Stephin Merritt has joined Rufus Wainwright, Imogen Heap, Brian Eno, and others in contributing tracks to Plague Songs, a UK compilation that pays homage, in song, to the Biblical plagues. He's written a little ditty about lice, or more precisely, "The Meaning of Lice," and Pitchfork says: "Only one man could successfully write and record a wistful, feel-good, disco-danceable, three-minute ode to parasites and pestilence—with a chorus that includes the word 'subcutaneous'—and that man is Stephin Merritt."

Listen to The Gothic Archies, a.k.a. Stephin Merritt, and author Daniel Handler perform songs from The Tragic Treasury and discuss the new Lemony Snickett book live on NPR's All Things Considered at npr.org.

Check out the video for "Scream and Run Away," off The Gothic Archies' Nonesuch debut, The Tragic Treasury.