My favorite semi-viral music YouTube (along with the completely viral Maggie Rogers at NYU one) is The Linda Lindas playing ‘Racist Sexist Boy’ in the stacks at the Los Angeles Public Library about three years ago. The video opens with a closeup on the drummer. She is wearing a Bikini Kill t-shirt. She introduces the song that is basically a fuck you to the titular asshole whose life she is about to ruin. She is twelve years old. The camera pans back. They are indeed playing smack dab in the middle of the library, perhaps in the young adult section. You see some random parents/friends in the background. It looks like a ‘crowd’ of several people maybe. The band is three other young girls. The drummer takes her turn on vocals and I am sold.
I seem to be the designated old punk contributor to this fine website and the eventual success of The Linda Lindas warms my cold heart. I saw them open for Green Day/Smashing Pumpkins/Rancid in a baseball stadium last month. Now ages 14, 16, 17 and an ancient 20, they rocked with joy and then came out on stage at the end with Green Day. The mutual affection was apparent. The next afternoon the Lindas played a sold out show at 924 Gilman Street the legendary punk collective in Berkeley where Green Day cut their teeth and from which Billie Joe et al. have been banned since signing with a major label in 1993. A circle of sorts closed.
The band’s quick rise at a tender age has led to some inevitable jealous carping. The Linda Lindas have been the subject of those “industry plant” jabs, which seems to be kind of a new thing invented to complain about. Might a couple of these girls have parents in music who encouraged this band and gave them a leg up? Maybe. Who cares? With that mega tour and this punchy second album, the training wheels are off and it’s all the Lindas now.
The title song and ‘Excuse Me,’ put bassist Eloise Wong on vocals and she’s the one girl in the band who may have the Germs coming up on her algorithm. Putting ‘No Obligation’ as the opener was a cool move, a statement of the band’s cred, and an acknowledgment of Los Angeles’ impeccable punk pedigree. The video is great fun, a live performance of the song as the Lindas opened for Shonen Knife in Japan, another stellar gig landed. It is immediately apparent that this band is simply quite good and far better than they were two years ago. Again, Ms. Wong is 16 years old and commanding Shonen Knife’s stage like “hey no big deal, I belong here.”
Many of the other songs are of the “pop punk” genre, a label which has become something of a slur for people who still carry Butthole Surfers cassettes in their Corollas. Let the fucking kids have their pop punk. It’s better than having them listen to skeazy dross like The 1975. The single ‘All in My Head’ is out of the Green Day playbook. It’s also quite good for what it is. (Incidentally, people can say what they want about Green Day, and do incessantly, but Dookie and American Idiot remain stone cold classics. Further, it is telling that in the fantastic oral history of Bay Area punk, Gimme Something Better, no one in that hyper-critical scene really has a bad word to say about them.)
The album goes far beyond nodding to Green Day, though, and is richer musically than I expected. ‘Lose Yourself’ is terrific, having a Blondie-like swagger and then a shouty chorus with my favorite “hey heys” of the year. ‘Resolution/Revolution’ throws an unexpected ‘Planet Claire’ organ riff into a solid mosh engine of a song.
‘Yo Me Estreso’ is a gem. Featuring Al Yankovic of all people on accordion, the song is a paisley norteño, managing to evoke Los Lobos and The Three O’Clock both. I really haven’t heard anything quite like it this year. It is distinct, artful, and suggests a band with a musical potential deep and wide.
Could I listen to this album without thinking about The Go-Go’s, arguably the most important LA punk band of all? Of course not. The Go-Go’s undimmed legacy shines over this band. As in tune to their hometown’s music heroes as they seem, the Linda Lindas must have a Beauty and the Beat poster around somewhere. The Lindas are not in that company yet, but they are living happy and well in the same neighborhood.
Words by Rick Larson
Picky Bastards 
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