Toronto-based R&B artist The Weeknd - Abel Tesfaye - will play the House of Blues Tuesday, June 12. You can download his last three albums at his website. Like Frank Ocean and Nostalgia/Ultra, he's on the cutting edge of music-making, using mixtapes and free releases as a way of sampling tracks that otherwise couldn't be cleared. Echoes of Silence starts with the excellent "D.D.," which samples Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana" in an obvious tribute that traffics on the buzz of the Jackson sample but stands on its own as a distinctive composition.

Like fellow Canadian Drake, his subject matter is how hard it is being a playa, and like Drake, he makes it work. Tickets go on sale Wednesday at 10 a.m.

[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS8u-Fgc3Fw]