You may not have heard of the name “The Linda Lindas” unless you’ve been tuning into American Twitter, but you may know them soon enough! The all-girl punk band first went viral for their very raw and live performance of “Racist, Sexist Boy” at the LA Public Library (yes, what’s more punk than a concert at a library?) – but it’s not the venue that made them popular. One look at the members of The Linda Lindas, and you’d think they belong in middle school. And you’d be right.
The youngest member, Mila de la Garza is only 10, and the rest of the members are Eloise Wong (13), Lucia de la Garza (14), and Bela Salazar (16).
The viral video
The song that got them eyeballs? “Racist, Sexist Boys” – a song written by Mila and Eloise that was inspired by a conversation Mila had with a boy. “A little while before we went into lockdown, a boy came up to me in my class and said that his dad told him to stay away from Chinese people. After I told him that I was Chinese, he backed away from me.”
Watch their badass performance at the library here:
Who are they?
Hailing from Los Angeles, the quartet describe themselves as half-Asian and half-Latinx, consisting of two sisters, a cousin, and their close friend. They’ve been playing together since 2018, and interestingly, all of them play all the instruments (keyboards, drums, guitar, bass) and sing. In fact, each member plays different instruments depending on the song – talk about talent!
The band name comes from the 2005 Japanese movie called “Linda Linda Linda”, which is about 4 girls forming a tribute band to cover songs from Japanese punk rock band, Blue Hearts; the film’s title comes from the hit Blue Hearts song, “Linda Linda.”
Lucia and Mila are daughters of Grammy-Award winning music producer Carlos de la Garza, and Eloise’s father is Martin Wong, co-founder of the now-defunct Asian-centric pop culture magazine, Giant Robot.
Since their debut, they haven’t been on stage as many punk rockers have, but even at their tender age, they’ve shared the stage with punk legends like The Dils, The Gears, Alley Cats, and Bikini Kill; they’ve also been featured on Netflix.
Thanks to their viral video, they recently signed on with Epitaph Records, which has a 50-year legacy of Los Angeles punk rock.
They’ve been on soundtracks
If you think their sound is familiar, then you’ve probably watched Netflix’s 2020 film, “Moxie” – The Linda Lindas performed a Bikini Kill’s cover song, “Rebel Girls” in the film.
This wasn’t their first appearance on a soundtrack; they also wrote and performed an original song for The Claudia Kishi Club, a 2020 Netflix documentary.
These girls have achieved something incredible at their tender age! However, their signing with Epitaph couldn’t have come at a more difficult time: the quartet are in the thick of studying for finals (Mila’s preparing to enter middle school!).
If you want to check The Linda Lindas’ music, they’ve also released a self-titled EP which is streaming now on Spotify, Apple Music, and Bandcamp.
