Oh, why’d she have to go and make things so complicated? We don’t know where, and we don’t know exactly when, but Avril Lavigne will be at a shopping plaza somewhere in the metro Boston area on Tuesday for a free acoustic gig as part of a cute campaign to kick-start the hype for her forthcoming sophomore album, Under My Skin (Arista). The details won’t be released until 48 hours before show time; sign up at avrillavigne.net and they’ll give you the skinny via e-mail or cell phone, flash-mob style. You know, just like in the "Sk8er Boi" video? Only at a mall like Tiffany instead of in downtown traffic like Metallica?

Tough to say which side wins on the new Bangers Vs. Fuckers (Narnack), the latest disc from San Francisco’s Coachwhips. Their affinity for Brainbombs-style maximum overload means all needles stay pinned in the red; their debt to Oblivians/Headcoats–inspired garage trash means they never stop rocking. The band’s gig Friday at the Green Room (401-351-7665) in Providence serves as a homecoming of sorts for frontman and Rhode Island native John Dwyer, formerly the Pink half of thrash-noise faves Pink & Brown. Boston’s Tunnel of Love (same æsthetic, cooler costumes, better songs) and Athletic Automaton (guitar-drums sweat hogs) open. Elsewhere in noiseland, former Cows frontman, trumpeter, and noted lunatic Shannon Selberg’s Heroine Sheiks are at T.T. the Bear’s Place (617-492-BEAR) in Cambridge on Saturday and at Bar (203-495-8924) in New Haven on Sunday. And Forced Exposure honcho Bryon Coley shows up in a spoken-word setting Monday at Flywheel (413-527-9800) in Easthampton, where we presume he’ll provide a semblance of coherence to an evening of otherwise stark-raving-mad avant-terrorism by Crank Sturgeon, Fat Worm of Error, and others.

A couple of years ago, Fred Durst discovered Kurt Cobain’s evil jock-rock twin living in a trailer park in Kansas City; the rest is, if not history, then at least destiny. You can catch platinum-plated knucklehead-grunge stars Puddle of Mudd Tuesday at Lupo’s at the Strand (401-331-5876) in Providence. The flip side of Kansas City rock — proto-emo stalwarts the Get Up Kids (Matt Ashare’s review of their new disc is in "Off the Record") — play a sold-out gig at Axis (617-262-2437) in Boston on Friday. And the prettiest side of Midwestern indie rock is on display when Saddle Creek’s chamber-rock poster gals Azure Ray return in support of their gorgeous Hold on Love. They’re at Wellesley College (781-283-1000) on Saturday, T.T.’s on Sunday, and the Call (401-751-2255) in Providence next Friday, March 19.

Even in his later years, the pudding salesman is knocking some of the funniest men in America dead. If you’ve seen the Jerry Seinfeld comeback documentary Comedian, you’ve noted the look of awe on Chris Rock’s face when he gushes about having recently taken in a Bill Cosby set. Rock makes a return visit to the Orpheum (617-931-2000) in Boston on Saturday; Cosby does two shows at the Calvin Theater (413-584-1444) in Northampton on Sunday.