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