If you were anywhere near the internet this weekend, you probably caught “Racist, Sexist Boy,” an early lock on the punk song of the summer, by The Linda Lindas. The band—consisting of 10-year-old Mila, 13-year-old Eloise, 14-year-old Lucia, and 16-year-old Bela—has been hanging out in punk spaces for a couple of years now, most notably performing for Bikini Kill at a reunion show in 2019. But even that probably didn’t prepare the group for the reception that greeted their recent performance at the Los Angeles Public Library, where they thrashed their way through a 45-minute set, highlighted by an immediately viral and visceral “ode” to all the shitty, racist boys they know. The band quickly picked up accolades from a wide variety of directions, including Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, and now they’ve scored a record deal, courtesy of Epitaph Records.
This is per Variety, which notes that the group has links to the Los Angeles music scene from multiple angles; not only have they performed with groups like Best Coast, The Dils, and more, but Mila’s dad is Grammy-winning producer-engineer Carlos de la Garza. None of which changes the sheer energy of watching a group of young Asian-America/Latinx rockers belting out at the top of their lungs in a library, screaming down the assholes in their lives. The initial performance was scheduled as part of the library’s Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month celebrations.