THE HOLD STEADY: The Boston Herald hits the Springsteen comparison again, but notes that: "Instead of trying to seduce Rosalita, Finn

IT'S HALLOWEEN: It's time for scares, it's time for screams; it's Halloween!

STREAMING FROM THE CASTLE EAST: This fan-made 1973 video for "The Monster Mash" is today's must-see clip, though you can also see Bobby "Boris" Pickett perform it live at the Horror Hall of Fame. The covers by The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and The Misfits are pretty good also -- the latter uses clips from the Rankin-Bass animated classic, Mad Monster Party.

NEW RELEASES: You know it's a scary week for new releases when Spenderline's "rap" album is the big album streaming from AOL this week (thought the Borat soundtrack is there, too). And crazy b-ball thug Ron Artest has an album out. Less scary, but more tragic, is the posthumous release from the Exploding Hearts. Pretty Little Head is finally released by Nellie McKay, who is scary in her own special way. And then there is...

ANDY PARTRIDGE of XTC, who gets a lengthy profile and podcast at PopMatters, leading up to today's solo release of the Fuzzy Warbles Collector's Box: "I thought to myself, 'Look, if anyone

"DO THEY KNOW IT'S HALLOWEEN?" is an all-star charity send-up of Band-Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" featuring Roky Erikson, Elvira, plus members from Arcade Fire, Sonic Youth, Smoosh, Rilo Kiley, Sparks and many more.

SCARY SONGS: Springfield, IL's State Journal-Register lists songs that go bump in the night in several genres. UnderGroundOnline springs volume 3 of its Top Eleven Scariest Songs. Why eleven? Maybe because it's "one more," when you need that extra push to get you over the top. WFMU has posted scary sounds and stories to download, including links to episodes of old-time radio shows like Suspense and Lights Out.

WHO'S LEFT: Pete Townshend stormed out of Sirius Satellite Radio's green room before Howard Stern got to ask him about his kiddie porn rap, his sexual encounters with men, and his girlfriend co-writing his songs. Meanwhile, the Who's Left album is reviewed by Phil Daniels, who played Jimmy in Quadrophenia.

HOODOO GURUS: Mars Needs Guitars rounds up recent HG news, including a double-DVD, a new album and a US tour. To celebrate, MNG has streaming Gurus rarities at the link.

U2 is launching a worldwide lyric hunt today

THE WEEKEND STARTS HERE...

...with THE ZOMBIES! After all it is the "Time of the Season," isn't it? Pate use to do a wicked version of that. You can also see the band's lip-synching almost drowned out by screaming fans when they perform "She's Not There" o­n Hullaballoo. Plus, "Tell Her No." Yes, it's the season of the Zombie Walk. The two that caught my attention will be in Toronto where the undead aspire to setting the Guiness World Record for the Largest Performance of Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and the gathering in Pittsburgh, where the goal is the world's largest zombie gathering at the Monroeville Mall, site of George Romero's classic film, Dawn of the Dead. You can find the Zombie Walk near you through ZombieWalk.com. BONUS: The Cranberries. DOUBLE BONUS: White Zombie's "More Human Than Human." Which reminds me that Rob Zombie will be introducing zombie movies tonight o­n Turner Classic Movies.

EVAN DANDO talks to Harp about the first Lemonheads record in ten years, image, aging and the downsides of Zoloft. It includes the best first two interview questions I've read in a while.

WILLIE NELSON & RYAN ADAMS: Lost Highway Records is streaming chunks of the Adams-produced Nelson album. Adams also wrote "Blue Hotel." The album comes out o­n Halloween.

THE DECEMBERISTS guitarist Chris Funk talks to Harmonium about MySpace, filesharing, signing to a major, and the way a Decemberists song is put together. Organist and accordion player Jenny Conlee talks to the Fredericksburg Free Lance

OKKERVIL RIVER: The Black Sheep Boy is part of a scary video for "For Real." And thanks to Chromewaves, you can also watch it with a commentary track and find out that frontman Will Scheff has declared the Black Sheep Boy is dead.

GANG OF FOUR: The original line-up is working o­n a new album -- their first since 1981.

GREGG ALLMAN'S 1973 solo album, Laid Back, is this week's Shadow Classic o­n NPR, complete with three streaming tracks.

THE DECEMBERISTS frontman Colin Meloy explains five songs from The Crane Wife to Harp magazine. At the moment, four of them can be streamed via the Hype Machine.

SONGS ABOUT MAMMALS comprise this week's Culure Vulture playlist at London's Guardian. Sadly, "Mammal," by They Might Be Giants is not among them.

THE MUMMIES cover Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge" and bash out their own "(You Must Fight To Live o­n) The Planet Of The Apes." BONUS: Here's the end of the Karloff classic.

THE HOLD STEADY did a short set for The Current, which you can stream from MPR.

SEVENTEEN ESSENTIAL BOOKS ABOUT POPULAR MUSIC, courtesy of the A.V. Club. I would note that number six is Dave Marsh's Two Hearts, which is a combo of two books he wrote about the Boss Born to Run and Glory Days. The first is a great read; the second in o­ne long apologia from Marsh rationalizing why Springsteen ultimately did almost everything he said he would not do in the first book.

IMOGEN HEAP talks with the UK's Metro about selling "loads of records" in the US because of TV shows, MySpace and iTunes. She has 200K friends o­n MySpace, where you can stream a few songs, though there's currently new audio and video at her website.

KURT COBAIN: The Godfather of Grunge's corpse will be exploited, but it will be classy.

PETE DOHERTY-KATE MOSS UPDATE: The supposedly sober supermodel and the troubled singer attended Moet & Chandon's annual fashion tribute in London this week, and apparently thought they needed to wear masks.

MADONNA went o­n The Oprah Winfrey Show to see if she can spin her way into being a victim of media manipulation, despite having amassed great fame and wealth through media manipulation. Madge gave canned answers to the Big O's puffball questions, o­ne of which suggested that this story "ignited a media firestorm like we've never seen." No exaggeration there...

VINCENT GALLO, the 45-year-old director of family fare like Brown Bunny, is hanging out with 16-year-old L.A. party girl Cory Kennedy: "With the psychotic, middle-aged Madonna out there o­n the loose buying up all the stolen Negro babies in Africa, I felt it my social and humanitarian duty to take in any young, beautiful and sexy orphaned Jew teens running wild in Beverly Hills. Cory's a great kid, and I'm proud to be her daddy." As much as I like the Madge slam, still creepy.

THE McCARTNEYS: Supposedly sober supermodel Kate Moss says leaked allegations by Heather Mills of abuse by Sir Paul are "utter b******t."

GREY'S ANATOMY actor Isaiah Washington has issued an apology for his behavior during an o­n-set argument with co-star Patrick Dempsey, including his "unfortunate use of words." After the fight, reports surfaced that Washington had used a homophobic slur; o­n Oct. 19, their costar T.R. Knight disclosed that he is gay.

NICOLE KIDMAN was trying to get pregnant before Keith Urban went into rehab, according to the ever-reliable National Enquirer.

DENISE RICHARDS and PAM ANDERSON are shooting a movie titled Blonde and Blonder in Vancouver. No word o­n which is which, but Pam is stage right, so I'm guessing she's Blonder.

BRITNEY SPEARS and Spenderline are spending more time apart