Rescued from her unimaginative and sappy Idol producers by a coterie of pop-rock alchemists, Kelly Clarkson proved she could scream like Avril Lavigne (who co-wrote the title track) and twitch like Gwen Stefani on last year’s Breakaway. And though gold records are nice, last month she got a priceless boost: just as Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard once bestowed sensitive-boy cred on Avril by taking up the cause of "Complicated," Ted Leo gave Clarkson the indie-rock seal of approval by covering her Max Martin–produced single "Since U Been Gone." We still think Kelly’s version’s better: with compact, pneumatic bursts of drop-tuned guitars, it soars and smokes the way Jimmy Eat World used to. Clarkson plays the Orpheum (617-931-2000) in Boston on Friday; Oakdale Theatre (203-265-1501) in Wallingford, Connecticut, on Sunday; and the Providence Performing Arts Center (401-421-2787) next Thursday, April 28.

According to his brother Chris, Ted Leo once came to blows with Guided by Voices leader Robert Pollard, and there’s an apocryphal tale that Pollard later took revenge by lobbying Matador to reject one of Chris Leo’s albums — a disc, so the story goes, that’s now seeing an odd second life. Truth Loved not only is included in Chris Leo’s debut novel, White Pigeons, but in fact constitutes the seventh chapter of the book — where it’s credited to the novel’s fictional band, the Breaks. Formerly of the Van Pelt and the Lapse, Chris is touring behind the book/CD under the name Vague Angels, and he’s already planning a second disc that will stand in for the final chapter of his next novel, 57 Octaves. On Tuesday, he plays an all-ages gig at Zeitgeist Gallery (617-876-6060) in Cambridge with opener Willard Grant Conspiracy/Ted Leo guitarist Drew O’Doherty — check his Myspace page for a cover of "Changes" that does for Sabbath what Mark Kozelek did for AC/DC.

Nikka Costa, you may recall, is the sex-bomb daughter of storied pop arranger (and Boston native) Don Costa. A worldwide pop sensation since the age of five, she’s relaunching with cantneverdidnothin’ (Virgin), an album of retro-futurist megaton funk whose remake of Ike and Tina Turner’s "Funkier Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter" is screaming for a white-label reggaeton remix. Costa opens for Lenny Kravitz Saturday at Oakdale Theatre and Sunday at the Orpheum. Meanwhile, Ryan Adams is threatening three albums this year, with the first, the double-CD Cold Roses, out May 3. He kicks off a tour at the Calvin Theatre (413-584-1444) in Northampton on Wednesday, then plays Higher Ground (802-654-8888) in South Burlington on April 28 and the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (603-929-4100) on April 29; he’ll circle back to Avalon (617-262-2424) in Boston on May 17.