The Linda Lindas is a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band from Los Angeles. The all-girl group comprises Bela Salazar, Eloise Wong, and sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza.

History

In January 2018, Eloise Wong's father Martin Wong was contacted by an acquaintance, asking if she would be interested in playing alongside

Kristin Kontrol Kristin Gundred, known professionally as Kristin Kontrol, is an American musician, singer and songwriter. She is best known as founder and lead singer of indie rock band Dum Dum Girls (using the pseudonym Dee Dee), with whom she released five stud ...

and a bunch of "inexperienced kids" for a performance at a music festival called Girlschool LA, after seeing pictures and videos of her singing at Save Music in Chinatown. Martin then suggested Lucia and Mila de la Garza, daughters of his sister Angelyn Wong and brother-in-law

Carlos de la Garza Captain Carlos de la Garza (1807–1882), also known as "Don Carlos," was a fourth generation Tejano rancher and entrepreneur in Goliad, Victoria and Refugio counties of Texas. His participation in the Mexican Army leading to the Battle of Coleto ...

, since the three of them often sang, danced and performed together since they were toddlers; Carlos, who owned a backyard studio, took up the position of a second coach. After Kontrol recruited more children through social media and the first round of rehearsals were held, Angelyn and Martin's wife Wendy Lau reached out to the girls' family friend Bela Salazar, who was taking guitar lessons, to join in, thinking that they needed someone who could play an instrument. Originally, it was intended to be a one-off project, but a few months later, Salazar was invited to open a show for Frieda's Roses, and engaged Eloise, Lucia and Mila to be her backing band. Feeling that the band needed a name, Martin, who had bought a DVD of 2005 Japanese film ''

Linda Linda Linda is a 2005 Japanese film directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita. It stars Bae Doona, Aki Maeda, Yu Kashii, and Shiori Sekine (of the band Base Ball Bear) as teenagers who form a band to cover songs by the Japanese punk rock band the Blue Hearts; the ...

'', (in turn named after

the Blue Hearts was a Japanese punk rock band active from 1985 to 1995. They have been compared to such bands as the Sex Pistols, The Clash and the Ramones.

song "

Linda Linda is a single by the Japanese rock band The Blue Hearts that was first released on May 1, 1987. Lyrics and music were written by Hiroto Kōmoto, the band's lead vocalist, and was arranged by The Blue Hearts. The track reached #38 on the Oricon cha ...

"), suggested The Linda Lindas, feeling that it "sounded like a band from the '50s but could also refer to the Japanese punk song or art movie, or simply mean 'really pretty' in Spanish", to which the girls agreed. By fall, they were playing Save Music in Chinatown matinee gigs alongside artists such as

Phranc Phranc (born Susan Gottlieb; August 28, 1957), is an American singer-songwriter whose career began playing in several bands in the late 1970s Los Angeles punk rock scene. Her musical style later shifted during the 1980s as a solo artist, into ...

the Dils The Dils were an American punk rock band formed 1976 and active until 1980, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by the brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman. They appeared as the second act in the "battle of the bands" sequence in ...

, the Gears, and the Alley Cats, and other shows with bands such as

Best Coast Best Coast is an American rock duo formed in Los Angeles, California in 2009. The band consists of songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Bethany Cosentino and guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno. Cosentino, a former child actress, began w ...

Alice Bag Alicia "Alice" Armendariz (born November 7, 1958) is an American punk rock singer better known as Alice Bag. She is the lead vocalist and co-founder of the Bags, one of the first punk bands to form in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s. Her first bo ...

, and

Bleached Bleached is an American pop band consisting of sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin, formerly of Mika Miko. The band plays a style of rock, pop, rock and roll, and indie rock. Bleached was established in Los Angeles in 2011. The group has releas ...

. After

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watched the Linda Lindas open for

Bikini Kill Bikini Kill is an American punk rock band formed in Olympia, Washington, in October 1990. The group consisted of singer and songwriter Kathleen Hanna, guitarist Billy Karren, bassist Kathi Wilcox, and drummer Tobi Vail. The band pioneered the ...

on April 26, 2019, at the

Hollywood Palladium The Hollywood Palladium is a theater located at 6215 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was built in a Streamline Moderne, Art Deco style and includes an dance floor including a mezzanine and a floor level with room for up to 4,000 ...

, she had them record songs for her film ''

Moxie Moxie is a brand of carbonated beverage that is among the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It was created around 1876 by Augustin Thompson as a patent medicine called "Moxie Nerve Food" and was produced in Lowell, Massac ...

