Geisha Room on Hollywood Blvd. We were honored by the presence of John McDuffie on Pedal Steel and Robert Black on upright Bass.  Derek Reckley from the hilarious Ski Lift AT&T commercial stars in it as well. It was a total blast and everyone involved was simply so pro. Look for that as we get it edited. All three advance singles are available for FREE on our website at hearthedearest.com

Sitting in the Rock and Roll Sheraton in Madison thanks to our good pal Pauli Ryan (master percussionist) taking a day off before Ruby and I head to Steel Bridge Songfest for a week of writing with upwards of 25 writers from all over the world! Spending the week in the wonderful Holiday Motel with all of the other writers and recording all of the songs we write that week in the recording studio right there in the Motel. I can never fully imagine the depths and directions that SBSF is going to take but after 7 years in attendance I always know it will be incredible for me as a writer and that great songs will be created by everyone involved. So, I get to let go of everything and let the event spin me out of control. usually takes a week or so to decompress..:) 

During that "decompression" Anna and I will be packing up shop in Hollywood and heading out on the road to Austin, Portland, Wisconsin and Seattle over the summer. Our goal is to finish The Dearest record in Portland and have it packaged up for a release sometime this fall. If all goes well we will be able to continue touring, writing and recording. :) We will most likely land back in California somewhere but who knows what opportunities this exciting time will create?

The Last Dancers have worked out a deal with our label in Spain to do a US release of Pre-Revolution as an Import! We are very excited as this will include a college radio run. Pre-Revolution has been very well received in Europe as well as with a few college stations here in the states who advance copies were sent to. We couldn't be more thrilled about this development. Thank you Alone Records! 

Tune in for more news and updates as the week of writing progresses and Anna and I head out on the road! -Adam M

06/01/2011

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in Live Shows, Hollywood, Songwriting, Recording, The Last Dancers, Ruby James, The Dearest

SXSW 2011 

That's right friends and fans, going to SXSW this year to record and rock a ton of shows with Ruby James and also feature a rare U.S. performance of songs by The Last Dancers. I have posted all of the dates with all of the important details on my Upcoming Shows page so please click the link to view them. Be sure to scroll forward to March as the festival is the weekend of March 17th. Really looking forward to playing all of these songs I have written for Ruby in Austin with the incredible players out there as well as performing The Last Dancers material. Every time you play with new people you get a new interpretation of the music. Always enriching whether you pull it off or not! :) The Last Dancers set will be at Maria's Taco Express on the 17th of March (time slot TBD) but it is looking like 1:30pm right now -that's afternoon folks! So get some mexican food and an ice cold beer and kick the weekend off right. Ready to seriously throw down so I hope you can be there on time. To get updated as to the exact time follow me on Twitter as I will be posting any important updates there as the weekend wiggles and shakes. See you in Texas! -AM

02/23/2011

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Welcome to LA 

At the end of the Summer, I will be coming up on two years in Los Angeles. I have done quite a bit of work in the last 18 months especially when it comes to live performance. LA is a tough nut to crack and I wouldn't have been able to do it at all without the kind introductions of Lynda Kay Parker. Her album Dream My Darling is an absolute masterpiece with classic after classic song, a real album. I won't go on too long here but not only is Lynda one of the greatest American song writers I've had the good fortune to know, she is a first class person. Smart, funny as all hell and a true performer. Through her generosity I have met some of the greatest musicians I have ever known who continue to be so supportive and encouraging. John Mcduffie, Christopher Allis, Jason Chesney with his killer band Old Californio, Jeff Legore from The Psychedelic Cowboys and so many more great folks out at the live shows at The Echo opening for The Blasters and Southern Culture On The Skids. It was a great year and boy I'm gonna miss playing that Gretsch! Thank you Lynda Kay!
Grammy Pre-Party 2010 Hotel Figeuroa

Benefit for The Thirst Project Santa Monica
Live in store appearance at Amoeba Records

02/10/2011

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Ruby Tuesday's 1/11 

 Well, we just wrapped up a month of Tuesday concerts with Ruby James at The Cinema Bar in LA and man did we have a great time! The Dearest performed twice as well as Bob "Woody" Woodruff, Will Sexton, Paul Freeman, Carlos Calvos and many incredible backing musicians. The Dearest also had a sold out show in Santa Barbara at Blue Agave, with Ruby james and B. Willing James...thank you so much everyone for coming out. That was a truly memorable evening and I believe there is video of the entire night. :) I will be posting some of that here as soon as I get it. 

