The Walkmen

Dec. 3, 8 p.m., with Inouk, at the Theater of the Living Arts, 334 South St., $12 / All Ages

“Walkmen? Pssst, no one uses those things anymore.”

No no, modern listener – it’s the Walkmen, a band that is far from obsolete and sleeker than most of the music tools out there today.

From the first moments of their latest album “Bows and Arrows,” vocalist Hamilton Leithauser casually whines, “What’s in it for me?” and kicks off the bass-thumping, persistent strumming, key-pounding, snare-bashing, well-crafted bedlam that ensues.

With a new Christmas seven-inch, a recent stint on Letterman and a performance on “The O.C.,” the Walkmen are bringing repute back to the name “walkmen,” devices that drone with a similar echoey tape-loop resonance.

Nick Hornby

Dec. 8, 8 p.m., with Marah, at the North Star, 27th and Poplar Streets, $20, 21+

Advertised as “an evening of words and music” with the words coming from the man who penned High Fidelity, Songbook and a number of hit novels and the music coming from local band Marah, this is bound to be a bookish music-lover’s dream.

“Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything else,” Hornby writes, “Mostly all I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don’t like them as much as I do.”

Hopefully the audience won’t give Hornby as many reasons to get cross as they reciprocate his love in the intimate setting of the North Star, where he’ll be reading essays specifically written for the evening about particular artists that have impacted him.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

Dec. 10, 8 p.m., with Vague Angels and Matt Pond, Pa. at the First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., $10 in advance, $12 D.O.S. / All Ages

If ever there was a show worthy of stealing you away from the demands of the week before finals, it’s this one. Put down the pencil. Shut your laptop. Just go.

Any attempt at description is going to sound hyperbolic, but you’re going to have to trust me that there’s no exaggeration big enough; it’s bigger than the truth: Ted Leo is the catchiest, cleverest, the one who cares the most?

And no one can take it to the stage like he can.

Still not convinced? Then e-mail me ([email protected]), I’ll come over and play you some (or all) of Ted Leo’s discography (as much as it takes) and we’ll see if you aren’t convinced that he should not only be the most revered songster of today, but also the next U.S. president.