Kimbra is hitting the road this weekend, beginning the first leg of a US tour in support of her upcoming album Primal Heart. The tour’s first show is the Paradise Rock Club, located in the heart of Boston University’s sprawling campus. The indie rock/pop singer, originally from New Zealand, released three singles in support of the new album: “Everybody Knows”, “Top of the World”, and “Human”. Primal Heart is set to release on April 20 through Warner Bros. Records. Check out the singer’s newest video for “Everybody Knows” below, and you can find tickets for the Kimbra at the Paradise here. -Charley Ruddell

Best known for fab drag performances, rowdy demeanor, and ripping DJs, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Boston’s monthly “Queer party for everyone”, is turning seven years old, marking itself as Boston’s longest running queer party with over eighty-five parties to date. This month’s D.A.D.T is billed at Allston’s Great Scott, and boasts performances by several guest DJs, including Ickarus and Hannah Lou, as well as a “star studded drag show”. For those looking for an exciting night this weekend, think of the official slogan of D.A.D.T- All are welcome who welcome all. Check out the event page here, and some mixes from D.A.D.T resident DJ and host Colby Drasher below. -Charley Ruddell

Blue Ray is the frenetic, kooky outlet of musician Johnny Steines, the lone creative mind behind BR’s ninth release, GrubHub. Grubhub is an amalgamation of abstract indie weirdness, a collection of lofi tunes that presumably rattled around in Steines’ brain minutes before being recorded and bounced. It’s part Guided by Voices, part Wire, and part Pavement, exhibiting Steines’ unique relationship with each band’s niche, whether it be GBV’s touch-and-go recording approach, Wire’s arty sensibilities, or Pavement’s juvenile hyperactiveness. It’s these types of releases that can reveal raw creative intuition from its creator, where more often than not, the album serves as a real time transcript of the process. GrubHub is both insane and clever, and it deserves a listen or two. Stream it below. -Charley Ruddell   

Every year prior to the unsigned artist mecca that is SXSW, Georgia’s Savannah Stopover festival announces its lineup, with this year’s headlining acts including of Montreal, Nikki Lane, Wild Child, and Larkin Poe. According to Stopover’s website:

“Savannah Stopover Music Festival capitalizes on the logistical good fortune of Savannah, Georgia’s proximity to interstates 95 and 10 by presenting traveling musicians with a welcoming place to play en route to Austin’s prestigious SXSW Music Conference.”

New England will be represented by three local acts at this year’s Savannah Stopover: Caroline Rose from Burlington, VT, Sun Parade from Northampton, MA, and Vundabar from Boston. Be sure to check out the new videos from Caroline Rose and Sun Parade, as well as the new single from Vundabar, and be sure to check the bands’ tour dates to see a show near you. –Charley Ruddell

Boston’s post-rock trio The Rupert Selection are one of the few bands in New England that can mash hard, progressive rock and ambient space noodles into a signature sound. Their newest EP Modern Playground Medicine, plays out like a soundtrack to a space-age action movie; it’s one part blistering, jagged rock and roll, one part ambient weirdness. The trio somehow manage to channel hard/space rock bands like Quicksand and Failure while simultaneously displaying their influence in the landscapes of Stanley Kubrick, ultimately showcasing an effortless comfortability within their own unique vision. Get sucked into the vacuum of Modern Playground Medicine below. -Charley Ruddell

The debut release from singer/songwriter Michi Tassey of Nature Shots is as haunting and spacious as its title suggests. Foreclosure is an exercise in both patience and resilience within its cavernous landscape, employing a slow-burn, textural approach from start to finish. Tassey’s vocal harmonies, layers of acoustic sounds, and intimate dialogues call comparisons to emotive songwriters like Laura Marling and the ladies of Warpaint. What serves as the foundation of Foreclosure is an innate and peaceful simpleness, an inward migration from her role as frontwoman for the feverish indie rock/jazz group People Like You. Get lost in the meditation of Foreclosure below. -Charley Ruddell

It’s been exactly one year since the presidential inauguration, one endlessly stressful and tumultuous year at that. This is no coincidence to Boston’s three piece indie/folk rock outfit The Ballroom Thieves, who released their new single “Do Something”, a bluesy, simmering plea to the abhorrent administration that currently occupies the White House. The band detailed in a statement to Baeble Music their feelings behind the new song:

"Now a year has passed and it’s apparent that the patience we once championed is wholly wasted on an egomaniacal president who cares for nothing but his own enrichment. As such, the meaning behind this song has shifted with the times and it now stands as a letter for you, to him, from us. Patience has become a virtue of yesterday, and time’s up."