Now I'm heading up to Joshua Tree to play Pappy and Harriets in PIoneertown this coming Saturday for Sin City's Cosmic American Roadshow w/ so many great artists including Deadman from Austin, Tx! I'll be playing all of the new songs I have written for Ruby James with her and Mr. Chris Lawrence on pedal steel. 

Sin City's Cosmic American Roadshow and Gospel Brunch * Pioneertown, CA
Location: Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace
Time: 6:00PM Saturday, January 29th


Looking forward to SXSW and waiting to hear more about a Last Dancers tour in Europe this Summer...more to come! 

01/27/2011

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Innumerable Blessings 1/11/11

Hello everyone, I would like to start that with some graciousness and gratefulness for still being here, making music.

I would like this first entry to be a thank you to just a few of the people I can think of who have inspired me, supported me, given me their feedback, stabbed me in the back, shared ideas, stolen ideas, been a mirror for me and sometimes done things to help me far beyond what the average friend or relative would be inclined to do.

My fiancee Anna. She keeps me in check, outwits me frequently, loves me completely and contines to write, record and perform beautiful songs with me in our band The Dearest. We are in the process of mixing 8-10 songs with our musical collaborator and recording/mixing/drumming guru Dano Capristo in Portland.
Dano recorded and mixed all of the songs for The Last Dancers album Pre-Revolution out of a simple passion for doing so and he has won our hearts as a person, producer and musician. Thank you Dano.

I moved in with Eric McFadden and Paula O'Rourke in San Francisco sometime around 1993. I was heart-broken. No. It was more than that...I was caved in and spiritually spooned out. And Paula could tell. I don't think there was even really space for me in their 1 bedroom apartment on Fell st. but Paula must have convinced Eric it was a good idea to have me move in to the small bedroom and have them occupy just the living room. I spent many late nights in front of an old moldy typewriter, not sleeping, instead trying to get everything down on paper so it made some kind of sense. During this period of healing, Eric asked me to come and play his happy hour sets every Thursday at The Paradise Lounge. I had nearly convinced myself to quit music forever but I couldn't say no to him, who could have? I was well below his skill level as a guitarist but he didn't seem to mind, instead he would call out things on stage like..."Ok, this is a 1, 5, 4 with a quick 4 in the chorus" and then start the song. A crash course in Rhythm guitar that literally saved me from abandoning the one thing in my life that, at the time, gave me real inner peace. Also how I discovered the genius of Jim Campilongo who played after us every week on the same stage upstairs "above paradise". Thank you Eric and Paula.

Sometime in 1994 or 1995, Eric had a show at Slim's with his band Liar who were getting major acclaim from the S.F. Press. On the bill was a slight, southern gentleman named James Hall. We stood in the main room watching him soundcheck without his band by playing "Don't Talk, Put Your Head On My Shoulder" by The Beach Boys while we thought to ourselves and somehow communicated silently to each other, "who the hell is this freak?"
He was strangley kind while we talked before the show and we weren't used to kindness being San Franciscan's so we held our hearts at bay until he took the stage with The Pleasure Club. The songs, the band and James pretty much cracked out chests and performed open heart surgery on us right there in the venue. I left after the show on a mission to redeem myself by the power of song, come hell or high water...oddly I experienced both where I went next. I had the good fortune to spend a lot of time with James in the following years and we have now written and recorded 3 or 4 songs together. I don't think I would still be writing had I not met him that night. Thank you James.

