…talking about the home front for a second, Austin actually had more than just a notable blues, folk, and country scene - their punk & hardcore scene was also very respectable in the 80s.  Case in point, the Dicks & Big Boys.  Both were big players in the Austin punk and hardcore scene and both had a major impact on the 80s hardcore scene.  To put it in perspective, the Big Boys were one of the first of the Skatepunk scene (frequently appearing in Thrasher) and are often credited as the creators of “funkcore” - a style made more commercially popular by bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers (who once opened for the Big Boys).   The Dicks were not quite as popular nationally, but they really started the scene in Austin when they formed in 1980 and released their first single “Dicks Hate the Police”.   On interesting fact is that both bands were fronted by openly gay singers which was pretty rare in the macho hardcore world.

Funk Off/Baby Let’s Play God by Big Boys - they ended all their shows with the announcement - “now you go start a band!”

The Dicks - not sure which song this is, but apparently it comes from an early Thrasher video.  There doesn’t seem to be a lot of early Dicks stuff on the net - more of their latest reunion shows so I’m deferring to the old material just to give a glimpse into what Texas Hardcore music was like back in the day.