A deep dive into the early days of punk in Austin, Texas, this oral history immerses readers in a diverse and influential music scene. Texas has always teemed with music and counterculture. When punk came to the state in 1978, it flourished in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and, especially, Austin. Punk and post-punk musicians, including nationally acclaimed bands like the Butthole Surfers, the Big Boys, the Dicks, and Daniel Johnston influenced local culture before slashing into the American musical psyche. (See Kurt Cobain sporting Johnston's "Hi, How are you?" T-shirt.) Someday All the Adults Will Die! is an oral history of punk in Texas, from its rise in the late 1970s, through its strong anti-racist, feminist, and queer peak, to its dissolution in the late 1980s. Now a seasoned music journalist, Blashill experienced the zenith of Texas punk as a teenager, and he captures its intensity in words and pictures. Someday All the Adults Will Die! is rife with electrifying images and firsthand tales of what made this scene such a storm of pleasures and terrors, uncompromising artists, and wild performances. This dynamic portrait of an untamed, all-out musical era is a must-read for fans of punk music, counterculture, and live music.
Pat Blashill/b> 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
"Unflinchingly honest and wildly entertaining, Someday All the Adults Will Die! captures the rise and fall of Texas punk in all its chaotic glory. As a photographer, Pat Blashill captured that scene from the inside - he didn't just document it, he lived it. Here, he gives the rest of us the same access, with an oral history that's as raw and emotional as the music itself." - Melissa Maerz, author of Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused "Texas had America's wildest, weirdest punk-and-after scene-a primal playpen of shock rock, instinctive Dada, psychedelic freakout, performance art, scream therapy, and absurdist anti-politics. Austin native Pat Blashill was in the thick of it, photographing the messy madness as it unfolded. In Someday All the Adults Will Die!, Blashill shepherds the ultra-vivid memories of his contemporaries and threads through his own hindsight insights, forming an essential document rich with the textures of a long-gone real-gone time. Hilarious and poignant, this is a story never before told - and an inspiration to future freethinkers and troublemakers." - Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 "Someday All the Adults Will Die! is packed with thrilling images and stories from a wild scene in a crazy state." - James Hannaham, author of Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
