WIZZARD: Roy Wood & crew with the seasonal "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day."

THE HOODOO GURUS confirm they will tour the US next spring, including a stop at SXSW.  You heard it here October 30th.  Celebrate by checking out the videos I linked o­n October 6th.

SEASON of the LIST: Exclaim! lists its best albums in the genres of pop & rock, punk, funk & soul, folk, country & blues, metal & hardcore and more. There's a Top Ten from NPR's Folk Alley. Harmonium has lists from members of Of Montreal and Oh No! Oh My! Filter has a Top Ten list from Sondre Lerche. I Love Music reprints decibel magazine's Top 40, which is mostly metal. There's a Top 21 albuma list from Filmoculous. And a Top 50 list from the legendary rocker Al Kooper.

ROBERT POLLARD tells Billboard he is done with touring for now, and plans to make seven albums for 2007. Maybe he noticed that...

RYAN ADAMS has posted three more albums of bizzare stuff -- including Holla Dayz Inn and Christmas Apocalypse -- at his website, for a total of at least eleven this year.

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND: An apparent o­ne-of-a-kind test pressing of early VU & Nico Scepter Studio Recordings was obtained for 75 cents but may auction o­n eBay for over 20 grand.

TOM WAITS: If you missed his appearance o­n The Daily Show, you can watch the interview and performance of "Day After Tomorrow" you-know-where.

THE DECEMBERISTS have responded to comedian Stephen Colbert's challenge, asking fans to send videos of how they would "Mulch" him, and challenged him to a guitar solo duel.

THE JACKIN' POP POLL UPDATE: The Village Voice has blackballed the new poll's editor, Michaelangelo Matos, from writing for its sister publication, the Twin Cities' City Pages -- and barred its writers from the balloting for the would-be successor to the VV's Pazz & Jop poll. Former Voice editor Robert Christgau will vote in both polls.

THE COVER SONG CATALOGUE: The Torontoist breaks 'em down into several categories, including "better than the original" and "bizzare and way out." There's also plenty of embeded video and killing music at the link.

JOHNNY CASH: You can stream his duet with Louis Armstrong (one of Armstrong's last performances) while rbally has posted another rare, early radio perfomance with the Tennessee Two, which you can jukebox o­n the HM.

PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: The troubled singer has been voted the most "undeserving icon" of the year in a poll for Arena magazine. And yet he will appear o­n the cover of Vogue magazine.

BRITNEY SPEARS: With no o­ne willing or able to intervene, the pop tart has continued partying into the early hours of the morning, with Britain's uber-reliable Daily Star claiming she intended to stage a mock wedding to the French Hotel at her 25th birthday party. No word as to whether that happened, though we know Spears took Sean Preston to the L.A. Zoo that day. Meanwhile, Fed-Ex is in negotiations to develop his own reality series with Kenneth Crear, the brains behind the show House of Carters. There is a non-denial denial regarding Fed-Ex from former pr0n star Kendra Jade posted at her website. And Spears apparently made a veiled threat to her first (55-hour) hubby Jason Alexander before he taped a TV interview to air o­n The Dr. Ablow Show today.

THE FRENCH HOTEL: Kay S. Hymowitz argues that in our divided nation, our shared contempt for the airheaded heiress brings us together and is "a sign of lingering cultural sanity."

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: It truly was deja vu all over again for a traditionally quiet weekend, with Happy Feet, Casino Royale and Deja Vu taking the top three spots again, with the penguins being the first to win three weeks in a row since Dead Man's Chest. The pics took in 17, 15.1 and 11 million, respectively. The Nativity Story opened in the fourth slot with 8 million, knocking Deck the Halls, The Santa Clause 3 and Borat each down a notch. New releases Turistas and National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj placed eighth and tenth, with Stranger Than Fiction sandwiched between with 3.4 million.

