Odds & Ends: Justin Bieber, Motörhead’s Motörboat, Metallica, Clearwater Fest, Morrissey, Rocklahoma

What do you do with a lineup featuring Megadeth, Motörhead, Anthrax, Zakk Wylde, Jim Breuer, Danko Jones, Fireball Ministry and Wilson playing for a boatload of metalheads?  You turn up the volume even higher by adding Testament, Down (feat. Phil Anselmo), High On Fire and Kill Devil Hill (feat. Rex Brown) to the cruise.

Organizers were already calling Motörhead’s Motörboat the “loudest boat in the world,” but with the latest additions they might want to shoot even higher, perhaps something along the lines of “Loudest Boat In The Whole Damn Universe!”

Set for Sept. 22-26, the adventure will feature performances throughout the Carnival Ecstasy cruise ship and include opportunities for fans and bands to hang together.  Check out MotorheadCruise.com for what you need to know.

Having already apologized for a years-old video in which he uttered racial slurs, Justin Bieber has a new ghost haunting him – a video he made when he was a carefree 14-year-old in which he says the “N” word and jokes about joining the Ku Klux Klan.

The video is actually Bieber’s parody of a comedian’s parody of Bieber’s “One Less Lonely Girl,” in which the comedian substituted “Girl” with the “N” word. 

Purveyor of celebrity truth, justice and the online way, TMZ reports that Bieber told his mentor Usher as well as Will Smith about the existence of the two vids and that “Usher took him into a room and showed him historically racist videos to drive home how hurtful these words can be.”

Evidently this video has been a problem for Bieber over the years in that some folks have tried to blackmail the singer in regards to his actions on the visual recording.  According to TMZ, Bieber now “wants people to see the video and he wants to accept responsibility.”

Clearwater Festival – aka The Great Hudson River Revival – has been promising that this year’s event will include a tribute to founders Pete and Toshi Seeger.  Now organizers are talking names, saying the event will be a “special celebration” of Pete’s music as well as a way to honor the famous folk singer and his wife’s environmental legacy.

Scheduled for June 21-22 at Croton Point Park in Croton-On-Hudson, N.Y., the festival will include a set by the Clearwater Family Band honoring the Seegers.  Musicians stepping up to play in the band include Tom Paxton, Tom Chapin, Guy Davis, David Amram, Dar Williams, Holly Near, Josh White Jr., and others.

Seeger’s instrument of choice, the banjo, will also get a tribute led by Tony Trischka that will include many great pickers.  There will also be sets featuring the music of two bands that
Seger was a member of – The Weavers and Almanac Singers.

Another Seeger tribute will highlight the songs he wrote honoring the 3,000 Americans who volunteered to serve in the Spanish Civil War. 

The Clearwater Festival lineup includes Lucinda Williams, Puss ’N Boots (Norah Jones, Sasha Dobson & Catherine Popper), Rufus Wainwright, The Mavericks, Richard Thompson, moe., and Martin Sexton.  Check out the official website for more information.

Organizers of the Memorial Day weekend party known as Rocklahoma are definitely smiling about the festival’s record-breaking attendance of over 60,000.  Of course its all-star lineup featuring Kid Rock, Five Finger Death Punch, Staind, Twisted Sister, Deftones and others definitely had something to do with attracting the multitude.

Rocklahoma MC and VH1 “That Metal Show” host Eddie Trunk certainly was impressed by the five-figure audience count.

“It’s truly remarkable to see how this festival has grown and keeps getting bigger and better every year and is such a destination for rock fans from all over the world,” Trunk said.

Not everyone will be happy to see Metallica headlining the Pyramid Stage June 28 at Glastonbury.

A Facebook page created by someone preferring to remain anonymous objects to the band’s appearance because guitarist James Hetfield is involved in an upcoming film about bear hunting called “The Hunt.”  The page’s administrator says he/she wants to remain anonymous due to “continued threats and abuse.”

As of this morning the page had received 17,194 “likes.”

But anonymous netizens aren’t the only ones unhappy with Metallica’s appearance.  Consequence Of Sound notes that back in May Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner told Time Out London that Metallica’s appearance might not fit in with the festival’s “hippy nucleus.”

You can forget about seeing Morrissey at Atlanta’s Cobb Energy Centre tonight. A virus has infected not only Moz but his touring party and opener Kristeenyoung, resulting in the show’s cancelation.  Morrissey’s next scheduled stop is at Atlantic City’s Ovation Hall June 6.