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134 items by Simon Vozick-Levinson Simon Vozick-Levinson’s Profile on

  • The Making of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows'

    The Making of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' | ARTICLE

    Making an album has never been easy for Radiohead. "We think too much," frontman Thom Yorke once told Rolling Stone. But 2007's In Rainbows may have been their toughest. "It was very difficult in a way we...

    April 27, 2012 12:40 PM ET
  • Behind the Scenes of Snoop and Dre's Coachella Triumph

    Behind the Scenes of Snoop and Dre's Coachella Triumph | ARTICLE

    A few nights before Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre closed out the first weekend of this year's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 15th, the rap giants held a final rehearsal on the festival...

    April 20, 2012 12:10 PM ET
  • Black Keys on Their First Coachella as Headliners

    Black Keys on Their First Coachella as Headliners | ARTICLE

    "This guy looks like he was created by Wes Anderson," says Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach as Pulp's Jarvis Cocker gambols across the stage. It's a couple of hours before the duo's show on the first night...

    April 20, 2012 9:15 AM ET
  • Mia Pharaoh

    Mia Pharaoh | ALBUM REVIEW

    On their first two albums, this Brooklyn-via-Phoenix indie-pop crew chiefly trafficked in playful psychedelia. Album three opens with a pair of curveballs, the horndog electro-disco fantasies "Sex on the Regular" and "Female Doctor." The lyrics are pure...

    April 2, 2012 11:55 AM ET
  • "Please Forgive My Heart"

    "Please Forgive My Heart" | SONG REVIEW

    The rasp and strain in Bobby Womack's voice only make this abject apology – the first taste of the 68-year-old soul survivor's comeback LP – more powerful. Producers Damon Albarn and Richard Russell add electronic skitter, but...

    March 27, 2012 4:55 PM ET
  • “The Don”

    “The Don” | SONG REVIEW

    All it takes is the right beat to send Nasir Jones back to 1994. On the latest preview of the Queens lyricist's forever-forthcoming new album, a stammering dancehall sample (hacked up by right-hand man Salaam Remi and...

    March 27, 2012 4:35 PM ET
  • “Identikit (Live)”

    “Identikit (Live)” | SONG REVIEW

    Radiohead have been peppering the set lists on their latest arena tour with some new works in progress – prime hunks of red meat for fans left ravenous by last year's all-too-brief The King of...

    March 21, 2012 10:05 AM ET
  • "Skirting on the Surface (Live)"

    "Skirting on the Surface (Live)" | SONG REVIEW

    Radiohead have been peppering the set lists on their latest arena tour with some new works in progress – prime hunks of red meat for fans left ravenous by last year's all-too-brief The...

    March 20, 2012 10:05 AM ET
  • Radiohead, Keys, Dre Invade the Desert for Coachella 2012

    Radiohead, Keys, Dre Invade the Desert for Coachella 2012 | ARTICLE

    Two years ago, Florence and the Machine celebrated their breakthrough year with a victory lap at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. "It was quite surreal, looking out as a performer and seeing palm trees and...

    March 16, 2012 2:10 PM ET
  • "Happy Pills"

    "Happy Pills" | SONG REVIEW

    "Would you please just let me go now?" pleads Norah Jones. She’s addressing some fool who crushed her feelings, but you'd hardly know it from the breezy way her voices wings over producer Danger Mouse’s bopping bass...

    February 29, 2012 4:10 PM ET
  • New In Town

    New In Town | ALBUM REVIEW

    Meet John Mulaney, king of the nerds. In his new stand-up set, the 29-year-old Saturday Night Live writer recalls in loving detail the classroom bullying that prepared him for his career as a champion self-mocker. Today Mulaney...

    February 29, 2012 10:05 AM ET
  • "Party & Bullshit"

    "Party & Bullshit" | SONG REVIEW

    What would Biggie make of the way Roc Nation's latest signee repurposes the chorus of his gruff 1993 debut single into a fizzy Top 40 jam about getting trashed? Who knows – maybe he'd race for the dance...

    February 27, 2012 3:15 PM ET
  • "Disparate Youth"

    "Disparate Youth" | SONG REVIEW

    On her 2008 debut, Santi White synthesized New Wave, post-punk, pop and dancehall strains into her own new flavor of downtown cool. She's at it again on the first single from her long-gestating follow-up – a slippery...

    February 17, 2012 4:50 PM ET
  • Jay-Z Orchestrates a Historic Night at Carnegie Hall

    Jay-Z Orchestrates a Historic Night at Carnegie Hall | ARTICLE

    “I always wanted to say this in Carnegie Hall,” Jay-Z said last night, midway through the second of his two charity shows this week at the hallowed New York institution. “Is Brooklyn in the house?” The roar...

    February 8, 2012 12:15 PM ET
  • Hospitality

    Hospitality | ALBUM REVIEW

    Synth doodles and squeaky-cutesy vocals abound on this Brooklyn trio's aggressively adorable debut. But Hospitality have more to offer than mere sweetness: Check how the wistful ballad "Eighth Avenue" left-turns into a spastic guitar outburst, like Tom...

    January 31, 2012 12:15 AM ET
  • Common: 'I Like Drake’s Music'

    Common: 'I Like Drake’s Music' | ARTICLE

    Common and Drake are on opposite sides of a high-profile rap quarrel at the moment – but Common tells Rolling Stone he isn't too proud to admit he respects his adversary as an artist. "I think he makes good...

    January 19, 2012 11:15 AM ET
  • "Eyeoneye"

    "Eyeoneye" | SONG REVIEW

    Who pissed off Andrew Bird? "Go ahead and congratulate yourself," the normally ­mild-mannered Chicagoan snipes over surging guitars on this refreshingly sour preview of his new LP. Resentment suits Bird well – even his whistling sounds more...

    January 13, 2012 2:05 PM ET
  • Carrie Brownstein: 'We're Okay With Making Somebody Feel Uncomfortable' on 'Portlandia'

    Carrie Brownstein: 'We're Okay With Making Somebody Feel Uncomfortable' on 'Portlandia' | ARTICLE

    "2011 was a very busy year for me," says Carrie Brownstein. No kidding: The singer-guitarist-comedian has been seemingly everywhere at once over the past 12 months, slaying crowds across the nation with her new band Wild...

    January 4, 2012 2:00 PM ET
  • "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)"

    "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)" | SONG REVIEW

    Who but Will.i.am could get Mick Jagger to rap – yes, rap – over a glitzy Ibiza beat in 2011? Who else would even think of such a wonderfully batshit idea? On the first single from...

    November 28, 2011 7:10 AM ET
  • The Roots Set to Deliver Their 'Most Realized' Album Yet

    The Roots Set to Deliver Their 'Most Realized' Album Yet | ARTICLE

    The string quartet has gone through at least a dozen takes by the time Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson arrives at the Soho studio where the Roots are recording final overdubs for their 11th album. Standing still in the...

    November 15, 2011 9:00 AM ET