The Linda Lindas Are ‘Growing Up’ in Public in Teen Punk Band’s Full-Length Debut: Album Review
Roy Trakin At perhaps one of the lowest points in the pandemic, in May 2021, a video appeared, like a rose growing out of a crack in the concrete, of a group of teenage and pre-teenage girls of Chinese, Mexican and Salvadorean descent, a veritable melting pot from Los Angeles taking the acrid anti-Asian racism in the air and transforming it into a marvelous punk alchemy and expiation, an about-face that turned victim into victor.That viral clip was “Racist, Sexist Boy,” a reaction to an experience 11-year-old drummer Mila de la Garza had with a classmate who was warned to stay away from her because she was Chinese. Along with Mila’s 15-year-old sister Lucia, who plays guitar alongside Bela Salazar, a lifelong friend who was the oldest at 17, and Eloise Wong, a cousin of the de la Garzas, 14, on lead vocals and bass, they formed the Linda Lindas, originally a new wave cover band.