Pat Blashill was born and raised in Austin. As a teenager, he began going to punk shows while studying photojournalism at the University of Texas. In 1987, he moved to New York City, where he worked for Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Wired, GQ, and other publications. Texas Is The Reason is the first collection of his photographs and writing.

• Prologue: The Kids, the Huns, and Texas Drag
• 1. The First Wave
  Pink Cowboys at the Mall • Sex Pistols in San Antonio • Raul’s Club • Joe “King” Carrasco • The Violators • Standing Waves • Clair and Sarita • The Next • The RTF Crowd • The Huns • Terminal Mind
• 2. Pink Flamingos
  Big Boys • The Dicks • Bricks from Stonewall • Meat Joy • Bad Brains in Austin
• 3. Front and Center
  The 1040 Form Poster and the Feds • Battle Photography • Bill Daniel • Sluggo! • The Western Roundup • Idle Time • Buttlikker Comix
• 4. Ladies and Gentlemen
  Ralph the Girl • Gender and Texas Punk • The Skunks’ “Cheap Girl” • Meet the Band! • The Texas Blondes • mydolls • Violence
• 5. White Rage?
  “The Eyes of Texas” • “The Dicks Hate the Police” • Joe “King” Carrasco • The White Noise Supremacists • Fearless Iranians from Hell • Heather Leather • The KKK Comes to the Capitol • The Greek Problem • The Boys from Vidor • Big Boys’ Last Stand
• 6. “I Hate Myself”
  The Offenders • Really Red • MDC • DRI and Crotch Rot
• 7. Freethinkers
  Radio Free Europe • Scratch Acid • Glass Eye • Stick Men with Ray Guns
• 8. Cinderella Story
  Butthole Surfers
• 9. “Out on the Streets”
  Texas Skate Punk Apocalypse • Inner Sanctum Records • The Colony • Shenanigans • The OAF House
• 10. Radical Primitives
  Reversible Cords • Buffalo Gals • Culturcide • Daniel Johnston
• 11. The Revisionists
  Rank and File • Hickoids • Poison 13 • Doctors’ Mob
• Epilogue: Aftermath and Aftershocks
• Woodshock • Austin 2023 • SXSW • Someday All the Adults Will Die!
• Acknowledgments
• Cast of Characters
• Index