Nov
Posted on 30th November 2008
I was poking around on the popular Internet website YouTube today in search of any old videos of my first band Sons of Elvis. I came up somewhat empty as far as actual footage of us, but I did find a bunch of videos that have a still photograph and one of our songs playing. Here is one for our song “Reggie Makes The Scene,” one of my favorite songs to play live with the band back when we used to rock people. The song was named after something written on an Archie comic book-themed glass I got at a thrift store. It was the ’90s. We were just kids and there were no rules back then, dammit. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it so much.
Nov
Posted on 26th November 2008
Last night, I made my debut on the ice for the 2008-2009 hockey season by helping lead my old men’s league team, the King Williams, to its third defeat of the season. I missed the first couple games of the season due to what members of the blogosphere are calling “scheduling conflicts” and “a general malaise.” I was sure to be there last night though as we were taken down in a 4-2 battle of wits against that one team with the purple jerseys.
I am in arguably in the best shape I have ever been since coming out of semi-retirement last season to help my team almost win a game (but ultimately fail in the end) on several occasions. Even so, it was not enough to help my team score more goals than the 8 or 10 fat old guys who showed up last night to beat us in a game that was witnessed by roughly three or four people, most of whom appeared to work at the rink and/or be dating one of the players. I didn’t fall down for no apparent reason at any point in the game though, so I have high hopes for myself in the games to come. With further conditioning and practice, I think I might be able to give my 12 year-old self a run for his money in terms of being seriously good at hockey. Still, I think the 18 year-old me will likely always be able to skate circles around me in the alternate universe hockey league where I am able to play against versions of myself at various points in my life, a league that it is fair to say would be the most yelling and screaming-free league of all-time. Despite my overall joie de vivre and whatnot, I have somehow never had the sass or gumption to yell much at sporting events, even ones that I am physically participating in. Maybe I am missing a chromosome or something, the one that helps you get worked up about things in a vocal manner.
Of particular excitement last night was the fact that earlier in the day I bought a new helmet, perhaps the first new helmet I’ve had since the ‘80’s or so. This one fits too. It’s not easy to find a helmet, hat, or headgear of any sort that fits my oversized Irish skull, but somehow the young kid named Billy at Paragon sports made it happen yesterday. Where was he when I was fourteen and circling the ice with a near-blinding headache? Maybe things could have been different and I would have acheived my NHL dreams. I guess I’ll never really know for sure.
Now I am back up in my apartment, slightly sore and dealing with the stench emanating from a bag full of sweaty hockey equipment. It’s not easy being 1/4 Canadian. But I wouldn’t change a thing (except for maybe the big head syndrome. It would be nice to wear a cool hat every once in a while).
Nov
Posted on 26th November 2008
Last week I saw Alessi Marke a/k/a Alessi’s Ark play at the Cornelia Street Cafe (which- as hinted at in the name- is on Cornelia Street in the West Village here in NYC). She’s just 18 and is seriously awesome, like, for real. I think she’s gonna be big with the young people and also old people like me too. She has an EP coming out next month and a full album on Astralwerks in the U.S. and Virgin everywhere else (I think) in March. Go buy that shit. Her video for her song “The Horse” is above.
Nov
Posted on 25th November 2008
Here is the latest from my friend Chris Schneider, a funny and talented and also frightening man. I hope you enjoy it so much.
Nov
Posted on 24th November 2008
I always enjoy hearing about incidents in which animals put humans in their place (with the exception of the time my family’s Golden Retriever bit an 11 year-old me in the face for kissing him goodnight on his snout when he was asleep. That I was not so crazy about. The incident did, however, help me finally make sense of that old saying “Let sleeping dogs lie.” As my face and neck dripped with my own blood that cold December evening, I totally, totally got it.) This past weekend I read a story about a young panda in China named Yang Yang that bit a student who climbed into the his enclosure in hopes of hugging him. The fact that a panda would bite someone who entered his home in search of a hug came as a surprise to, well, pretty much just the student who got bitten I’m guessing.
“Yang Yang was so cute and I just wanted to cuddle him. I didn’t expect he would attack,” the 20-year-old student explained. But when the whole thing went down, Yang Yang in effect said “No, no” and took back the night on that motherfucker. I would have paid good money to see it. Maybe it’s on tape somewhere. God, I hope so.
What makes this story even more entertaining is the fact that this is the second time Yang Yang bit someone who tried to give him a hug. Apparently some drunken tourist tried to do the exact same thing a couple years ago.
Yang Yang- I just can’t stay mad at him.
In other news, this past Friday I went to see the Roches at Highline Ballroom. Shit, they were awesome. I actually got chills at various points in the show. It’s sad that they are going to stop performing live soon. I hope they change their minds about that. They have so many great songs and are maybe the most vocally innovative group in Western music (to be fair, they do some pretty crazy shit in the East). When I am a rich man someday I am going to hire them to show up at my house every morning, sneak into my bedroom, and wake me up by singing their version of “Hallelujah.” Then we can go get breakfast or something.
Here are the Roches singing “One Season,” one of my faves by them, in 1983. They do this crazy part where they sing all out of tune on purpose. Awesome. They played this one on Friday. It was so great they might as well have just walked off stage and punched me in the nuts. I was that blown away.
The excellent Lucy Wainwright Roche opened the show with a set that I wish had been five times longer. Lucy should be playing at Madison Square Garden. I think she should also have animatronic dragons on stage and maybe also a castle like Ronnie James Dio used to have in the ’80’s, but I would be happy if it were just her and her guitar too.
Nov
Posted on 23rd November 2008
… I KNOW THE BLOG LOOKS UGLY. IT’S TEMPORARY AND I’M WORKING ON IT. 😉
Nov
Posted on 20th November 2008
Hi. Here is a video of me presenting some of my favorite Scandinavian metal videos on the popular website Metal Injection. If you have 37 minutes to spare, you have just hit easy street, specifically a metal-related easy street. Also, one of the videos has nakedness in it, so if you are watching it at your job you might get in big trouble as that sort of thing is often frowned upon for reasons I will never understand.
Nov
Posted on 19th November 2008
Hi there. Recently I attended the New York Bar Show at the Jacob Javits Center. It was one of the most incredible days of my life. I hope you enjoy this video so much. Please watch it and then make all your friends watch it by sending them here. Or you could just have them watch it on this page here. That would be fine too.
Nov
Posted on 18th November 2008
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
Nov
Posted on 17th November 2008
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It’s Monday and I am procrastinating by making this mixtape.
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