Simon Vozick-Levinson

@simonwilliam.bsky.social

5820 Followers 997 Following

deputy music editor at rolling stone // just my own opinions over here

Photo of Micah Prussack and Nick Llobet of youbet for Rolling Stone. photo by Griffin Lotz
1. Water From Your Eyes, It's a Beautiful Place 2. Clipse, Let God Sort Em Out 3. Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos 4. Horsegirl, Phonetics On and On 5. Lifeguard, Ripped and Torn 6. Jeff Tweedy, Twilight Override 7. Wednesday, Bleeds 8. Girlpuppy, Sweetness 9. Lily Seabird, Trash Mountain 10. Geese, Getting Killed
Excerpt from a 2014 interview with Richard D. James, aka Aphex Twin, published in Rolling Stone. Q: Do you work mostly during the day or at night? A: The best part is when everyone’s gone to bed, always. It’s a really good time of the day for creating stuff. Naturally I would stay up until about five in the morning, but when I’ve got to take my kids to school, I’ve got to go to bed early. It really sucks. At the moment, it’s holidays, so I’m fine. But it’s really fucking annoying. I really can’t stand it. That’s the only bad thing about having kids, I think, is that you’ve got to get up to get them to school.
Photo of Rachel Brown and Nate Amos of Water From Your Eyes by Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone
Photo of Lily Seabird by Owen Benfield for Rolling Stone
from NYT breaking news alert on the selection of the new pope: "An evening chill can be felt as the sun sets behind St. Peter’s Basilica. The throngs of priests, nuns and Vatican workers who’ve assembled on rooftops for a glimpse of history don’t seem to mind."
Photo of Lifeguard by Griffin Lotz for Rolling Stone. (From left: Isaac Lowenstein, Asher Case, and Kai Slater.) The Chicago band has an awesome debut album coming out this summer through Matador. Read all about it at Rolling Stone.
Excerpt from Rob Sheffield's 80th birthday tribute to Bob Seger: Everything people love about Bob Seger is right there in “Rock & Roll Never Forgets.” This song isn’t just an invitation — it’s a detailed step-by-step explainer about how to go to a rock show. “Go down to the concert or a local bar,” Bob advises. “Check the local newspaper, chances are you won’t have to go too far.” Talk about service-y. As a kid, I heard him singing to rookie fans like me, but he’s really an adult singing to his fellow adults — the “sweet 16s turned 31.” He assures them that they belong here, that music isn’t just for the young or the cool or the glamorous. Bob’s out here telling 30-somethings—unimaginable in Seventies rock terms—that you have a place on the dance floor, even if you feel old and awkward, even if you have to get up in the morning. And if you’re out of practice, so what? Come back, baby, rock & roll never forgets.
Cover art for No Age's album Everything In Between, released in 2010 through Sub Pop. It's a black-and-white image of a crumpled-up piece of paper with the band and album names printed in sans-serif caps.
Penguin Random House preorder page for Thomas Pynchon’s new novel, Shadow Ticket, out October 7 2025. It’s his first novel since 2013. There’s a pop-up prompt for an email list: “Never miss a new book by Thomas Pynchon!”
Excerpt from a review of Jennifer Weiner's new novel 'The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits,' reviewed by Caryn Ganz for the New York Times: Sarah Seltzer’s 2024 “The Singer Sisters” also spins a novel out of the secrets and songwriting of a family band, including a daughter trying to make a name for herself while leaning on its legacy. The sisters there were ’70s folkies; the daughter a ’90s alt-rocker; and the lyrics a whole lot stronger. Songwriting is not easy!
St. Vincent at the Rivian Electric Warehouse in Austin, TX for SXSW 2025
New York Times front page on February 21, 2025. The headline on one story reads “The S.S. United States is Going Down for Good.” The story is about the former ocean liner of that name, which is being sunk and turned into an artificial reef.
Lyrics to an old English folk song, author unknown. "A carrion crow sat on an oak, Derry, derry, derry, decco; A carrion crow sat on an oak, Watching a tailor shaping his cloak. Heigh-ho! the carrion crow, Derry, derry, derry, decco."
Victor Ray writes: “Behind the anti-diversity movement’s performative worries about qualification is a not-so-subtle subtext implying that any person of color in a position of authority is unqualified. The Civil Rights Movement successfully stigmatized many overt expressions of racism and this was a sign of progress. Freedom from harassment is a prerequisite for equal participation in workplaces and schools, and asking that your colleagues not disparage your race or gender should not be an unreasonable imposition. Yet, some have always chafed at even these mild restrictions. Claims that DEI means “Didn’t Earn It” is one way people signal their support for old-school racism while avoiding the sanction of using open slurs. Couching bigotry in concern about “qualifications” (which only seems to apply to non-White people) is just the socially acceptable way to launder racist disdain.”
