TEXAS IS THE REASON: The Mavericks of Lone Star Punk

Arriving in 1978, hitched to a Sex Pistols tour bus, punk rock became as mythic in Texas as the state's devotion to football, cattle, and prayer. Renegades like the Huns, the Big Boys, and the Dicks led a defiant era of blood, sweat, and cross-dressing cowboys. Austin son Pat Blashill grabbed a camera and began shooting their stories of desperation and creative deliverance. More than two hundred of Blashill's photos here portray the Big Boys, the Dicks, Butthole Surfers. Poison 13, the Hickoids, the Offenders, Scratch Acid, Daniel Johnston, Doctors' Mob, Glass Eye, and touring bands including Sonic Youth, Devo, Samhain, Soul Asylum, the Replacements, and the Dead Kennedys. These images are joined by essays from 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. Read more