{"id":287,"date":"2021-03-09T02:57:35","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T02:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=287"},"modified":"2026-01-25T00:52:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T00:52:42","slug":"25-years-of-texas-is-the-reason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/?p=287","title":{"rendered":"25 Years of Texas Is the Reason"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When people today hear the word \u201cemo<\/a>,\u201d they often aren\u2019t thinking of what I\u2019m thinking of. They aren\u2019t thinking of what people I used to go to shows with, collect records with, and discover new bands with think of. Emo was a sound, a scene, a movement, and it had nothing to do with big hair, makeup, or Hot Topic. It was a post-hardcore sound, and few bands personified that sound like Texas Is the Reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s so interesting about Texas Is the Reason is that they became emo royalty with only one album and one EP, in addition to a few splits. Their debut self-titled EP, which is also sometimes called \u201cIf It\u2019s Here When We Get Back It\u2019s Ours,\u201d set the underground scene on fire. People were drawn to the sound, which could be fast and heavy but also slow and melodic, capturing the best of both ends of the emo spectrum. The world was in a post-grunge place, and punk was mainstream thanks to the success of bands like Green Day. Record labels were looking for \u201cthe next big thing,\u201d and after one EP, Texas Is the Reason were already turning heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band would only release one full-length album, but it was enough to firmly entrench them in the hearts and minds of emo fans forever. \u201cDo You Know Who You Are\u201d was released on April 30, 1996 and featured such emo classics as \u201cThere\u2019s No Way I Can Talk Myself Out Of This One Tonight\u201d and \u201cJohnny On The Spot.\u201d The album clocked in at under 38 minutes, a perfect, filler-free, emo\/indie rock album that gave you just enough but left you wanting more. Less pop than peers such as The Promise Ring yet not as slow and dreary as bands such as Mineral or Pedro the Lion, Texas Is the Reason fit more in the Sunny Day Real Estate<\/a> lane, defying some emo stereotypes in favor of embracing the genre\u2019s post-hardcore past. The album was favorably reviewed by most and considered an instant classic by those \u201cin the scene.\u201d Most notable perhaps was the wave of attention the album drew from major labels, which already had their eyes on the band after their debut EP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The band was entertaining offers and, as the story goes, were on the verge of signing with Capitol Records, but on a European tour, tensions within the band over their future lead to the decision to go out on a high note and split up after the final show in Germany. There\u2019s something inherently rock-and-roll about this decision, to \u201cdie young and leave a good-looking corpse\u201d rather than continue on and perhaps become something different over time. The timing, while certainly puzzling, also cemented the band\u2019s legacy. They were going out perfectly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking at how the world has changed over the past 25 years, it\u2019s hard to envision another story like that of Texas Is the Reason. It\u2019s hard to envision a band gaining as much buzz as they did after one three-song EP. It\u2019s hard to see a band release a follow-up full-length LP that is universally acclaimed and then end things before commercial success comes. With the way the music business is today, I don\u2019t even know if that kind of underground meteoric rise, followed by a James Dean-like ending, is even possible. The band\u2019s story, almost as much as their sound and their music, has led to the lasting nature of their impact and legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas Is the Reason is a band that I firmly associate with my teen years, riding in cars with my friends, the windows down and the music loud. Discovering ourselves while discovering bands that would provide the anthems for our formative years. Songs like \u201cIf It\u2019s Here When We Get Back It\u2019s Ours\u201d playing as loud as the cheap speakers could play it, while a car full of kids sang along, echoing the sentiment to not tell anyone. There\u2019s an innocence to those memories, and Texas Is the Reason provided the soundtrack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that \u201cDo You Know Who You Are\u201d is now 25 years old brings up questions of aging and mortality\u2014our youth and that movement, that scene, that era, is now a quarter-century removed in time. There\u2019s a new meaning to \u201cThe Drinking Song,\u201d which we once viewed through a melodramatic, teenage lens. The song, like us, has aged and matured and taken on a new context yet is just as poignant as ever. While I won\u2019t go as far as to say that\u2019s the sign of great art, perhaps it is. Some things we love don\u2019t age well, and then other things we love age with us. Those are the loves that last. We\u2019re back, and it\u2019s still here, so I suppose it\u2019s ours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I was struck by while listening to the album again is how distinctly \u201c\u201990s\u201d the guitar riffs and vocal patterns sound at times. \u201cJohnny on the Spot\u201d in particular really takes you back to a time and a place where this sound felt new and innovative but now feels comfortable and familiar. To call it dated almost implies a negative context, and that\u2019s not the case at all here. This is more of a warm, fuzzy feeling, listening to a record that is stripped-down production-wise, allowing the music to speak for itself. Listening to \u201cThe Drinking Song\u201d now, I\u2019m still filled with that same urge to sing out loud, the same way I did all those years ago with my friends in the car. Only now, when I sing, I\u2019m alone. I\u2019m not that same person I was more than two decades ago, but I still feel moved by these tracks the same way I did then. And in some strange way, time isn\u2019t defined while I\u2019m singing along. It\u2019s not then, it\u2019s not now, it\u2019s just me and a piece of art that does wonders for my soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texas Is the Reason aren\u2019t a band everyone knows. They aren\u2019t a band everyone experienced, but if you did, it\u2019s highly likely that they made an impact on you. They\u2019re a band that if you put on their record today, you still get some of the same feelings that you did all those years ago. They\u2019re a band that you wish would play one more show\u2014which they have done on occasion over the years. They\u2019re a band you won\u2019t ever forget. Even if they asked us to not tell anyone, I will. Texas Is the Reason was emo at its finest, and 25 years later, that fact hasn\u2019t changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When people today hear the word \u201cemo,\u201d they often aren\u2019t thinking of what I\u2019m thinking of. They aren\u2019t thinking of what people I used to go to shows with, collect records with, and discover new bands with think of. Emo was a sound, a scene, a movement, and it had nothing to do with big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20,19],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-emo-music","tag-rock-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":288,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/288"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewgrevas.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}