TEXAS IS THE REASON: The Mavericks of Lone Star Punk, by Pat Blashill

*** Deluxe hardcover ships worldwide today! ***

“Gorgeous Photos of Texas Punk’s Glory Days…Blashill brings Texas punk’s convivial spirit into sharp focus.”—Texas Monthly

“A profound experience for me”—Richard Linklater

“Teeming with subversive bands, cheap beer, and slam dancing…Blashill also captures the music scene’s intimacy and camaraderie.”—Pitchfork

“Captures the energy and anarchy of Austin’s burgeoning scene between 1979 and 1987… the wild fury of native bands like the Butthole Surfers, Poison 13, Scratch Acid, the Dicks and many more.”—The New York Times

“Excellent”—No Echo

“A weird gold mine… of Austin music’s DIY age” —Austin Chronicle

“Pat Blashill’s beautiful book captures the poetics and energetic eccentricities of the post punk Austin, Texas music scene of the ’80s, things one will never get on the internet…kicks ass.”—Kim Gordon

“Great bands come out of great scenes, so Blashill shoots not just the shows but the community. Even the intimate moments scream punk rock, and even the punk rock moments scream intimacy.”—Michael Azerrad, This Band Could Be Your Life

“That was it…that was our life at that point in time.”—King Coffey, Butthole Surfers

“From a historical point of view it is a real gem, but also highly recommended for any lover of photography, because Pat’s work is amazing.”—Staf Magazine (Spain)

“Stunning…the book captures a tripped-out, brilliantly berserk, thrillingly dangerous time and place.”—Merry Jane

ISBN 978-1-935950-17-2
• Deluxe 240pp hardcover
• Dimensions: 8.75″ x 10.75″ x .95″ (220mm x 270mm x 24mm); 3.5 lbs. (1.5 kg)

Featuring: the Big Boys • the Dicks • Butthole Surfers • Poison 13 • the Hickoids • the Offenders • Scratch Acid • Daniel Johnston • Doctors’ Mob • Glass Eye

Plus: Sonic Youth • Devo • Samhain • Soul Asylum • the Replacements • the Dead Kennedys

Arriving in 1978, hitched to the back of the Sex Pistols tour bus, punk soon became as mythic in Texas as the state’s devotion to football, cattle, and prayer. Confrontational renegades like the Huns, the Big Boys, and the Dicks led a defiant new era of blood, sweat, and cross-dressing cowboys. Austin son Pat Blashill grabbed a camera and began shooting local punk bands, uncovering a story of desperation and creative deliverance, set in trailer parks, low-rent shared living, and wild, Texas bucket-of-beer bars.

Joining Blashill’s more than 200 deep black and white photos here are essays by director Richard Linklater (Slacker/School of Rock); singer David Yow (Scratch Acid/Jesus Lizard); drummer Teresa Taylor (Butthole Surfers); and local luminaries Adriane “Ash” Shown and Donna Rich. True mavericks banded together to make a stand, and…Texas Is the Reason.

“There was something weird going on down there in Texas, and up here in the Pacific Northwest we couldn’t get enough of it. While others were viewing the Seattle scene via my photography, we were gawking on the antics down in Austin through the eyes of Pat. I will admit there are images here I’m entirely envious of—the stage diver about to hit the floor; the punks being gawked at by the small boy in a suit; and all the lovely images of bedroom interiors and their inhabitants. Pat puts us not only in the clubs with the bands, he also thankfully doesn’t divorce it from the reality of what was happening around them at the time. It’s full immersion, with fascinating detail after detail, and faces upon faces upon more beautiful faces. The art is there, most certainly, but so is the humanity and the history, with the sweet, brilliant Texas light encasing it all.”—Charles Peterson

Teresa Taylor’s Terrific Top Ten Ten Slabs of Texas Hot Wax
Ten-song playlist by Teresa Nervosa of the Butthole Surfers
(hilariously annotated in TEXAS IS THE REASON)