Think back to your teenage years: what were you doing? Most likely nothing as cool as forming a punk band that has drawn praise from Hayley Williams, Questlove, and Kathleen Hanna, like LA’s The Linda Lindas.
After a bruising performance at Los Angeles Public Library of their original song “Racist, Sexist Boy” blew up online, the group (Mila de la Garza, 10, Eloise Wong, 13, Lucia de la Garza, 14, and Bela Salazar, 16) were offered a deal by legendary punk label Epitaph.
“Oh!” is their first song on the label, a track that harnesses the same riot grrrl energy of their viral cut, and arrived with a colourful video featuring a backdrop handpainted by them and skateboarder and photographer Ray Barbee. It’s one of the first songs they collaborated on during the pandemic, the band say, “masked and distanced on the front porch”.
“It started with the main riff and progression Bela brought to the band. Eloise wrote the verses and Lucia and Mila wrote the choruses. The song deals with trying to help out someone and having it blow up in your face.”
Prior to their viral moment, though, the band had already ticket off a few bucket list items: playing with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Best Coast, and LA punk legend Alice Bag, while also making an cameo in recent Netflix original film Moxie.
Speaking about their whirlwind success, Lucia said: “People have reached out to us from all over the world – we get a lot of messages from little girls, but we also get messages from grandmothers. We always hope that the music we put out will inspire other young girls, but we also want it to make anyone feel like they can do anything, no matter what age they are.”
Watch the video for “Oh!” – which also features in the trailer for upcoming Sandra Oh-featuring Netflix series The Chair – below.