Over a half-decade of existence, this fluid-membership gaggle of NYC bohos developed from a marginally less political arm of Mofungo's Marxist art-terrorism into a sometimes downright goofy jug band for post-mod beatniks. Burn All Your Records might be rough terrain for diehard capitalists to navigate, but the bracing orchestration — employing more than two dozen noise-things — makes for a fascinating, if occasionally difficult, listen.

Total Jive accentuates the contributions of Mofungo's Chris Nelson (and, to a lesser extent, Elliott Sharp) and takes a more easygoing approach to both music and subject matter — at times it's almost mellow, man! With ex-dB's drummer Will Rigby and Pere Ubu bassist Tony Maimone joining the Scene, Tonight We Ride continues this progression, with Nelson blowing some surprisingly swinging trombone on the good-timey "Midnight Broil," while the entire ensemble locks into a low-key, Grateful Dead-like groove on "California," originally performed by Lower East Side noisemongers I Ride the Bus.