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The Endtables
Beginnings are sacred, even for punk rockers. Whatever path they may follow later, musicians carry their formative experiences with them like a talisman. The Endtables carry that kind of sacrosanct aura. Their influence trumps any concern about style, recognition, or even competence. For a few freaks in Louisville, Kentucky circa 1979, they were the most important band on earth.
 
Prior to the omnipresence of digital media, the phrase "Do it Yourself" was often a bitter necessity. After all, who was going to write an anthem about circumcision but the Endtables themselves? They were Kentucky’s own salvo against the creeping provincialism of their era. Though most of their lyrics deal the workaday punk-rock themes of that time (greed, militarism, conformity, et cetera) lines like, "his penis is a grossity/it hangs to the floor/streachy and formless, but it’s clean" still have bite to them. It isn’t surprising that the band is discussed thirty years on; they still come off as genuinely unhinged, even now, in an age when taboo-breaking has become cliché.
For all their crude energy, the Endtables could never form musical personality distinctive from their peers. The majority of the tracks keep to a trebly blues-influenced sound common among Midwest punk bands of that era.You can hear premonitions in the snarl of Ron Ashton’s guitar work for the Stooges and singer Steve Rigot’s bleating voice can sound very similar to David Thompson’s singing in Pere Ubu and Rocket from the Tombs. Occasionally, the band will break into something a little less uncommon, such as the heavy riffing in the intro of "Process of Elimination (live)", but the lack of musical idiosyncrasy confirms that the they were of their time, not ahead of it.
Yet retrospective criticism never does full justice to a band like the Endtables. In their era, pop had become desiccated from arena tours and pre-programmed radio playlists. It took hundreds of bands in dozens of cities to convince a generation that live, self-produced music was winning proposition. While bands such as the Ramones and Black Flag continually gather praise for reviving street-level enthusiasm for rock and roll, it was the lower profile bands that kept regional music alive.During their short existence, the Endtables established a scene in Louisville that would eventually produce artists such as Squirrel Bait, Slint, King-Kong and Palace Music. While they never achieved the same artistic variety or creative influence of those groups, precedence alone should assure the Endtables some kind modest legacy.
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