Photo of Horsegirl: Penelope Lowenstein, Gigi Reece, Nora Cheng. Photo by Collette Aboussouan for Rolling Stone.
Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? by Deerhunter
Rolling Stone is now on Bluesky! https://bsky.app/profile/rollingstone.com
Excerpt from André 3000's Rolling Stone Interview with Andre Gee: What’s your mindset on new OutKast music now? I’ll say maybe 10, 15 years ago, in my mind, I thought an OutKast album would happen. I don’t know the future, but I can say that we’re further away from it than we’ve ever been. I think it’s a chemistry thing. We have to be wanting to do it. It’s hard for me to make a rap, period, you know? And sometimes I’m in the belief of “Let things be.” It was a great time in life, and our chemistry was at a certain place that was undeniable. And I think the audience sometimes believes that something has to last forever, and I don’t think that. Any kind of art form, I think that’s probably the opposite. It probably should not last forever. It’s not like a product. In the end, we did give a product, but what made that product was a certain time in both of our lives.
My top 10 albums released in 2024: 1. Charli XCX, Brat 2. This Is Lorelei, Box for Buddy, Box for Star 3. Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood 4. Fontaines D.C., Romance 5. Allegra Krieger, Art of the Unseen Infinity Machine 6. Kim Gordon, The Collective 7. Kendrick Lamar, GNX 8. MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks 9. Common and Pete Rock, The Auditorium, Vol. 1 10. Thus Love, All Pleasure
Radiohead, Kid A
Thurston Moore, Dec 6, 2024
cover art for TV on the Radio’s 2011 album Nine Types of Light, which rules
a large pot of gluten-free mac and cheese that @sarahmseltzer.bsky.social and i made. happy thanksgiving!
Alvvays
 Beyoncé
 Casual Dots
 Deerhunter
 Empath
 FKA Twigs
 Grizzly Bear
 Hop Along
 Interpol
 Jay-Z
 Kurt Vile
 Lil Wayne
 Mdou Moctar
 Neil Young
 Olivia Tremor Control
 Pavement
 Queens of the Stone Age
 Radiohead
 Sleater-Kinney
 Taylor Swift
 Ultimate Painting
 Vince Staples Water From Your Eyes
 X
 Young Thug
 Zack de la Rocha (this is kind of cheating, only seen him perform with Rage)
A fan at All Things Go New York, September 2024. Photo by Maria-Juliana Rojas for Rolling Stone, from Abigail Covington's feature "Inside the Highs and Lows of Sapphic Pop's Banner Year"
Photo of fans in pink cowboy hats at All Things Go, New York, September 2024. Photo by Maria-Juliana Rojas for Rolling Stone. This photo appears in Abigail Covington's longread feature, "Inside the Highs and Lows of Sapphic Pop's Banner Year"
Photo of Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour in Toronto, Canada, November 22 2024
Photo of a Jerry Garcia promotional bobblehead given to ticket holders at Yankee Stadium in 2023. The bobblehead resembles a young Jerry, holding a guitar in his left hand and raising his right hand in greeting. He’s wearing a Yankees jersey for some reason. A fan (me) is holding the bobblehead up proudly from a seat in the right field upper decks.
The cover of Rolling Stone's December 2024 issue, starring Timothée Chalamet. Cover lines: "This is the kind of pressure I want" TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET On Becoming Bob Dylan The Rolling Stone Interview: Stevie Nicks Stevie Wonder on Quincy Jones Sportsbook Nation: The $11 Billion Rise of Online Sports Gambling The Body in the Basement: Unraveling a 50-Year Mystery The Return of Lil Uzi Vert: "My life is different. But I'm still the same me"
photo of Robin Pecknold performing a solo acoustic set at the Bowery Ballroom in New York, November 17, 2024
Very simple baseball dice game, with a square board and four peg holes representing the bases. Different outcomes result from rolling two dice: 2 = home run, 3 = single, 4 = double, 5 = triple, all the way up to 10 = ground out, 11 = fly out, 12 = strike out
A big decal of Grimace, the McDonalds character, wearing a Mets cap, on the side of a 7 train in New York. These stickers are all over the train. The baseball season ended weeks ago, but corporate partnerships are forever.
Another guy, also wearing a plaid flannel in an office cubicle
The cover of Rob Sheffield’s new book HEARTBREAK IS THE NATIONAL ANTHEM: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music