Those in the market for an even crunchier version of Iron & Wine have found it in WILLIAM FITZSIMMONS, whose voice sounds like dripping water put to music. The assembled crowd at Royale last Friday evening was likely no greater in number than 100 and fit comfortably on the platform abutting the stage, with several folks sipping beers at their own tables.

Passion Pit are at the BoA Pavilion on June 22

On Sale Now

Rubblebucket | May 4 at Paradise Rock Club | $15 | On sale @ ticketmaster.com

Eleanor Friedberger + Hospitality + DJ Carbo | May 6 at Great Scott | $15 | On sale @ ticketweb.com

On Sale Friday, February 24

AT 10 AM

There's no such thing as seriously awesome news in hip-hop anymore. Everything has more or less been done. Twice. If Tupac returned from Hawaii to cut a track with Sam Adams about how much he loves the FCC, I might find it blog-worthy. But if there's a marathon of some Angie Harmon show or another on TNT, then forget about it.

As we first reported back in December when we sat down with CHRIS BROKAW before his gig at the Plough & Stars in Cambridge, '90s slowcore veterans CODEINE today announced a world tour to coincide with their reunion and album reissues. They hit the Brighton Music Hall on Saturday, June 30, in the middle of a 19-date run that includes mostly club shows with a sprinkling of festival dates (notably, All Tomorrow's Parties in Japan and the UK, and Primavera Sound in Spain).

Rap Class 2011 alumnus CAM MEEKINS, who left Wellsley’s oak-strewn suburbs for the music mecca of Los Angeles last September, is back in Boston, but not with his tail between his legs. The first to be singed onto Atlantic Records' resurgent indie label Giant Records, Meekins was in his hometown Thursday shooting “Cut Me Off,” the first single off his upcoming mixtape, the title of which hasn’t yet been announced.

Remember last week when the session drummer from Jack Black and Juliette Lewis' TV bands went on the Grammys and said all that racist shit against DJs right before performing with Deadmaus5? Awkward. A couple days ago he put out a pretty funny, lengthy, and charming apology, in which he said, in part “I don't know how to do what Skrillex does (though I fucking love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that's badass.

FIONA APPLE announced her first US tour in years today, including a March 27th stop in Boston at Royale.

This tour follows the announcement by Epic Records that Fiona Apple will "absolutely" be releasing a new record in 2012, though the details have not yet surfaced.

The tour also includes stops at Austin, Chicago, DC, New York, and New Jersey.

In this week’s Phoenix, Michael Christopher talks to Brandon Welchez of San Diego noise-pop duo CROCODILES, who bring a fuzzy haze of rock and roll fury to the Brighton Music Hall in Allston tonight.

Hey, want to go? We're giving away a pair of passes, courtesy of our friends over at Fenway Recording Sessions.

Big ups to the presidents! This here three day weekend edition of BOSTON ACCENTS kicked off with 20 minutes of electronic bliss, then dipped into my upcoming Spring Preview, which runs in the Boston Phoenix March 1. Hey, I had to write it this week, so the bands –- Sand Reckoner, Twin Berlin, Autochrome –- were fresh on my mind.

After a month on the west coast, things are really starting to happen for us here in Portland! Since my last update, I married my girlfriend and RUBY RIDGE bandmate Callan, we bought enough new gear to start playing out and recording again, and she landed a job at Concordia University.

This is the premiere post of my new blog, WALSHED OUT, which will focus on electronic music of all varieties, and not ever chillwave as the remarkably punny title by way of my music editor Michael Marotta may suggest. Every other week, I'll be dropping through with a maybe short, maybe long essay, highlighting something popping off in dance music on a local, national, or even global scale.

Early to bed
And early to rise
Makes a man or woman
Miss out on ...Mark Sandman's bass amp?!

We think we finally found the perfect piece to rest beside Billy Ruane's ashes at the Middle East in Cambridge: the late MARK SANDMAN'S Ampeg SVT bass amp head and 8x10 cabinet, which is now being sold on eBay for a cool $6,000

"It is worrisome to me that cultures prefer dancing to a machine," says John Densmore around the halfway point of RE:GENERATION, which screens tonight at the Common and Arlington's Regent Theater. The quote is delivered via a voice over while we witness the Doors drummer making a death row-like march into a Los Angeles recording studio.

Those privy to the cochlear destruction caused by a live Clouds performance should brace themselves appropriately for the band’s new side project. Retaining much of the heaviness of Clouds, J/Q have added an element of melodic fuzz pop that is perhaps a bit more palatable to radio-friendly ears, and “Binary Life” is a cosmic wave of sludge with punches of synth-laden onslaughts and moments of dropped-out vocal-driven echoes.