Simply put, The Endtables are the real life encapsulation of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Fifteen years before the film was even an idea The Endtables was the crazed idea of guitarist Alex During and flamboyant transgender giant Steve Rigot who together created a strange glamorous reality that played out something like an Andy Warhol painting on hallucinogens. The very idea of The Endtables must have seemed bizarre in the late 70's but for a short time they were the definition of just how bizarre American music can be given the chance. Their self titled "debut," collects the six studio recordings the band made as well as unreleased live tracks and never before seen video footage of the band.
Raw, severely underproduced and quite honestly sounding like a demo, The Endtables, is the very definition of DIY on overdrive. The tracks are sloppily played and sound like primal scream therapy at times but I think that's what makes this stuff so strangely entertaining. Truth be told, it's really not that great, but the fact that it sounds like a bar fight caught on tape sung by a female impersonating giant with guitars that sound like they're being recorded through a Fisher Price 4-track makes the very idea of The Endtables completely appealing. Think of them as Hedwig w/out the songs or The Shaggs with slightly more talent and you have a good idea of where The Endtables are coming from.
The Endtables is as punk rock as it gets; especially for 1979; disco this isn't. The members of The Endtables are clearly four guys that don't really care about how good they are or how good they sound but instead care about getting up there and just playing songs no matter how sloppy. The Endtables is a weird record that blazed a trail for it's time period and therefore, by default, it's pretty significant. If you like your punk rock with a slathering of glam on the side you'll find The Endtables a wild ride.
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