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Now that iTunes 10 has us pinging or spritzing or kvetching each other at frightening rates and being happier than we’ve ever been before, a small group of naysayers has decided to take issue with the new icon, obviously the fault they could find in the entire program.

Designer Joshua Kopac took his beef to the man himself, asserting to Jobs that the new icon “sucks” and instantly gets rid of the iTunes’ recognizability. Jobs’ answer: “We disagree.” Those two words work better than Kopac suddenly disappearing from his life and waking up on the Island of Discarded Apple Spokespersons next to Yael Naim, simply because Jobs is saying what everybody already knows: He could make the icon for iTunes his own face, and we would still use it. Convenience demands it! [Gizmodo]

Patterson Hood is not a man given to humble understatement when it comes to his band. That said, when he makes a prediction (or a Jesus pose during “Let There Be Rock”), he usually delivers. The latest is that DBT is plotting something “ridiculously over the top and cool” for a New Year’s Eve show New York City’s Terminal 5. The early buzz from fans is that the Truckers will play Southern Rock Opera in its entirety, but that hardly even makes the grade as speculation at this point.

To throw a little gasoline on the fire, however,  I’d say it has something to do with a new album, recent tour mate Tom Petty, and acolytes The Hold Steady. Stay tuned for news of a less reckless nature. [The Village Voice]

Black Mountain’s new video for “The Hair Song” perfectly captures the summertime swing of the song, centering around two teenagers from different groups meeting and ultimately falling for each other at a Black Mountain show in the middle of the woods. I can’t help but wonder though, do the people who enter the venue through the front door actually get to see Black Mountain, or do you have to go through the magic forest-portal out back that our hero enters? I hope they put that information on the flyer. Zoe Bower and Simon Chan directed the clip.

“The Hair Song” comes from Black Mountain’s upcoming album Wilderness Heart, which is due out Sept. 14 via Jagjaguwar.

Brooklyn-based noise-gazers Crystal Stilts who have been keeping themselves out of the indie-spotlight and away from the fog machine for much of 2010, will be releasing a 7-inch single on Oct. 26 via Slumberland. The A-side will feature “Shake the Shackles” while the flipside will contain “Magnetic Moon” which is described via press release as “a bluesy chug that comes on like some lost swamp-pop classic.” Muddy Waters, anyone?

Unfortunately, the band asserts that both songs will not be featured on their next, yet-to-be named LP. However, the four-piece plans on releasing a new album “early 2011″ release. Winter months and Crystal Stilts = a good combination. [Exclaim!]

M83 collaborator Morgan Kibby is prepping the release a solo EP, This Frontier, for an Oct. 5th release date. The French chanteuse will release the five-songs under the moniker White Sea. Kibby has been hard at work on the EP since finishing her tour with M83 last year and has stated that the solo release will draw from Kibby’s interest in disco bass lines, ’60s spaghetti westerns and the work of Ennio Morricone’s soundtracks. As of right now it looks as though Kibby will be self-releasing the 5-song recording.

In addition to the EP, Kibby recently finished a remix of School of Seven Bells’ “Dust Devil,” which will be released with the trio’s single “Heart is Strange” on Sept 14. [CMJ]

If The Roots can sample Joanna Newsom and feature The Dirty Projectors then why can’t Bjork get hyphy with the East-Bay’s own Charlie Hustle, E-40? As reported earlier this week, E-40 sampled the eccentric Icelandic singer on “Spend the Night” from his forthcoming LP, Revenue Retrievin: Night Shift. Unfortunately, there is no cameo by Bjork in the video. Which is too bad because the image of the petite singer passing glasses of Nuvo and blunts with a crew of Bay-Area rappers just makes sense in a strange sort of way. [Fader]

In stark contrast to every other Deerhunter-related release ever, the band’s Halcyon Digest is still under wraps, and it’s only a couple weeks away. So relish this opportunity to hear new track, “Helicopter,” via a new video streaming at the band’s website. It’s pretty low budget–it’s just Bradford Cox looking into a camera–but this song is big, with its watery synths, melancholic vocals and glowering haziness. Deerhunter have long seemed on the cusp of a wider breakthrough, and this ablum might could do it. Go here already.

Halcyon Digest is due out on Sept. 28.  

Anyone who had “Paranoid Android” in their “Pitchfork’s Best Songs of the 1990s” pool is totes out of some money this morning: The site chose Pavement’s “Gold Soundz”* as its number one, edging out songs like “Juicy,” “Loser,” “Protect Ya Neck,” “Holland, 1945″ and (ridiculously) “Nuthin’ But a G Thang.” I guess they have to pick something by Pavement, and picking “Cut Your Hair” would have been too obvious. Overall though, the songs in the top ten are generally pretty awesome; I’m sure everyone will have some problem with the order:

10. Weezer, “Say It Ain’t So”

09. Beck, “Loser”

08. Aaliyah, “Are You That Somebody?”

07. Neutral Milk Hotel, “Holland, 1945″

06. My Bloody Valentine, “Only Shallow”

05. Wu-Tang Clan, “Protect Ya Neck”

04. Radiohead, “Paranoid Android”

03. Dr. Dre f. Snoop Dogg, “Nuthin’ But a G Thang”

02. Pulp, “Common People”

01. Pavement, “Gold Soundz”

See the full list over at Pitchfork. 

*- Which isn’t even the best Pavement song. Or the best song on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. 

While Apple’s announcement of new iPods and Ping dominated the technology news cycle this week, Google was lining up implements for its inevitable war with Apple over music store sales, as the company was in serious talks with labels about launching Google Music and its Cloud-based music store. This comes with news that Google is activating almost as Android phones as Apple is activating iPhones each day (200,000 to 230,000), and that many music labels have been more than receptive to Google’s version of a music Cloud, while they have been less enthusiastic to work on a Cloud with Apple.

I’m kind of unsure how a war between these two companies could play out? I mean, there’s no way either will collapse due to music store fights between them. And seriously, Apple and Google, like you don’t have enough control over everything already? For instance, I’m writing this on a MacBook through a Google web browser. [Daily Swarm]

Here’s yet another leak from Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon II; this one is called “Do You Get It?,” and it’s, in a first for Cudi, heavy on specific rhymes and light on broad platitudes about “night terrors.” Kudi starts each verse with a variation on saying his real name (Scott Mescudi) before talking about his dad, Grammys, clothes, albums and Kanye jocking him (which is true, circa 808s and Heartbreak). This still isn’t as wily as Wale or as commercial as Drake, but it’s at least a (slightly) improved Cudi. Listen below.

Man on the Moon II is due out on Nov. 9. [Filter]