Soon after, I met a woman at The Stardust Lounge in SOMA and we played a game called "Either/Or" that we made up (I guess) on the spot for nearly 3 hours. I would ask a question, "asleep or awake" and she would reply "awake". And then she would ask a question, "fried or boiled" and I would answer "fried". Naturally, we became quickly acquianted and decided to flee the city of San Francisco just as the dot com invasion doubled all of the artists' rent for the only other place we could think of that equally interesting...New Orleans. We later knew each other as Husband and Wife and lived in Algiers Point, Louisiana where Memphis Minnie wrote "When The Levee Breaks" for nearly 5 years. When The South became too much to bare with the rampant violence, racial tension, perpetual partying and persistent hurricanes, we moved to Portland, Oregon and tried to keep our marriage alive. Toward the end I was moved to write "Mystified" on an old Gibson LG-1 that Hank Ballard had given her. When we parted, she gave me the guitar and I have probably written 200 songs on it since then. Thank you Tasha.

A single man in my late 20's booking/managing and pouring whiskey at Dante's Inferno in downtown Portland, I had nearly completed my first record which would later be referred to as "Gracious Living". I put a band together with Addison Elliot, James Beaton, Nikki Colavitto, Paula Flasker, Joe Sanders, Maya Noah, David Graham and Storm Large and named it Gruesome Galore. People hated the name, Thrasher Presents ignored us but Frank Faillacce gave us opening slots at Dante's whenever he could and despite the name, people who heard us liked the music. Enough so, that I decided we would make a record and go to Spain on tour, which we did several times between 2000 and 2006 in various forms. Our final tour in Spain as Gruesome Galore was probably the most blissful diasater of my life. We lost $10,000 Euros to the management company and played 22 shows in 17 days. It was glorious and tragic and I did the best with what I had, some of us are good friends and some of us don't speak at all. Thank you Frank and to everyone in that band for playing all of those shows and touring in Europe for essentially no money. I will forever appreciate that greatly and hopefully, one day, return your generosity in full somehow.

The production of that album would not have been possible without Judy Galbraith. Thank you Judy.

When I left Dante's and opened the indie art factory Audio Cinema with Ilan Laks in late 2005, I had no idea what I was getting myself in to. My brilliant friend Mona Superhero warned me not to do it but there were a number of reasons in my heart that said I had to. None of them make sense to me now but at the time they did. Back in Barcelona I had spent an evening with Eric McFadden and pat mAcdonald drinking whiskey and twsting words. pat had a songwriting festival brewing in Wisconsin with Jackson Browne and a small group of other writers who would all inhabit The Holiday Motel for a week and write songs in an effort to save The Michigan Street Bridge. pat invited me to Steel Bridge Songfest the first year of the songwriting intensive and although I had felt at many times in my life a performer and singer and guitar player I had never truly experienced the honor of feeling like a Songwriter. At the end of the week, I had experienced that feeling many times over. Thank you pat.






 

Austin, Texas

Hello Everyone! Just a quick update to let you all know that I will be back in Austin from April 25th to May 4th playing at The Continental Club with Ruby James and company and for a week of co-writes with a cast of very interesting characters. Legendary producer Rick Clark has signed on to MD and play on Ruby's new live album and we couldn't be more excited. Rick had the keys to Ardent when Big Star were making their records...

I had an amazing time at SXSW with Alejandro Escovedo, Will and Charlie Sexton, Ian Moore and Tim Easton, Bill Carter, John Dee Graham. Also got to spend an afternoon with Mike Stinson, Michael Des Barres, Danny B. Harvey and a bunch of other zany rockers at a ranch/recording studio out in the sticks. I'm really enjoying my time out there and working very hard to keep touring and writing. I Greatly appreciate your continued support and will keep posting updates on the site here to let you all know what's going on. -Adam M

Grammy pre-party at the Figueroa Hotel

We had a great show yesterday playing a pre-party for the 2010 Grammy's at the Fig in Downtown L.A.
Photo's by Anna Sacks.









Looking forward to a good year with Lynda Kay's band.


 

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