Imagine that civilization came crashing down in 1929. Small bands of people are still picking through the rubble looking for useful items, while knowing in their hearts that it's all over. New York City's streets are littered with overturned automobiles and fluttering newspapers, while its growing skyline is collapsing, leaving brilliantly blue and cloud-strewn vistas set off by broken concrete teeth. Nature has rapidly overtaken most buildings, with thick vines and wet mosses covering the lower stories.

But look! A small group of survivors has gathered at the foot of the steps of the public library, dressed in shabby tuxedos and patchy sequined dresses. They have cleared away some of the debris and assembled a collection of unsteady tables and chairs, grouped into the semblance of a nightclub, complete with once-white linens and cracked stemware. A cadaverous man shambles among the tattered remnants of the city's elite, dispensing questionable libations from a dented silver shaker, drinks the ladies and gentlemen sip slowly as they look toward the ruined library.

On the wide steps, a motley quintet of musicians are performing. The instrumentation is eclectic in the extreme — from tuba to accordion to banjo to typewriter — but the talent is undeniable. A certain fin de siécle resignation is heard in the singer's voice as he leans into the microphone and croons his deranged lyrics of end times and apocalypse to the fading aristocracy of the doomed civilization. The mood shifts seamlessly from slow syncopation to snappy shuffles: it is a sinister, sardonic, and wholly marvelous send-off to a decadent world.

But of course the world didn't end in 1929, and this entire vision is just a fever dream. However, to hear what humanity's closing night performance might have sounded like, listen to the debut CD from The Scarring Party. It's a rollicking cabaret of the damned, with clever lyrics and strong performances the likes of which you haven't heard before. You can hear two tracks on their website: No More Room and Eat Your Young. It is almost enough to make you look forward to the end times, and I mean that in the best possible way.