Best Music Poll

The votes are in, the winners are being tabulated by our crack staff of trained monkeys, and now we wanna be your dog. Everyone wants Iggy Pop right now, since he just blew the lid off the 21st century by reuniting the Stooges, but he’s going to Europe for the summer, and the only way to catch him stateside is to stop by FleetBoston Pavilion on Friday June 27 when he flies back for the FNX/Boston Phoenix Best Music Poll Grand Finale, which will also feature sets by electroclash scene stealers Fischerspooner and bandaged new(er)-wave upstarts Hot Hot Heat. Tickets are $25 and $25; call (617) 931-2000. And as if that weren’t enough, we’ve also got the craziest across-the-board Boston music event of the year for our Best Music Poll Local Showcase June 18 at Avalon — namely, rock monsters Cave In, indie hip-hop savior Mr. Lif, garage fiends the Damn Personals, and punk rock-and-rollers the Explosion. Avalon is at 15 Lansdowne Street, and tickets are a measly $9; call (617) 423-NEXT.

Fairport no more

Since this week brings the news that the Fairport Convention moniker is still in active use — they’re at Scullers next Thursday, June 5 — we thought it only, well, fair to mention that one of the legendary folk-rock outfit’s original creative directors, Richard Thompson, is headed our way later this summer. He’ll be bringing trinkets from his Old Kit Bag (Cooling Vinyl), a stripped-down indie disc that’s his first following a 12-year stint on Capitol, when he plays Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, on July 22. Call (617) 931-2000.

Jazz takes ICA’s "Pulse"

The Boston Creative Music Alliance usually knocks off for the summer, but in conjunction with its hosts at the Institute of Contemporary Art, it’s presenting two special evenings of music as a corollary to the ICA’s current exhibit, "Pulse: Art, Healing, and Transformation." Next Friday, June 6, the great violinist and composer Leroy Jenkins will conduct a performance of his music in memory of the BCMA’s co-founder, Gillian Levine, who died of cancer in May of 2001. The all-Boston nonet will be rounded out by saxophonists Allan Chase and Neil Leonard, violinist Mimi Rabson, cellist Jeff Song, guitarist Joe Morris, pianist Dave Bryant, bassist John Turner, and drummer Curt Newton. Then on Friday June 27, avant-jazz visionary William Parker will present the world premiere of his multimedia work for dance, video, poetry, and music, Portrait of a Sunrise. Performers will include Parker, dancer Patricia Nicholson-Parker, saxophonist Rob Brown, and tabla player Samir Chatterjee. The ICA is at 955 Boylston Street; call (617) 628-4342.

We are the champions