Dispatches from the Wolf's Den

before he moved to chicago and started writing for pitchfork almost exclusively tom breihan wrote a rap column (that occasionally touched on american idol and metal and whatever but even the title tells you that those were not the focus of the column) for the village voice called Status Ain’t…

Status Ain’t Hood was how I kept up with music throughout high school. Breihan wasn’t a great critic, or a great writer, but somehow this enhanced his charm. I learned to count on his awkward turns of phrase (writers should basically never use “basically”) just as I learned to count on his tastes, which still match mine more than any other critic’s: a love-hate relationship with indie rock. Plus, he called Rancid the best band in the world.