Serial song parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic will hopefully be skewering some current chart sludge as part of his first ever European tour (2 Dec, O2 Academy Birmingham; 3 Dec, Manchester Academy; 6 Dec, HMV Forum, NW5, seetickets.com) …
Which reminds us, everyone's favourite manufactured party girl Ke$ha is nipping over armed with Tik Tok and similarly earwormy electropop tunes (O2 Shepherd's Bush Empire, W12, ticketmaster.co.uk) …
New Year's Eve's parties are taking shape: Sonic Youth headline ATP's Strange Days shindig, alongside Shellac and the Pop Group (31 Dec, HMV Apollo, W6, atpfestival.com), with the Youth road-testing their fuzz pedals in the north-west the night before (30 Dec, Manchester Academy, seetickets.com) …
North of the border, Biffy Clyro will be offering a grungy, anthemic, implausibly popular option at Edinburgh's Hogmanay (31 Dec, West Princes Street Gardens, www.edinburghshogmanay.com) …
Further ahead, Nas and Damian Marley return in the spring to reintroduce the egotastic hip-hop and reggae fusion of their Distance Relatives LP (31 Mar, Wembley Arena, HA9; 1 Apr, O2 Academy Glasgow; 2 Apr, O2 Apollo Manchester, ticketmaster.co.uk).
