The Linda Lindas

A riot grrrl-influenced punk quartet from Los Angeles, the Linda Lindas fuse power pop charm with garage spirit to create a rousing and infectious sound. While still in their early teens, the four young musicians made a rapid ascent to success, landing gigs with Bikini Kill and Alice Bag and appearing in the Amy Poehler film Moxie. After self-releasing an EP in 2020, the group signed with Epitaph Records, which issued their 2022 debut album Growing Up. In 2024, following a stadium tour with Green Day, they released their sophomore set No Obligation.

Named after the 1987 single "Linda, Linda" by Japanese punk icons the Blue Hearts, the Linda Lindas played their first gig at L.A.'s 2018 Girlschool Festival backing up former Dum Dum Girl Kristin Kontrol. Described as a pickup band of "inexperienced kids," Bela Salazar (guitar, vocals), Eloise Wong (bass, guitar, vocals), and sisters Lucia de la Garza (guitar, vocals) and Mila de la Garza (drums, vocals) were indeed kids whose ages at the time ranged between seven and 13. Proudly embracing their cultural diversity (the bandmembers are equal parts Asian-American and LatinX) and promoting gender equality, they were enthusiastically embraced by the local music scene and by the end of the year were playing their own sets at Save Music in Chinatown events with scene legends like the Dils, the Gears, and the Alley Cats.

Seeing beyond the novelty of their youth, older musicians recognized that the band could play and write good songs and by 2019, they had notched support gigs with Bleached, Best Coast, and even riot grrrl legends Bikini Kill. After seeing them open for Bikini Kill, actor/director Amy Poehler hand-picked them to cameo in her 2021 film Moxie. By this time, the Linda Lindas had already released their self-titled debut EP and contributed a song to the 2020 Netflix documentary The Claudia Kishi Club. A video of the band playing their song "Racist, Sexist Boy" at a May 2021 Los Angeles Public Library gig went viral and by the end of that month, they had signed a contract with legendary punk imprint Epitaph Records. "Oh!," their first single for the label, appeared in July. That track landed on their debut full-length, 2022's Growing Up. Produced by Carlos de la Garza (Paramore, Bad Religion), the coming-of-age set further expanded their sound with new wave and post-punk flourishes. Over the next two years, the group balanced school, studio time, and touring (most notably on a stadium jaunt with Rancid, the Smashing Pumpkins, and Green Day), and released their second full-length, No Obligation, in October 2024. Blending post-punk, garage rock, power pop, new wave, and rock en español, the set featured the blistering title track and "Yo Me Estreso" with "Weird Al" Yankovic. ~ Timothy Monger