If It's Too Loud...

Photo via Facebook For the most part, Latrell James' live shows are more energetic than his recordings, but that changes with his latest single. "Shots Fired" shows the Boston MC adding some rock guitars to his hip hop sound, and the results are electrifying. Seriously, you're going to spend the rest of the day going "Bang, bang, bang, bang" in your head, whether you want to or not. Even after the guitar fades out and is replaced with other instrumentation, "Shots Fired" straight up rocks while still being pure hip hop. Latrell James has had a fantastic 2025, and this new single continues that. You can watch the video for "Shots Fired" below. For more on Latrell James, check out the artist on Instagram  and Facebook .

Megan from Work Photo by Boston Calling Alive Coverage You're going to see a lot of headlines saying things like "Rain and cold temperatures couldn't dampen festival goer's day," but that's actually the truth. Despite temperatures way below the average for Memorial Day weekend in Boston, and despite a cold rain starting late afternoon, the crowd had a great time, and the weather was mostly shrugged off in a "can you believe this?" kind of way. Of course, great music always helps. Here are the best artists I saw Friday, in the order that they played. Bebe Stockwell Bebe Stockwell is an artist with Boston roots who I was unfamiliar with until she took the stage to open the festival at 1:30. I'm now one of her diehard fans. She played a fantastic set of folk-pop with a charm that was completely irresistible. Anyone who chose to get there early was treated to one of the best sets of the day that included a cover of "Home" by Edward Sharpe ...

Friday night marked two weeks before the start of this year's Boston Calling. As part of WBUR's Sound On series, they presented an evening featuring three of the most interesting local artists playing Boston Calling this year. Even though I can see them all in three weeks, when the artists chosen are Latrell James, sidebody, and Battlemode, I'm going to make the trek into Boston on a rainy night to check them out early. First up was chiptune heroes Battlemode. I'm always a little hesitant to see electronic artists live since so much of the genre is just a guy pressing play on a laptop, and seeing that much of the chiptune genre is made up of retro video game noises, it could be a fairly dull show. But, Battlemode are one of the most entertaining live bands in all of Boston. They play live instruments, bring in weird instruments I don't recognize (they called one thing a spit tube(?)), and have an insane energy. As much as I enjoy their recorded music, live they are ...

After watching some wild speculation the last few weeks on Reddit, Boston Calling has announced their 2025 line up, and, dare I say it... it's pretty great! The headliners are Luke Combs and Megan Moroney on Friday, Fall Out Boy and Avril Lavigne on Saturday, and Dave Matthews Band and Vampire Weekend on Sunday. Personally, I'm most interested in Sunday's headliners, more out of curiosity than anything else. After that, we've got quite literally something for everyone with legends like Sheryl Crow, TLC, The Black Crowes, Sublime, Public Enemy (!!!!!), Tom Morello (playing the same day as Public Enemy, so I think we need a collaboration...), and Spin Doctors, along with newer favorites like Thee Sacred Souls, Lucius, and more. Once again they've outdone themselves with local bands that include Latrell James, Megan from Work, Battlemode, Rebuilder, sidebody, Pinklids, and Vivid Bloom! This is the strongest Boston Calling line up in years, and we're thrilled for th...

Photo via Facebook Boston's Latrell James has been on the precipice of mega-stardom for far too long, and if his latest single wasn't just ninety seconds, it could have been the one to do it. "Traumatized" is a burst of brilliant hip hop. Musically it's a throwback to classic Public Enemy or Wu-Tang Clan. It's a little discordant, but in the most compelling way possible. Latrell James's flow in "Traumatized" has the laid back feel of Snoop Dogg, but sped up and with a little added edge. It's a killer combination, and the only possible complaint with the song is that with a ninety second length, it ends just as you're starting to really get into it. You can watch the video for "Traumatized" below. For more on Latrell James, check him out on Facebook and Twitter .