Photo of the Linda Lindas by Jaxon Whittington
You’ve Gotta Get In On Gotta Get Out
The Linda Lindas are back with everything that gave them their accolades…and more.
We often watch our favorite artists grow musically in front of our eyes, but we don’t always get to actually grow with them. That’s not the case for The Linda Linda’s. The first time I saw them, Briston Maroney was playing at Highwater Festival in Charleston, SC. He ended his set with talking about how he was around so many inspiring musicians but none quite like The Linda Lindas. He urged people to make time for their set because not only were they incredible musicians, they are incredible kids. And he meant kids—at this time in 2024, Bela Salazar was 18, Lucia de la Garza was 16, Eloise Wong was 15, and Mila de la Garza was 13. So, faux fried chicken leg ice cream in hand and a desire to support bad bitches, we headed over. I was entranced and they were infectious—they shone. It was so authentic and messy and loud. They delivered the ultimate festival experience—come for the headliner, get delivered to another dimension by a band you’ve never heard of. Least to say, I’ve been excited to see what they have been up to.
I think one of the most important things about Gotta Get Out is that this is the first record they have written together in the same room from start to end. According to the album, the girls took a break from the world in a house with a pool in Palm Springs and Long Beach to write together without phones, distractions, or rough drafts. On their previous albums, they had retained complete creative and editing control until recording, making each song a little vacuum of the writer’s style and personality backed by the other instruments. Now, they started with fragments and incomplete thoughts, bouncing ideas off each other and editing as they went. Each voice, each instrument, each song is a full contribution by each band member. The band has gone from group project-style writing to co-authors, and it has produced an incredible mix of sounds, genres, timelines, and influences. The album still feels as varied and raw as their old albums, but it takes on a new identity. The albums are growing alongside the members.
The songs are very recognizably built in the garage punk world, but as the girls have gained experience, playing with original punk bands like Bikini Kill to heavy-hitters like Paramore and Green Day, they also have taken time to learn and explore new sounds. Taking some leads from female artists like Chappell Roan and Peach PRC, the album explores a lot of different genres of pop as well as the expected post-punk, alt rock, and post-hardcore. The album is produced by Carlos de la Garza, who is Mila and Lucia’s dad and Eloise’s uncle. I think he did an incredible job producing this album, finding ways to really polish it and home in on making the album cohesive while allowing the girls to dive in writing and recording together. The album feels intentionally messy, with guitar riffs and synths left in from the original pool house recording. The authenticity is palpable.
The lyrics in Gotta Get Out are also incredible. Punk needs emotion, it needs angst. No one understands angst better than teens and that gives them an edge. Kids’ brains put themselves at the center of the universe because that’s a survival method—the whole squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease thing. Too often, teens are trying to shove past those in-between years because adults aren’t supposed to process like that, their whole world can’t stop and fall apart, the day to day can’t get them down, there isn’t time.
The Linda Lindas felt those growing pains, and they put them in their music. They made the time. They held space for the things that scared them: depression, growing up, growing apart, the way the world is, the way the world could be, and how those things feel to them collectively and individually. “Burning Out” talks about the feeling of knowing you have nothing else to give and watching the world drag by without you. “Let me sleep a little longer/ I’m burning out/ I’m face down/ I grab the window/ Watch the world turn/ But I never leave the house.” That’s incredible introspection into a universal experience that is hard to put into words, but I knew the second I heard those lyrics they had figured out how to bridge the age gap.
The Linda Lindas have already released two singles from this album: “Closer” with Hayley Williams, a punchy punk ballad about being in the midst of growing up and realizing you’re scared of it, and “Blood on Our Hands,” a raunchy spoken word protest anthem that talks about how decisions we make in our everyday lives are then political decisions made at other people’s expense. They then have “Nothing Left,” which I have dubbed a “siren protest song.” The people that would immediately roll their eyes and shut off “Blood on Our Hands” feel safe in the boppy pop melody and group “na na na’s” that carry the heavy-handed lyrics straight to their brain: “How much will your money mean/ When you got no air to breathe?”
They also used time and speed to communicate what lyrics couldn’t: “Break” is an auditory experience that immerses you in what feels like the brain of someone having a breakdown. It is their shortest song on the album by far at 1:24, which pressures it to be a lot in a little bit of time. The somewhat gentle creeping intro makes it feel like it may be longer, like the inability to tell how fast or slow time is passing. It then spirals out into chaos. The frantic guitar and drums feel like losing control, the anger and self-hatred alongside the self-awareness to know the self-hatred is fueling the whole thing. The guttural spoken-singing-screaming, the pauses in the music like gasps for air until it just stops, like it has exhausted itself. It shows how much emotion can come and go in a short amount of time. It’s an incredible song, best listened to as loud as you can stand it.
This album feels classically like The Linda Lindas we know, but more. You can hear how much they have grown, and that they are still growing. It’s like the first year a fruit tree has enough fruit to make a whole pie, knowing this is the first of many pies. They will change how they are made, maybe where they are made, but not what they are made of. This album is the sound of self-discovery, lifelong friendships, growing up, growing pains, and a collective empathetic rage pulsing through the communities we care for. You gotta get in on Gotta Get Out. | Pariss Brown
The Linda Lindas on tour:
09.16.26 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades #
09.17.26 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre *
09.19.26 – Tacoma, WA @ Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park *
09.20.26 – Bend, OR @ Hayden Homes Amphitheater *
09.22.26 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Metro Music Hall %
09.23.26 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall %
09.25.26 – Fort Collins, CO @ Aggie Theatre %
09.27.26 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater %
09.29.26 – Milwaukee, WI @ Turner Hall Ballroom %
09.30.26 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues %
10.02.26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre &
10.03.26 – Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion ^
10.04.26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre of Living Arts &
10.06.26 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club &
10.07.26 – New Haven, CT @ Toad’s Place &
10.08.26 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel &
10.10.26 – Montréal, QC @ Théâtre Fairmount +
10.12.26 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall +
10.13.26 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Intersection.26 – Elevation +
10.14.26 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom & Tavern +
10.16.26 – Saxapahaw, NC @ Haw River Ballroom =
10.17.26 – Athens, GA @ Georgia Theatre =
10.19.26 – Nashville, TN @ The Basement East =
10.20.26 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West =
10.22.26 – Gainesville, FL @ Bo Diddley Plaza (The FEST Kick Off Show)
10.25.26 – Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum #
10.27.26 – Fort Lauderdale, FL @ Culture Room #
10.28.26 – Orlando, FL @ The Social #
10.29.26 – Pensacola, FL @ HalloZine Fest **
10.31.26 – Dallas, TX @ Granada Theater #
11.01.26 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk #
11.03.26 – El Paso, TX @ The Lowbrow Palace #
11.04.26 – Roswell, NM @ The Liberty #
11.05.26 – Tucson, AZ @ La Rosa #
11.07.26 – Los Angeles, CA@ Hollywood Bowl (Supporting Jimmy Eat World)
* w/ Bleachers
^ Power To The People Festival
# w/ The Rat Utopia Experiment
% w/ VIAL
& w/ Deux Visages
w/ Adan Diaz
= w/ Grace Bowers
** HalloZine Fest
