It’s been all Slade, all the time over here at Dave Hill headquarters the past few days, and not just because their guitar player and I have the same name (i.e. his name is Dave Hill too). Slade were a giant band in the United Kingdom back in the ‘70’s, even outselling David Bowie at their peak, and were a big influence on Kiss, Cheap Trick, and the Ramones. Even better, they are from the “Black Country” of England, home of those pork scratchings I tried and failed to enjoy during my London invasion.

Slade had some awesome songs and pretty incredible outfits and singer Noddy Holder had one of the best rock voices of all-time if you ask me. His hair and sideburns are pretty great too. Here is Slade playing their hit song (in England anyway) “Far, Far Away” on a German television show. I like how the audience seems to be looking pretty much everywhere but at the band. It’s just…weird.

Dave Hill

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It’s Monday and I am procrastinating by making this mixtape.

Dave Hill

Imagine if you were at a bar with a pretty decent jukebox and every once in a while someone else was somehow able to slip in a song or two in between the ones you and that drunk girl you met outside the bathroom decided to put on with the singles you borrowed from your friend Todd. It might sound a little something like this. I hope you enjoy it so much.

Dave Hill

The Roches, pretty much the most awesome folk trio ever (Peter, Paul, and Mary can suck it), are playing what are rumored to be some of their last ever New York City shows on November 21 and November 22 at the Highline Ballroom. You should totally go. There has never been another group like the Roches and there never will be. I got into them pretty late in the game- just in the last couple years- and I regret not checking them out, like, twenty years ago or so because I would have had a lot of great listening going on for myself. I’m not a big folk fan generally speaking, but- like all great artists- the Roches transcend any genre one might try to stick them into, so much in fact that even a heavy metal-obsessed youngish man like myself can flip for them. They sing great and they have been writing consistently great songs their entire career. In short, the Roches are so fucking awesome it’s not even fucking funny.

You can hear the Roches here and get more info on the shows, both of which will feature the arena-ready Lucy Wainwright Roche as the opener, here. And when you come to the show, be sure to say hi to me. I will be the guy right up front with no shirt on.

Dave Hill

I Love Serial Killers

Hi there. Here is a parody video by the lovely and talented Margot Leitman called “I Love Serial Killers” in which I play a particularly disgusting Roman Polanski. Lots of my friends are also in this video and they are great. You should watch the F out of it right now.

Dave Hill

Recently, I rode in an elevator with the lovely Chris March, whom you no doubt remember from the hit program “Project Runway” for New York Magazine. You can watch what happened above. I hope you enjoy it so much. I know I did.

And here is my mixtape for today:

Dave Hill

Recently, I rode in an elevator with the lovely Chris March, whom you no doubt remember from the hit program “Project Runway” for New York Magazine. You can watch what happened above. I hope you enjoy it so much. I know I did.

And here is my mixtape for today:

Dave Hill

I created this completely arbitrary and not very flowing mixtape using a web application I found via Bob Mould’s blog. I hope you enjoy some or all of it. I’m not sure how to fix the song labels. They are based on however the original files were labeled somewhere out there on the Internet. “Rather Go” is by Lucy Wainwright Roche. The rest should be fairly accurately labeled (if misspelled).

Dave Hill

I’ve just returned from my ten-day invasion of London and am now getting back to the day-to-day of figuring out what that smell in my apartment is. London was pretty great and I hope to go back soon. I felt pretty at home there because the weather is just like my native Cleveland and also I don’t tan well. All the shows I did were really fun, even my night at the Fitzroy Tavern doing the “Pear Shaped Comedy Club” show. Advertised as “London’s 2nd worst comedy club,” it quickly had me wondering about who was standing in the way of the #1 spot. I had a great time though, despite a rough set. It was sort of like having an itch you don’t mind scratching. And hosts Brian and Krysstal were great. It was a delightfully bizarre evening that I look forward to attending next time I’m in town.

My show on Sunday with Bishop and Douch at Hen and Chickens was a blast and also the messiest show I’ve even been a part of. We had to mop the place down twice when it was all over. Hopefully Bishop and Douch will come back to New York City soon. They are great. We even have nicknames for each other. I call them “skinny little cunts” and they call me “fat cunt.” Somehow we make it work. Thanks, guys.

As mentioned earlier, the Fix Magazine shows I did were super fun. Thanks to Harry for letting climb on the bill both nights. Check out his excellent comedy mag here. Another really fun show I did was Falling Down with Laughter near the London Bridge Tube stop. After the show I watched Obama win the election on a big screen TV in some bar with horrible laser lights shooting everywhere and even worse karaoke going on in the background. It was a bizarre way to witness history being made. I shan’t forget it.

Another fun show I did was in the upstairs room of a bar across from Borough Market just south of the Thames River. I made some new friends there and drank too much of that cask ale once again. Like every other night I was in London, I just seemed like such a good idea at the time. Speaking of which, many of the bars in London seemed to be named after someone or another’s head (e.g. Nags Head, Old King’s Head, Queen’s Head, etc.).

I didn’t get a chance to make any phone calls in those red phone booths while I was in London, but I did step into one to talk on a cell phone once only to discover that that particular phone booth was more commonly used as a urinal. Stanky.

As you can probably tell, the trip overall has left me pretty brain dead, but in a really nice way. I’ve been gone from NYC for most of the last month save for a few days here and there. It’ll be nice to be back home and complaining about everything all the time again for a while. I’ll keep you posted about this and other topics soon. Brace yourself.

Dave Hill

The mayhem is picking up here in London. I am slowly getting over my jetlag and replacing it with a fairly nonstop hangover. There’s something about this place that is really conducive to drinking (like the fact that there is an inviting bar on every corner for example). As my new British friend Harry Deansway told me, drinking during the day is a national pasttime here. So far I have confined most of my drinking to after the sun goes down, but I am still taking a beating. I say all of this not to condone the party lifestyle, but just to let you know that I party, like, all the time in this country, dude. Hand-pumped cask ales are available in most of the bars I’ve stopped into here, and since that sort of thing is harder to find in the U.S. I have felt slightly obligated to do lots and lots of research on the topic.

Speaking of matters of great importance, it was exciting to watch the election results come in late last night over here. I am pretty excited about this whole Obama business, as is pretty much every person I have spoken to in London. Even the kebab guy gave me a free Fanta orange soda last night after he discovered I was an American Obama supporter. It was delicious- the taste of progress and also quite orangey.

In other exciting news, the shower in my hotel room is pretty cool. It has a removable shower head and I’ve discovered this great trick where I spray my leg hair in different patterns and it makes my legs look all extra hairy and awesome, like I’m a satyr or something. I’m pretty fired up about the whole thing. It’s a wonder I get anything else done during the day over here. See the photo above to take in the magic.

Okay, I have to do something distinctly British or maybe just go get lunch or something. I will give a full and incredible update soon. Brace yourself.

Dave Hill