Going Down In History

With loud, raucous guitars and a bracing sense of personal and political urgency, this raging yet relaxed Chicago-based Mekons spin-off has been lending punk rock an impudent country twang since the '90s. The title's apocalyptic ambiguity carries over into opener "Diybob", which boasts, "You can't kill us, we're already dead." Linked to a liberating lineage that connects Small Faces to Merle Haggard, the Wacos play for keeps. "Commit to something drastic," advises the muscular title track as one possible alternative to extinction.