Library Brings Tween Music Group Overnight Fame

The library provides the community with endless opportunities and possibilities. For a group of young musicians and their band, The Linda Lindas, this meant becoming punk rock sensations and signing a new record deal.

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The Linda Lindas

The Los Angeles-based Linda Lindas is made up of four female musicians, Mila, Bela, Eloise, and Lucia. All bandmates identify as Asian-American and Latinx with ages ranging from 10 to 16. All four are vocalists, with Bela and Lucia on guitar, Eloise on bass, and Mila on the drums.

The band formed in 2018 at Girlschool LA and launched their career playing matinee gigs. The group became overnight celebrities on social media this summer through an invitation to perform at the Los Angeles Public Library. Videos of their performance immediately went viral through LA Public Library’s social media channels landing them a major deal with Epitaph Records.

The Performance

The Los Angeles Public Library invited The Linda Lindas to kick off an Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebration in May. They played over 40 minutes of punk rock music including covers of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” and The Muffs’ “Big Mouth.”

The library posted a link to this performance on social media and attracted the attention of nationwide audiences. Their set featured one especially empowering original song called “Racist, Sexist Boy.” The song was inspired by an experience that band member and drummer, Mila, dealt with during the pandemic. She wrote the song with her bandmate, Eloise, to call out misogyny and anti-Asian American bias. She recounts to the audience that a classmate told her that his dad advised him to stay away from Chinese people. She painfully recalls that when she told him she was Chinese he physically backed away from her.

The Record Deal

The Linda Lindas captured the admiration of music lovers everywhere when the concert was shared by the library via social media. It became an anthem of 2021 and caught the attention of the music industry. Shortly after the video was released by the LA Public Library, The Linda Lindas signed with punk music label Epitaph Records. Epitaph Records later shared the band’s library performance of “Racist, Sexist Boy” on their YouTube channel.

Since being signed, the girls have been officially introduced to the world and continue to release new music. They made their television debut on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show and their new singles can be found on their Bandcamp profile where visitors might enjoy listening to “The Linda Lindas”, “Claudia Kishi”, and “Vote!”, as well as their newest single, “Oh!”.

The Library

These musicians join many others who have built community through their local public library. With all of the resources that the library has to offer there are no unimaginable opportunities. Libraries everywhere are continually imagining new and innovative ideas, like this kickoff concert held by the LA Public Library. What possibilities can come from time spent at your public library?