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Merchandise, it keeps us in line

’Tis the season for holiday hoarding, and with 30-odd daze till X-mas, it’s worth holding back a few clams for the DIY shopping event of the winter. On December 13, you can "combat zombie-holiday-mall-shopping hell" at the Bazaar Bizarre, which is not an Insane Clown Posse in-store but rather a punk-rock crafts fair that’s been drawing overflow crowds for the past two years. This year the BB is branching out with the addition of a West Coast edition, but the home office will still feature everything from recycled-musical-instrument lamps to punk makeovers, homemade notebooks to hand-knitted beer cozies, anti-Bush wear to indie-comics calendars. Look for appearances by veteran indie-rockers in the DJ booth, theremin-led caroling with WMBR’s Jon Bernhardt, and the return of Sleazy Santa and his Elves (a/k/a Scrapple’s Dave Geissler with Paula Kelley and Lisa McColgan, in photo). That’s on Saturday December 13 from 4 to 10 p.m. at the Dilboy VFW, 371 Summer Street in Somerville’s Davis Square; for further information, visit www.bazaarbizarre.org

Shoot to grill

All we want for Christmas is the Nashville Pussy barbecue apron. No joke: in the over-licensed world of punk merchandise, we think the Pussys may have come up with an original marketing idea. And they’ve earned it: few rock-and-roll bands have done so much for fire, flesh, and the sins to be had in between. The Grammy-nominated motorpunk mofos who reintroduced America to the pleasures of Ted Nugent and Kiss and the easy, sleazy thrills of chicks flashing cleavage on stage have become a kinda-sorta no-hit-wonder of an outfit, but they lost not a single sparkplug on their last disc, Say Something Nasty (Artemis), and there’s a new DVD, Keep On Fuckin’ in Paris (Music Video Distributors), that captures Blaine Cartwright’s muscle-car fantasies the way they were meant to be consumed: live and uncut, with a bonus Turbonegro cover at the end. Come December 8, Nashville Pussy will get cooking at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square. Tickets are $12, $10 in advance; call (617) 492-BEAR.

Medeski and Wood sold separately

Drummer Billy Martin is perennially sandwiched between his mates in Medeski Martin & Wood, but he steps out as a bandleader with frequent MMW collaborator DJ Logic and former Ornette Coleman and Lounge Lizards drummer Grant Calvin Weston in the heavily percussive trio documented on the new For No One in Particular — Live at Tonic (Amulet Records), a set that pulls everything from talking drums and gongs to bird whistles and duck calls into the mix. The stars have aligned for the trio to head out on a brief, five-date tour that’ll bring them to the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, on December 17, and it’s probably a good idea to get tickets in advance; call (617) 547-0759.

Capitol gang

The problem with political satirists in America is that there’s too much competition — not from other political satirists, but from the evening news: Saturday Night Live’s bits about Arnold Schwarzenegger’s press conferences are barely as funny as an actual Arnold Schwarzenegger press conference. Which means the veteran Borscht Beltway comedy troupe the Capitol Steps will have their work cut out for them when they bring their latest round of song parodies and sketches to Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy Street in Harvard Square, on November 29. It’s an 8 p.m. show, and tickets are $22 to $30; call (617) 496-2222.