These past weeks it's been Lemmygeddon in L.A., starting with the icon-studded premiere (at the Vista in Los Feliz) of the movie officially titled Lemmy: 49% Motherf***er, 51% Son of a Bitch but more widely known as Lemmy: The Movieor “that awesome Lemmy movie.” With an upcoming showing of the film on VH1, the Motörhead frontman is getting the superstar treatment he's long deserved.

The movie, made by Wes Orshoski and Greg Olliver, could be described as “Anvil without the failure.” It's really, really good and a greatly entertaining saga even for nonmetalheads.

We were summoned to the Rainbow Bar & Grill on the Sunset Strip for an audience with the man of the hour himself, where we discussed sundry Lemmy-appropriate topics. You can read the entire interview on our West Coast Sound blog, but here are the highlights:

Lemmy on the current state of the L.A. strip-club scene: I used to like Crazy Girls, but it's gone 'round the toilet since it changed hands, you know. They took the pool table out and they took the touch-screen games out and they changed it all to pink and put the lights down and it looked just like a lounge-lizard place, and it looks like a typical expensive strip joint, you know, and they put the prices up further. … So the only good one left now is probably Jumbo's [Clown Room] and Cheetahs, and that's about it.

Lemmy on why they shouldn't have removed the pool tables at his favorite gentlemen's clubs: I don't know what's the matter with these people. I mean that was, ah, you would go there if you played pool more than you would go there without it, right. I don't know, they take all the attractions out apart from the women, and let's face it, half the women at any strip club at any time are not going to be the best chicks you ever see, right. So you play pool till the other chick comes out [laughs], and you know …

Lemmy on the quality of L.A. strippers: Oh, it's great. All those hopeful actresses. … Thousands of them, thousands of beautiful women in this town, uh, but there's thousands of beautiful women in any town, you know. I've been to most cities in America by now.

Lemmy on the music L.A. strippers pick: Uh, well, Cheetahs is real unfortunate there. A lot of hip-hop, you know. But that's what people like, so you can't bitch, you know, I guess. Understand that. I don't like it, but a lot of people do, so I don't know. Anyway, I'm not really going there for the music.

Lemmy on his reading habits: There's a bookstore just down the road here, which is really good, Book Soup. It's a good bookstore. I like to read a lot. I usually have three books at the same time. I'm reading the report about the Dresden bombing. It's a good one, the new one. And, uh, what else am I reading? I'm reading Winnie the Pooh for the first time. It wasn't written for kids, believe me. I mean the TV show, the Disney show, is fuckin' atrocious. It's an abomination. The book is fantastic, it's so sarcastic.

Lemmy on his favorite L.A. rock clubs: Yeah, I go to the Roxy now and again, and the Key Club. The Whisky sometimes. And of course there's the Viper Room across the street. I live just down the street. There's a lot of good bands around. I don't always remember who they are. There's no end to good bands, always coming up, though a lot of them don't last because they don't get any attention. After a couple years they just play and then die, you know, because you get depressed. Although I didn't. But I was in England, it rains all the time there anyways, so you're depressed in the first place [laughs].

 

BOOGIE-OOGIE-OOGIE: TOP 10 FUN FACTS ABOUT WEEN

1. They were featured on the soundtrack for Dude, Where’s My Car? (“Voodoo Lady”)

2. Everybody knows that Beavis and Butt-Head memorably freaked out to the video for “Push th’ Little Daisies.” But did you know the damaged duo also did their thing all over Ween’s more obscure track “Freedom of ’76”?

3. “To be completely honest with you, I don’t listen to fuckin’ music at all anymore,” said Dean Ween in 2009. “I play the music-trivia machine at the bar and any question after, like, 1991, I have no idea who the hell they’re even talking about. There’s bands that I still haven’t ever heard, like the Pixies or the White Stripes.”

4. Dean doesn’t listen to Ween records, either (see #3).

5. On the other hand, the band has been inspired by the music played by the Weather Channel.

6. Hot Chip (also known for using artistic alter egos) name-checks Ween in the lyrics of the song “Keep Fallin” on the album Coming On Strong: “Me and Ulysses/We’re like Gene and Dean Ween/We’re like brothers making records who can’t play things.”

7. Dean has said that if he had the opportunity to kick the ass of any musician, he’d pick the lead singer of Creed because he is “cocky” and “uppity.”

8. “Pumpin’ 4 the Man” is about a period in their lives when Dean pumped gas and Gene worked for El Pollo Loco.

9. The band feels that other bands get more interesting groupies. But their groupies make up for it by giving them baked goods.

10. Dean played guitar for Queens of the Stone Age on the album Songs for the Deaf.

BONUS FACT: Gene Ween has said they plan only the first two hours of a gig; the rest is off-the-cuff if the band feels inspired.

[Ween performs at the Wiltern on Saturday, Jan. 29.]
 

BEST PUNK-ROCK USE FOR YOUR TAX DOLLARS

Don't believe the meanies who tell you things like “Print is dead,” “Enthusiasm about music has been killed by snark (and/or Pitchfork navel-gazing)” or “Punk has gone back to mean a guy who takes it up the ass in prison.” Case in point: a little L.A. rag we really like called Razorcake. You occasionally find this freebie music joint lying around coffee shops next to a certain alt-weekly and assorted yoga fliers. It's done in the spirit of the plucky pre-Internet, labor-of-love music mags. You should check it out: The current issue features real underground diva Mary Woronov and the funnest Florence and the Machine interview you'll ever read. And these DIY dudes are also a nonprofit, so you can put your tax dollars to righteous work by donating to a worthwhile cause. More info at razorcake.org.

 

OUT AND ABOUT

Hell yeah, we say, to the upcoming Record Fair at Space 15Twenty! Unlike the record swap meet, wherein you might dig all day and get a mere handful of choice items, the funky concrete patio adjacent to Umami Burger in Hollywood will have more than 30 vendors offering specially curated selections of vinyl and cassettes, brought to you by some of L.A.'s finest DJs, crate-diggers, artists, musicians and labels. The event is presented by B-Music/Finders Keepers, a U.K.-to-L.A. label known for a particularly worldly mix of psych, jazz and folk, as well as some pretty amazing reissues culled from treasures from around the world. Bring cash, and be prepared to spend it because there surely will be plenty you won't want to miss.

WHAT: Space 15Twenty Record Fair, presented by B-Music/Finders Keepers Records

WHEN: Sunday, Jan. 30, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

WHERE: In the courtyard of Space 15Twenty, 1520 N. Cahuenga Blvd. (across Sunset from Amoeba and next to where the Hollywood Farmers Market should always be).

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