DANNY DiVITO DRINK-UPDATE: In an interview to air today o­n Today, George Clooney confirms that he and DiVito had a "brutal night" of drinking before DiVito turned up wrecked o­n The View last Wednesday.

MICHAEL RICHARDS CRACK-UPDATE: The ex-Kramer planned to meet with the targets of his racial tirade under the supervision of a retired judge, with a cash settlement possibly o­n the table.

LINDSAY LOHAN: Her mother confirms she's been going to AA meetings, but the young actress drank champagne and had a tirade over the presence of Jessica Biel's assistant (an ex-Lohan employee) at the GQ Men of the Year dinner -- in view of her mother. Will Ferrell turned to Leo DiCaprio, Al Gore and Ben Affleck and said, "Who cares about that freak anymore, anyway?"

SCARLETT JOHANSSON and NATALIE PORTMAN stole the limelight at the bash after Christina Aguilera's sell-out Wembley gig -- much to the chagrin of Xtina, who stormed out of her own party.

GWENYTH PALTROW finds dinner talk is far more interesting in the UK, 'cause it's not all business.

JENNIFER CONNELY: Folks are wondering whether she's got another bun in the oven.

OPRAH WINFREY is an "Oreo," according to rapper 50 Cent, who has not been invited o­n her show because she's not down with the G thang.

KEVIN SMITH: The director's iTunes Celebrity Playlists was rejected by Apple because the comments were too long. Couldn't have seen that coming! Anyway, he's posted the whole thing o­n his blog.

IRAQ: Some Sunni Muslim clerics are breaking with the militant Muslim Scholars Assn. Clerics representing the group in Basra, Nasiriya, Amarah and Samawah issued religious edicts banning the killing of all Iraqis, supporting reconstruction of a revered Shiite shrine and disavowing "any terrorist organization targeting the innocent blood of our people." A Sunni tribal militia battled suspected Al Qaeda fighters north of Fallujah and in Ramadi. Ramadi's police chief says the security forces have started to take over important responsibilities and missions that are having a great impact o­n Al Qaeda. The "Baghdad Sniper" has been arrested. The commander of coalition forces in northern Iraq says that four Iraqi Army divisions in his area would be put under Baghdad's control by next March. The Bush admin. is mulling whether to abandon reconciliation efforts with Sunni insurgents. The parliamentary bloc loyal to Muqtada al-Sadr announced a possible new political alliance with Sunnis and Christians, which may be prompted by Pres. Bush's scheduled meeting with Iraq's top Shia politician (a rival of al-Sadr).

LEBANON: Abu Kais has been blogging Hezbollah's mass demonstration and partial siege of Beirut, with civil war possible as sectarian clashes broke out o­n Sunday. Incidentally, I like that the press seems bound to refer to the legit gov't of Lebanon as "US-backed," even in stories that note it is also backed by France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and pretty much everyone else except Iran and Syria.

GORBACHEV: Der Spiegel has a lengthy piece o­n previously undisclosed minutes of Politburo meetings published in Russia this month, which the paper thinks might get Mikhail Gorbachev the historical recognition he deserves. But if you read far enough, you discover that Gorbachev ultimately advocated arms contol because the USSR could not compete with Reagan's space defense program. Which is something I knew from a fairly high-placed source at the time, so it's nice to have it o­n the record.

THE SNAKE KING of Taiping died kissing a King Cobra. You always hurt the o­ne you love.

A RABID BAT was found crawling o­n a woman's ankle at a movie theater in Uvalde, TX.

PIGS get bored, which is a problem because farmers in the UK are legally required to provide an outlet to stop pigs from becoming aggressive. Sounds to me like a business expansion opportunity for Confuse-a-Cat.

ONLINE DATING for GiRAFFES? Or is it more like arranged marriages?

COPS TASER A PYTHON found in a home near Uniontown, PA. Police found a man kneeling o­n the basement floor of the home with the eight-foot albino snake wrapped around his left arm, eating the man's left hand.