''. In 2020, the Linda Lindas wrote a song for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

documentary '' The Claudia Kishi Club'', titled "Claudia Kishi", after the Japanese-American character in

Ann M. Martin Ann Matthews Martin (born August 12, 1955) is an American children's fiction writer, known best for ''The Baby-Sitters Club'' series. Early life Ann Matthews Martin grew up in Princeton, NJ. Her mother, Eden Martin, was a preschool teacher and h ...

's novel series ''

The Baby-Sitters Club ''The Baby-Sitters Club'' (also known as BSC) is a series of novels written by Ann M. Martin and published by Scholastic between 1986 and 2000, that sold 176 million copies. Martin wrote the first 35 novels in the series, but the subsequent nove ...

''. In May 2021, the

Los Angeles Public Library The Los Angeles Public Library system (LAPL) is a public library system in Los Angeles, California. The system holds more than six million volumes, and with around 19 million residents in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, it serves the large ...

posted a video of the band playing "Racist, Sexist Boy" at a "TEENtastic Tuesdays" event. The song was about an experience Mila, the band's drummer, had when a schoolmate made a

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

comment before the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The video became a viral social media hit, earning praise from

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerfor ...

Tom Morello Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known for his tenure with the rock band Rage Against the Machine and then with Audioslave. Between 2016 and 2019, Morello ...

Red Hot Chili Peppers Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983, comprising vocalist Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea (musician), Flea, drummer Chad Smith, and guitarist John Frusciante. Their music incorporates element ...

Flea Flea, the common name for the order Siphonaptera, includes 2,500 species of small flightless insects that live as external parasites of mammals and birds. Fleas live by ingesting the blood of their hosts. Adult fleas grow to about long, a ...

Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a member of Sonic Youth. He has also participated in many solo and group collaborations outside Sonic Youth, as well as running the Ecstatic Peace! record label. Moo ...

, Bikini Kill's

Kathleen Hanna Kathleen Hanna (born November 12, 1968) is an American singer, musician, artist, feminist activist, pioneer of the feminist punk riot grrrl movement, and punk zine writer. In the early-to-mid-1990s she was the lead singer of feminist punk band ...

Kid Cudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

, and author

Viet Thanh Nguyen The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lang ...

, who said, "'Racist, Sexist Boy' is the song we need now". On May 22, 2021,

Epitaph Records Epitaph Records is an American independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, most acts signed to the label were punk and pop punk acts, while there are many post-hardcore and emo bands ...

announced that it had signed the Linda Lindas. On June 3, 2021, the band made their late night television debut on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California, as part of ABC's lead ...

''. On July 21, 2021, the band released the single "Oh!" with an accompanying music video. The song also was featured in the trailer released for the Netflix series '' The Chair'', which was released that same day. The song was also played for the outro of series 1 episode 5 of The Imperfects. On February 1, 2022, the band announced their release date of their debut album, ''Growing Up'', alongside the release of the single of the same name. ''Growing Up'' was released on April 8, 2022 to generally positive reviews. The track 'Racist, Sexist Boy' was nominated for Best Song at the 2022

Kerrang! Awards The Kerrang! Awards are an annual music awards show in the United Kingdom, founded by the music magazine ''Kerrang!'' and focusing primarily on rock music. The annual awards features performances by prominent artists, and some of the awards of mo ...

. The band performed at the 22nd Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2023 and at the 95th Scripps National Spelling Bee in May 2023 in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

where they were the first to ever perform at the event. The band opened for

Paramore Paramore is an American rock band from Franklin, Tennessee, formed in 2004. The band currently consists of lead vocalist Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York and drummer Zac Farro. Williams and Farro are founding members of the group, whil ...

on its 2023 Summer tour.

Band members

The band consists of Eloise Wong (bass, guitars, vocals), Bela Salazar (guitars, vocals), Lucia de la Garza (guitar, vocals), and Mila de la Garza (drums, vocals). Lucia and Mila are sisters and are the daughters of music engineer and producer

. Eloise's father is Martin Wong, co-founder of ''

Giant Robot In science fiction, or mechs are giant robots or machines controlled by people, typically depicted as humanoid walking vehicles. The term was first used in Japanese (language), Japanese after shortening the English loanword or , but the mean ...

''; Eloise is also a cousin of Lucia and Mila. The band members' stage names, birth dates, and roles are as follows:

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Singles

References

External links

The Linda Lindas: Growing Up Album Review
by Cultura * *
'I’m so glad you guys exist!' Carrie Brownstein meets the Linda Lindas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Linda Lindas, The 2018 establishments in California All-female punk bands American power pop groups Asian American music Child rock musicians Epitaph Records artists Latin American music Musical groups from Los Angeles Musical groups established in 2018 Pop punk groups from California Punk rock groups from California