Wed. Dec. 7

"My friends and family call me Nanna and I would like it to stay that way," said the Danish singer the rest of us know as Oh Land. Twenty-six years ago, she was born Nanna Øland Fabricious.

"For me, Oh Land was a very natural stage name, as it is how my middle name is pronounced in English," she continued. "I liked the anonymity of it and that it didn't indicate whether I was a boy or girl or a band. Especially in the beginning, it gave me a lot of freedom because there wasn't a face to it. It was just about the music."

"It's like I have two enhanced versions of myself. Oh Land is the super version of me where I do all the things I wouldn't always get away with normally. It's sort of like Clark Kent and Superman."

Oh Land headlines Brighton Music Hall Wednesday Dec. 7. She will play synthesizer and omnichord, alongside her backup musicians, synthist Tore Nissen and drummer Hans Hvidberg-Hansen.

And now this ... 23 years to the day after Roy Orbison's heart attack and deth Barbara Orbison, 60, left our world. She met Roy when she was 17 and married him 9 months later. She had been fighting pancreatic cancer since April.  She had gone through surgeries and treatments and was passed off as cancer free back in October.  She was re-admitted last month with some complications. ... I met Roy Orbison at the Club Casino in NH, covering him (seeing him for the first time live) and talking with him extensively backstage in the '80s. He was the warmest, most generous man and the music, it soared. Nothing sounded dated at all, it was timeless. I wrote this after Orbison died, 23 years ago Dec. 6. I had interviewed him just prior to his Boston shows. WFNX dj Julie Kramer took this photo backstage at the Channel.

And, now, it's over. Roy Orbison's life ended Dec. 6 of a heart attack, at his mother's home in Hendersonville, Tenn., just when he was poised to reenter the upper atmosphere of a star-studded, star-crossed pop world.

Orbison -- the stocky, solitary guy in trademark dark shades and uniformly black garb -- was the world's most popular male singer from 1960 to 1964. Success came to him after he'd made a minor hit for Sam Phillips' famous Sun Records, the stable of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Orbison's star faded when the Beatles and other British bands invaded the United States during the mid-'60s. His songs missed the top of the charts, yet he survived -- and prospered -- on the concert circuit.

In showcasing his multi-octave range last weekend in Boston at the Channel, during his next-to-last concert, Orbison again proved himself the premier pop balladeer, a man for whom heartbreak and loneliness were always a breath away, no matter how "dated" the songs. The man still felt it.

Sun. Dec. 4

  Sat. Dec. 3

Berklee goes post-punk? Mission of Burma’s Roger Miller joins ‘em on stage? Sure, why not. The College has long moved away from its jazzbo roots – president Roger Brown told me this when we talked a few years ago. "Clearly," he said, "its roots were jazz, but over time it has defined itself more broadly as a school of contemporary music, all the way to hip-hop and ethnic music around the world. We’re about helping young people create the music of the future, rather than just learning about music of the past. Whatever they want to create is what we want to build."

So, the idea was to help the young musician to excel at whatever genre he/she wanted to. As to Miller – a member of the Alloy Orchestra and someone always willing to venture far afield – he should have no problem with this bill. He’ll be playing acoustically.

It takes place at Berklee Performance Center Saturday Dec. 3, A gang of Berklee students and alum – Julia Easterlin, Da’Rayia, David Pramik, the Boston Boys, Pinn Panelle and the Berklee String Music Ensemble – play songs from their seminal bands – Radiohead, Gang of Four, R.E.M., Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, My Bloody Valentine… The songs, most of them we guess, are from the Berklee-run record label Heavy Rotation Records "Under the Influence" series, just out, produced by local ace Paul  Q. Kolderie. (Yep, he co-produced Radiohead’s first LP and Pixies’ "Surfer Rosa." He used some of the original gear they had back at the long-gone Fort Apache studios to record the album.

Thurs. Dec. 1

Hey, hey, they're the Syphlloids. Kids say they spread syphilis around. But we're too busy singing ... No, no, wrong band. The Syphlloids are a scurrilous/scabrous/humorous punk rock band formed some time ago by and its singer is someone who's become a friend in recent years, Doug Quintal. Doug is not a scuzzy punk in real life. He's a marketing prof at Emerson, a rabid Bruins fan he lives in a nice exburban home with his wife and two adorable children. But he does have this early-Dictators-esque alter-ego (Bug Syphlloid) and it will take shape tonight (Thursday) at the Max Mutchnick Student Center. Does Quintal really want his students to see this? Evidently, the answer is yes. The creation myth of the Syphlloids is, I believe, that they are spawns or mutant offspring or whatever of Elvis Aaron Syphlloid (the guitarist Fred Pineau, who used to be in the Atlantics). I reviewed 'em for the Globe in 1996 and wrote, "If you call your band the Syphlloids, you're pretty much admitting that you're not aiming for the top of the pops. You can't really envision that name rolling off Casey Kasem's tongue. Nope, if you're a Syphlloid, you're a Syphlloid all the way. You're saying that you wallow in the gutter and you like it like that."
    I asked Doug - co-writer of songs like "It's a Nice Day for a Bath, Hippie," "Guys Like Me Never Get Girls Like You," and "Whatever" - to pen a few words about this gig. Some of this may be true.
  "The Syphlloids’ set will highlight songs from both CDs ('Riding the Corporate Muscle' and 'Finger Check') released over the course of a storied 18 year career. The show will also mark the return of Syphlloids bassist Fargo “Cockring” Syphlloid to the lineup after leaving the band in 2003 to pursue a career as a mail order groom.
    The Syphlloids have turned their attention away from the stage in recent years to get married, start families, and pursue day jobs. However, according the front man Bug Syphlloid, “those things haven’t deterred us from writing and recording. I think there’s a perspective and maturity that comes from being a parent. I honestly believe that maturity and appreciation for the simple things in life are reflected in the songs contained in our forthcoming album, 'Porn Stars & Hockey Fights.' A release date has yet to be set, but updates can be obtained at www.reverbnation.com/thesyphlloids or www.facebook.com/the-syphlloids."
  Elvis/Aaron (or Dad) has apprently retired from the lineup but today's Syphlloids are Bug Syphlloid vocals/guitar, Hot Rod Syphlloid, lead guitar/vocals, and Tommy “Thincrust” Syphlloid on drums. And of course Fargo. 
  Starts at 9. Free.

150 Boylston St., 617-824-8680 www.emerson.edu