Lemmy Kilmister is a rock god and a sex legend. So what’s the Motörhead frontman doing at the least sexy (unless you get aroused by very large television sets), least rock ‘n’ roll event on the planet, the Consumer Electronics Show?

Actually, His Metalness’s presence there is something of a gimmick. The bassist-cum-frontman is promoting merch, specifically, a new line of headphones and earbuds called (what else?) Motörheadphones.

And while Lemmy might not be eager to discuss all the gory specs or the fine points of why Motörheadphones are better than, say, Monster Beats by Dr. Dre, he’s more than happy to tell you about CES needing more women, the indescribable superiority of a good vinyl record to a collection of MP3s, and the everlasting value of loudness.

VentureBeat: For the guys who were making the headphones, what specific things did you tell them to do?

Lemmy Kilmister: You want people to hear the mid-range. And we wanted them to be loud.

VentureBeat: A lot of the guys in the rap industry have their own lines of headphones — Dr. Dre, Kanye West. How are these headphones better for rockers, or even better in general?

Kilmister: Because their stuff is so bass heavy that you can’t hear any other instrument. You can’t even hear the drums on some of ‘em. And when you hear the band playing, most of it’s digital as well.

VentureBeat: How important is loudness?

Kilmister: It’s important to me because I’m deaf. [Laughs] Rock ‘n’ roll should be loud. It should be allowed to be loud.

VentureBeat: Have you tried them out, and if so, do you have a favorite model? Would you use them in the studio?

Kilmister: I like the ones that cover your ears up so you get total immersion. Those in-ear things — I’ve got the wrong ears for ‘em.

VentureBeat: Speaking of the studio, aren’t you getting ready to go record your new album this month? What are some of the songs about?

Kilmister: We’re starting in February. We go in the studio for four weeks and record it. We don’t write anything before; we’re doing other work.

VentureBeat: One big complaint everyone has about CES is that it doesn’t enough chicks — it’s all a bunch of nerdy, white guys.

Kilmister: You’re right. I mean, if you’re a guy, a nerdy guy, even nerdy girls would be better.

VentureBeat: So, you’ve got a line of wine and beer. You’ve got a line of headphones. Is Motorhead selling out?

Kilmister: Nobody’s offered us any money to sell out. [Laughs] We’re taking advantage a little bit; we’re gently draining the market. We’ve got some wine out, some vodka, and we’re bringing out some bourbon. But it’ll be hard to get that in the States; it’s really nailed down.

VentureBeat: You’ve been in the music business for 40 years now. What’s the best or worst thing about having your catalog as digital MP3s now instead of analog records or tapes?

Kilmister: I don’t think that you get the real feel of it through MP3s and things like that. You don’t get the raw power. The sound that comes through MP3s, it’s been sanitized. … I’m against Dolby. Records take up more storage space — they’re a bit heavier — but fuck it.

VentureBeat: Besides Motörhead, what are your favorite bands to listen to right now?

Kilmister: I listen to the old stuff, a little bit of new stuff. I like Skunk Anansie. They’ve got a great girl singer. They’re not metal; you can’t compare ‘em to anyone else. They’re not on the radio, either; that’s all controlled, and it’s all the same.

VentureBeat: I’m a bass player and also a frontwoman. Any performance advice?

Kilmister: Just be cool, you know? Wear black — it lasts longer. The main thing is to look as if you mean it. Really commit to it. Give it to ‘em straight in the eyes.

When we were in Japan, we met these three little girls. They said, “Hey, Lemmy, we’re in a rock ‘n’ roll band called Thug Murder!” [Laughs] And they’re all 4-foot-6. But they were good!

Image credit: All images courtesy of Motörhead

After writing a post about a new line of headphones from metal band Motörhead, reader/entrepreneur/metal fan Bradford Stephens pointed us to this amazing video clip of a band of robots playing Motörhead classic “Ace of Spades.”

Why is this on VentureBeat? you might be asking yourself.

Simply put, we’re always looking for the interesting ways in which technology bleeds into other industries. The music industry, the robotics industry, the viral video-making industry… there’s too much overlap between too many awesome disciplines here for us to pass it by.

The band you see above is Compressorhead. From the band’s website:

Did you ever wonder what Danny Carey would sound like if he had 4 arms?
How about if Angus Young had 78 fingers? Imagine what Robert Trujillo would sound like if he was actually made of metal?
Well, wonder no more, meatbags.
Compressorhead is the worlds heaviest metal band. … Stickboy (drums) was created to exacting specifications: 4 arms, 2 legs, 1 head, no brain. … Fingers (guitar) joined Stickboy in 2009 and brings 78 purpose built fingers, enough to play the entire fret board and pluck. Bones (bass) is the highest-precision bass player in known existence, and the youngest member of the band. inception date 2012.
Stand aside, meatbags. Oil is thicker than blood.

Compressorhead is touring Australia this month as part of the annual Big Day Out festival where the band will be playing on both main stages. If you live in Australia and don’t have or immediately make plans to see this amazing marriage of technology and metal, we, the staff of VentureBeat, are collectively and massively disappointed in you.

Sources tell us that 80s hair metal rock god Nikki Sixx was upset when we sort of compared him to mock rock band Spinal Tap.

Never mind that Sixx’s life actually reads like the script of Spinal Tap. There was the 80s excess as a member of the chart-topping Mötley Crüe. The over-the-top stage shows that started with every band member riding out on a chopper. Sixx spitting blood onstage. Huge clouds of stage smoke. The multiple heroin overdoses. Actually being dead for two minutes, and then being revived by a double shot of adrenaline to the heart.  (How f***ing rock’n'roll is that??) Walking out of the hospital wearing nothing but leather pants, with a female fan on each arm?

And seriously: We kinda like Mötley Crüe and Nikki Sixx, who is about 10 times more badass than the entire VentureBeat staff combined.

So when we wrote that Sixx’s involvement with a new virtual-backstage-chat service from backBeat has a “Spinal Tap 2.0″ feel, it didn’t seem exactly out of line.

Despite all that, it appears that Nikki Sixx (or his corporate management — it’s not clear) doesn’t like the comparison.

We couldn’t get Sixx on the phone to comment. Something about him being busy in Cabo. So we turned instead to Harry Shearer, one of the co-creators of Spinal Tap, to ask him how he felt about the comparison.

“On behalf of Spinal Tap, I’m really upset too, because we’re louder than he ever was,” Shearer told me. “And our backstage chat, if we ever started one, would be louder than his too.”

Shearer acknowledged that Mötley Crüe might have been an influence on the movie, This Is Spinal Tap, which he said was actually intended as a savage attack on, not a loving homage to, heavy metal.

Still, Shearer welcomed Sixx’s anger.

“I take it as a thrilling affirmation of how timeless the movie is that he can still be pissed off.”

Top photo courtesy Harry Shearer.