Read the full statement and find the latest Ballroom Thieves tour dates here, and stream “Do Something” below. –Charley Ruddell

Burlington, VT, mostly known for its University which spawned Phish, is a bustling college town full of heady young people and a burgeoning music scene. Enter Zeus Springsteen, a Burlington based power trio rooted in the endearing jangliness and lyrically clever sensibilities of a so called “college rock” band- though their sound begs to question when they’re from. Their eponymous debut album sounds more akin to R.E.M than OCS, exploring the popular sound of yesteryear college rock; steadfast grooves and fuzzy guitar riffs are littered all over the album, woven within tightly knit and smart arrangements. Perhaps the most identifying quirk of Zeus Springsteen are the melodic, yet abstract stories they tell (not unlike Robert Pollard’s), most notably on the cheeky “Joey Is a Robot”. Stream their new album below. -Charley Ruddell

Three piece garage rock outfit The Maxims made their debut last summer with the release of their eponymous EP, a collection of five songs that showcase their reverence to the retro sound of classic garage rock and soul. Steeped in the sounds of gritty guitars and swirling organs, The Maxims is as brash as it is sly, drifting between foot-stomping blues numbers to cool-headed 60s swagger. Last week, The Maxims released a grainy, peculiar music video for the EP’s first song, “Endless Mind”, which you can watch below. -Charley Ruddell

There was a point in time when singer Joanna Teters, the now-New Yorker, was a resident of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston. While studying at Berklee College of Music, Teters became a familiar and friendly face in the Boston music scene as the smokey, soulful singer for several groups including Lowtone Society and Ila Mawana. Now, with the release of her excellent solo debut Warmer When It Rains, Teters has shared Winter tour dates throughout the East Coast, which includes The Middle East Upstairs on February 1st.

Warmer When It Rains is a collection of masterfully produced pop/neo-soul songs influenced by 90s pop/RnB, island and reggae music, and jilted hip-hop beats, lead exclusively by Teters’ smoothly crafted melodies. Rains is an exercise in writing about love within pop songs, an artform in itself that produces either everlasting, or fatefully unforgettable music; fortunately for us, Teters has delivered a lasting and engaging debut, both musically and emotionally. Stream her new album below, and be sure to check the Warmer When It Rains Tour schedule to see Joanna in a city near you. -Charley Ruddell

Allston, MA is known best for two things: the rats, and its thriving underground music scene. Circulating somewhere within the latter is Big Boy Club, a three piece punk/emo outfit comprised of singer/guitarist Joe Sutkowski, bassist Billy Cunningham, and drummer Mikel Costa. Big Boy Club surprised fans on January 11th by releasing a new album called Untitled, an announcement that was their newest facebook post since July of last year. Untitled is a musically ambitious exploration into the “Allston sound”, a DIY punk/emo hybrid recognizable in Boston bands like Animal Flag and Horse Jumper of Love. Stream Untitled below. -Charley Ruddell

Pop/RnB singer/songwriter Nat Reed has released “Flow”, a starkly honest follow up single to last November’s “Selfish”. Born from Reed’s own struggles with anxiety, “Flow” is a sincere submission to self-doubt and turbulence within the confines of love. Following suit to contemporary pop/soul acts AlunaGeorge and Alessia Cara, the music of “Flow” is a crisply produced cruise built heavily on textural layers of Reed’s vulnerable voice, a stylistic idiosyncrasy of the singer’s signature electronically organic music. Stream “Flow” below. -Charley Ruddell