Mar
Posted on 9th March 2015
My friends in Tragedy, the tri-state area’s #1 all-metal tribute to the Bee Gees and beyond, made a video for their cover of “You’re the One That I Want” from the Grease soundtrack and it is incredible. Watch it above and get your mind blown.
Happy Monday,
Dave Hill
Mar
Posted on 4th March 2015
The WFMU Marathon 2015 starts this Sunday, March 8 and goes until March 22. Please do your part in supporting incredible radio and also keep giving me a reason to leave the house on Monday nights in the process by donating now! There are all sorts of mindblowing prizes and whatnot that you can get depending on the size of your donation. This year, premium donors ($75 or more) to the Goddamn Dave Hill Show will get the above totally awesome, limited edition T-shirt designed by the great Danny Hellman, one of my favorite artists and also one of the greatest artists of all-time. The shirt is black with white ink. The front features me shirtless and ripping a sweet guitar solo on a Flying V while riding some crazy beast from the future. There is also fire and a hot chick dancing in the background, which is awesome. The back of the shirt features Satan getting told to call back in 20 minutes by me, Dave Hill, from before. In short, this is the greatest shirt of all-time. Go here and donate now to get this sweet-ass shirt and support a great, great radio station while you’re at it. That would be so great.
Together we can make a difference,
Jan
Posted on 26th January 2015
You hear New Yorkers complain a lot about how their favorite old bar has closed down to turn into a CVS. Or how their trusty corner bodega is now a Chase bank. Or how both their neighborhood CVS and Chase bank are now occupied by not one but two separate Chipotles. And while I hate that stuff as much as the next guy who never leaves his house unless he absolutely has to, at the same time it doesn’t bother me all that much because to me New York’s greatest resource has always been and always will be its people. And this past Saturday New York lost one of its greats- the mighty Joe Franklin.
Some people might know Joe Franklin as the guy Billy Crystal used to impersonate on SNL in the eighties. Others might know him from his appearances as himself in Ghostbusters, Broadway Danny Rose, or The Aristocrats. As for me, I first discovered Joe Franklin as the peculiar yet oddly compelling host of the legendary Joe Franklin Show, which I happened upon one evening after my dad finally decided to spring for basic cable back when I was a kid growing up in sunny Cleveland. Suddenly we had WOR Channel 9 from Secaucus, New Jersey on our TV dial and Joe Franklin in our living room each night. For me, Joe Franklin was magic, a benevolent ringmaster who embraced bona fide celebrities and eccentrics he’d collected from the streets of New York City alike with seemingly equal and infinite fervor, all without ever forgetting to get in a plug for matzos by Streit’s for 43 years straight.
When I moved to New York City in 2003, I did what any reasonable person would do by looking up Joe Franklin (his number was listed) and attempting to strike up a friendship. Somehow it worked and I ended up both speaking with Joe on the phone and visiting him in his charming dumpster of an office regularly over the last twelve years.
With his TV show and most other showbiz stuff behind him, I sometimes wondered exactly what Joe did all day in that office of his, answering two separate landlines himself as towers of assorted memorabilia threatened to come crashing down on him and at least a couple of the aforementioned eccentrics stared at him silently from the row of chairs set up in front of his desk as if they were watching a matinee.
“I’ve often wondered that myself,” a mutual friend once told me. “And I’ve decided that he’s in there all day giving people hope.”
I feel lucky I got to have been one of those people at least for a little while.
Oh, and if you’d like to get a taste of the Joe Franklin magic for yourself, I encourage you to watch a clip from his show featuring King Diamond and a rapping cop below. It’s pretty much why TV was invented if you ask me.
Jan
Posted on 2nd January 2015
As a dramatic conclusion to 2014, I decided to swing by my friend Benjamin Ahr Harrison’s house to do the final episode of his and Chris Bowman’s popular Let’s Drink About It podcast, which pairs specialty cocktails with assorted life events and whatnot. This time around, they made me a concoction primarily featuring bourbon, which I haven’t touched in about twelve years. It was actually pretty tasty and didn’t make me cry or try to make out with anyone like last time! Even more exciting, however, is the fact that somewhere along the way, we stumbled upon the idea of doing another podcast called Let’s Drink Milkshakes About It, which I really hope happens because- oh, man- I love milkshakes and ice cream in general. Ask around. In the meantime, however, you can listen to me drink bourbon here.
Happy New Year and stuff,
Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 31st December 2014
As my grandfather once told me shortly before we put my first dog to sleep after it bit me in the face, all good things must come to an end. And with that, I give you episode 6 of Metal Grasshopper, the dramatic conclusion to the incredible web series in which I get schooled in the ways of metal by metal god Philip H. Anselmo. You can watch the whole thing above or over on Metal Injection, the greatest heavy metal website of all-time basically. And as for season two, hopefully we’ll get cracking on that in 2015!
Your man,
Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 31st December 2014
Here’s something nice- my new radio show/podcast on WFMU, The Goddamn Dave Hill Show, was voted one of the ten best comedy podcasts of 2014 by Paste magazine along with podcasts by such fine folks as Marc Maron, Adam Carolla, and John Hodgman, among others. And to think- at the beginning of 2014 I barely knew how to work any of the knobs and buttons in the radio station. Now, a year later, I still don’t know what most of those knobs and buttons are for, but now I’m on a list and that’s what matters! Anyway, in a world where ISIS, Ebola, and other negative things are constantly threatening to ruin my day, it’s little things like this that keep me from locking myself in the bathroom as much. I’ll take it. You can see the whole list here. And check out my radio show here or subscribe on iTunes. Okay, great, thanks!
Still street,
Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 22nd December 2014
Yesterday, there was a great interview with my friend Dick Cavett, an American treasure, in the New York Times Book Review. It’s a wonderful read that I am admittedly extra partial to because he says really nice things about me and my first book Tasteful Nudes in it. When you’re a pretty young thing growing up on the mean streets of suburban Cleveland, you just don’t think that sort of thing will ever happen. And then it does and a lot of chicks totally want to make out with you. Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, read the interview here. And speaking of excellent books, get Dick Cavett’s latest, Brief Encounters, here. It’s fabulous. I really think that guy is onto something.
Happy Monday,
Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 19th December 2014
Episode 5 of my incredible new web series with Philip H. Anselmo is finally here. This time around Phil and I get some much needed group psychotherapy treatment from Dr. Joe Randazzo. There is hugging and also Joe calls me a pussy. In short, this one pretty much has everything. You can watch it above or on Metal Injection right now. I hope you enjoy it so much.
Happy Friday,
Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 15th December 2014
Do you like AC/DC? Yeah, me too! The other day I wrote something about them for the popular film and music website the Talkhouse. You can read it right here. I hope you enjoy it so much.
Highway to Hell,
Dave Hill
Dec
Posted on 14th December 2014
Here’s something nice- I was featured on the most recent episode of the Superfan Dan podcast, which is a new podcast where this nice guy named Dan from Michigan talks about stuff he is a superfan of for an entire episode. On his latest episode, which you can listen to above, he says nice stuff about me the whole time. If you like to listen to someone talk about me for a seriously long time as much as I do, I think you’re really gonna like this one! And, by the way, thanks, Dan!
Happy Sunday,
Dave Hill
