The Linda Linda’s. Photo by Zen Sekizawa.
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The Linda Lindas are pushing riot grrrl into Generation Alpha. The Los Angeles punk quartet comprises bassist/singer Eloise Wong, guitarists/singers Bela Salazar and Lucia de la Garza, and drummer/singer Mila de la Garza — four childhood friends aged 11–17. After a 2021 performance of their early single “Racist, Sexist Boy” at the L.A. Public Library went viral, they signed with Epitaph and quickly recorded their debut album, Growing Up, releasing it in April and promoting it in early May on Fallon.
More recently, the band joined multimedia artists Erica Dawn Lyle (Bikini Kill’s touring guitarist since 2019) and Vice Cooler (founding drummer of XBXRX and occasional accompanist to iconic girl groups such as Chicks On Speed and The Raincoats) to provide high-energy vocals for “Lost In Thought,” the second track on the duo’s new compilation Land Trust: Benefit For North East Farmers of Color. The track, which also features founding Bikini Kill bassist Kathi Wilcox, arrived Friday along with the album and throwback punk visuals directed and edited by Cooler himself.
All proceeds from the new compilation go to NEFOC: “a hybrid model land trust, bringing together a community land trust model and a conservation land trust model to reimagine land access as well as conservation and stewardship of communities and ecosystems with the goal of manifesting a community vision that uplifts global Indigenous, Black, and POC relationships with land, skills, and lifeways,” according to the organization’s website. Other notable guest performers include Kim Gordon, Palberta, Brontez Purnell, Mike Watt, Katie Alice Greer (Priests), and Satomi Matsuzaki (Deerhoof).
“Lost In Thought” is 89 seconds of raw catharsis, over almost before it begins but still supremely satisfying in its unfiltered intensity. “My mind’s not here / But you see me / My blank stare / I’m not dreaming,” The Linda Lindas sing in call and response with Wong in the lead, later joining to shout the track’s titular refrain in unison. Save for an eight-bar interlude of ecstatic guitar feedback and a slightly tweaked second verse, that’s all there is to it. Beneath its chaotic aesthetic, it’s got a clean and simple structure, as all the purest punk songs do.
