Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein: America's Dr. Evil

Having let the dusty lists of the last decade settle into a pile of sediment from other media, I decided now was a good time to weigh in. (To be the one, again, on the outside, looking in, behind the glass. I never liked running with crowds much.) Oh hi! My name is Dan Martino, otherwise known as your lowly program director here at Brooklyn Radio. Some of you may know me only when I don a cape of drunken master to debauchery and pop music on my show The Dope Spot. The large S on the chest stands for Soulstatic. Let me tell you: I still don’t know what the moniker means or how I came up with it. But it has stuck. I like to tell people it has something to do with the conflict of white noise clouds delivering bolts of punk rock power chords through my soul. I have to be honest, though: That’s a real load of hot doggie dung. And like the story behind my DJ name, you can find plenty more poo poo in the stories we told ourselves this decade.

DJ Emskee has been keeping listeners of Brooklyn Radio in the real with his Controlled Substance hip-hop show since we started this ridiculous venture. Having taken a break from the DJ game for a bit, 2010 will see Em becoming more eclectic on his show here, as well as keeping with his roots on the forever running Underground Railroad on WBAI, and growing his own production skills. As an MC with a lot on his mind, you can bet he has some interesting things to say about the last decade.

Unfold to The Best of 2009 from Robert Luis and Tru Thoughts…part three in a series of four. (There's too much good music to fit in one episode.) Vibe out to Mayor Hawthorne, Quantic and his Combo Barbaro, Skeleton, Domu, Michael Jackson, Bullion and many more eclectic tunes that caught the ear of Robert Luis in 2009. Stay tuned for part four…

Tru Thoughts Radio - the Best of 2009 (Part 3)

Jesse Serwer is our ideal journalist: Not only can he write most anyone under the table, but he also has the ability to see what no one else was looking at. In the trade, we call that finding an angle. And he seems to find the angles within the angles. It's no surprise to us that his work was featured in The Best Music Writing 2009. He kindly lets us pilfer from his blog of interesting music writing and reporting, which we run as the Digging Deeper column. And after the cut, he raps poetic on the decade that was. Or was it?

Covering live events and dealing with artist egos has been the stock in trade for our entrenched reporter Lara Marsman. We were lucky enough to scoop her up after she became a homeless refugee of Billboard Magazine, just begging for spare words to report on Brooklyn Radio's ye olde blog. After the cut, she shares her warm and fuzzy thoughts on the decade that was.

DJ Conquerrah has been keeping Brooklyn Radio humid and spliffed out on his cool spray of reggae on Wake the Town and Tell the People for the last--GULP!--three years. As some of our other shows that use reggae as a starting point have delved further into its electronic future, we find the past and present on Wake the Town to be authentically grounded in its roots. Which for us, and our listeners, is a blessing in education, entertainment, and soul satisfying. After the cut, let's dance! Conquerrah is firing pistols into the air on this past decade.

Mandean has been serving Brooklyn Radio listeners with the finest in underground and street approved commercial hip-hop for the last three years on The Mandean Radio Edit. His opinion on the last decade is crucial reading, providing enlightment from the sage of pure gutter material. After the cut, won't you join us for our little discussion.

This year's award for over-hyped noisemakers in the music media goes to Animal Collective. (One more mention of their dumb album, Merri Your Post In Our Pavilion or Something, might make us gag up psychadelic patterns and blow them all over some smug Williamsburg art clown.) If you still can't get enough of their wanky instincts, though, we suggest you download a free copy of the latest issue of The Fader, where they serve as editors. BARF! [The Fader]

The worst songs of the decade have been decided upon. With a bullet, "Empire State of Mind" is number one. We kid, we kid! Awfulness has a new name, and that name is Adam Duritz. Congrats on beating out Tila Tequila. [Village Voice]

Electronic music mag Resident Advisor has picked out some of their favorite things of the past 12 months. We're not sure who half the artists, labels, or tracks they select are. However, they certainly make it look interesting. [RA]

This story is not music related, per se, but it does contain two of the three familiar elements of a rock n' roll lifestyle: sex and drugs. TV news anchoring and radio host to minivan moms is new to the equation.  [Charlotte Observor via Gawker]

Windy City resident Britt Julious has been holding down the noisy guitars and distorted dance grooves from Indieland on I Love My Wife, with co-host Arianna Stern, on Brooklyn Radio. We're truly lucky to have someone with our maxim for poptastic taste in the mainstream that mixes with a love for the underground and unexplored. Besides feeding your ears here, she curates your other senses at her blog, Britticisms. After the cut, we learn Brittany is a Brittany fan.

A record label owner, producer, and DJ, Nick Name has been flying his eclectic and discerning brand of music into the digital age with the Care In the Community show on Brooklyn Radio. Constantly dipping into the esoteric sounds of decades past, Nick shows the big picture of sonics on the wide screen: A soundtrack to your obscure part of life. After the cut, we dive down the rabbit hole with Nick to get his thoughts on the decade that was.

Queens native Chucky Brown, of The Shake Up on Brooklyn Radio, packed up his rock circus and took it out to San Francisco last year. But just because he departed for the Left Coast, that didn't mean we were going to stop letting him floss New York City--even if it was in the Bay. (In fact, after some dispatches from Chucky, we've warmed to Northern Cali and added some native Golden Gate DJs to our line-up, J.Boogie and his Beatsauce crew.) After the cut, a slimmed down Brown dives into his thoughts on the past ten years.

We didn't feel the need to write a list of the decades best music. For one thing, we're tired of lists. And second, if it's so important that we regurgitate the same crap about the same records so you can get your pants all sweaty that Outkast's Stankonia wasn't our top pick, then you need to turn off the Internet and take a walk. Instead, we asked our DJs what they remember about the decade, from music, world events, and the parties they held down. Always with a slant on your cheap perspective, The Rub's Cosmo Baker leads off.

We know that your anticipation for our track of the decade pick has been slowly squeezing your brain like a sparkly Ed Hardy drawn dragon fucking a motorcycle t-shirt, so: After much deliberation, we've come to our conclusion. Everything in music that was so amazing and awful about this decade's digital diarrhea explosion in the world's web pants can be summed up with Bangs' "Let Me Take You To the Movies." The sheer audacity of someone like Bangs to continue existing gives us very little hope for the future. But, fellow music lovers, people above a pre-k reading level, we can all wish to The Secret that it won't get any worse. And, hopefully, the next decade will bring us less professional karaoke singers, biological mistakes from reality teevee, cleansing diets, smoking bans, safe places for the kids to play, and, most importantly, healthy cereal. We'll have more of the best of the decade from each DJ over the next few weeks. Keep it locked right here.