Q&A with Elizabeth Ito of City of Ghosts and The Linda Lindas’ “Why” Video

“Why” can be traced to Halloween 2021, when our friend and amazing photographer Zen Sekizawa was shooting Eloise’s paper-cut art for The Linda Lindas’ Growing Up album cover. Since the band was thinking about incorporating animation into their next music video, we asked Zen who made the City of Ghosts series that featured her and her awesome mom Atomic Nancy, proprietor of the first-generation punk hangout Atomic Cafe. In case you haven’t seen the Netflix show, it shines a beautiful light on immigrant neighborhoods around L.A. while addressing topics such as gentrification and displacement in a thoughtful, all-ages manner. Brilliant!

Zen introduced the band to City of Ghosts creator Elizabeth Ito and the ball got rolling. The video finally rolled out today, so I thought I’d do a short Q&A with our new friend since we met over Zoom, shot the video masked and distanced between COVID surges, and still haven’t really had a chance to hang out!

Elizabeth: I feel like we had a lot of mutual connections and I’m surprised I didn’t meet you sooner. Especially because of [Giant Robot co-founder] Eric Nakamura. He remembered my mom playing guitar when she was his grade school teacher! I met Zen because she and her mom agreed to be in City of Ghosts. Also, she’s the daughter of Atomic Nancy, a legendary and totally cool JA icon. My parents had asked me a few times if I was going to talk to Nancy for the show because they have a lot of mutual friends. Coincidentally, I also had come across Zen’s photography when I was coming up with ideas for episodes of City of Ghosts. She had taken some really cool photos around the Crenshaw area, where I lived growing up.

There was actually a storyline we considered for City of Ghosts where I thought about asking The Linda Lindas to be in the episode. This was before I knew you guys, so you all were already on my radar when I was making the show.

Martin: To me, City of Ghosts and The Linda Lindas overlap because they are both uniquely from L.A. and present culture and empowerment in a cool but all-ages format. Do you have thoughts about this?

Elizabeth: This ties into something I think is so damn cool about The Linda Lindas. Punk is a hard thing to introduce to kids. Like there’s songs and music that I won’t necessarily blast on my stereo with my kids around because I don’t want them randomly swearing or using words they don’t understand at school and then get in trouble for it. I also don’t want to explain what the bad words mean yet, haha. The Linda Lindas make punk accessible for kids and parents. They invite kids to the front, and their shows and music in general are a safe space for kids to rock out. But it’s not just some clean KIDZ BOP–style B.S. Parents don’t have to sweat over buying an album for their kids that’s going to take a lot of parenting work on their part, and they can also enjoy it with them! 

I think The Linda Lindas and my work overlap a lot because we were all raised by progressive, rebellious L.A. parents who were willing to expose their kids to their interests in a way that made us feel trusted and loved. My parents exposed me to stuff like Twin Peaks and David Lynch, as well as the adult-leaning writing by Roald Dahl that wasn’t for kids. I remember my mom buying books for me at City Lights bookstore in S.F., even after the woman at the counter asked her if she knew they weren’t really for kids. My mom was a part of our friend Alan Nakagawa’s performance art once with his group Collage Ensemble, too. I also remember my dad, who really likes John Waters, taking my brother to see Serial Mom. But he was still expected to be a good student and The Linda Lindas can probably relate. Our projects and work reflect the same feeling about kids: that we trust them and we want make them feel seen and included. You can be a cool kid, a good person, and a good student at the same time, and we all use our work to speak truth to power in our own ways. 

Martin: When you met The Linda Lindas over Zoom and they shared the concept of Decline of Western Civilization meets Spirited Away, as well as rough storyboards, what were your first thoughts?

Elizabeth: My first thought was, “Oh crap! I have not seen Decline of Western Civilization… I hope my face doesn’t reveal me to be a mega poseur! But Spirited Away I’ve seen many, many times. It’s one of my favorites. After I caught up on Decline, I thought, “This is going to be such a rad opportunity to make the most old-school punk rock video, plus with these wild characters Eloise is drawing… I hope I can make something they’ll feel really reflects how badass they all are.” 

Martin: How about Chungking Express? Did you get that more subtle reference?

Elizabeth: Once I looked it up and refreshed my memory, yes. My friends were more obsessed with In the Mood for Love, and I was more familiar with that as far as Wong Kar-Wai’s cinematic vibe. His movies are dreamy, which makes it hard to keep straight in my memory! I feel the same way about David Lynch and the animated movie Mind Game. It’s like trying to remember a weird dream. This is pretty niche, but if you had said “We want the vibe of Mari Inukai when you first met her at Cal Arts” I would’ve probably gotten that. She looked just like she walked right out of Chungking Express back then! 

Martin: Can you talk a little bit about the team you put together?

Elizabeth: I’ve only really directed animated projects, and I always count on my husband Kevin’s studio, Chromosphere, to handle them. They’re good at pushing the limits of what I do, and I end up looking like a genius, so Kevin was the first person I brought on. For the part I as less familiar with, I asked my friend Suzie Vlcek if she would like to help me direct, since she had already directed live-action music videos. I like the vibe of her work and thought she would know how to nail the Decline aesthetic.

Martin: What were your hopes and concerns? Time and budget and COVID really affected how the video turned out, but I think it became cooler as a result! 

Elizabeth: I really really hoped I could make something that incorporated all the things that seemed important to the band when they pitched their first idea and showed me the storyboards. It took a while for me to absorb everything and sort out how to do it. I really wanted the whole thing to feel like it was handmade by kids, DIY-style, and punk. My biggest worry was disappointing them. 

But I totally agree! Constraints of budget and COVID took the video in a really cool direction. Animation can be really expensive and also hard to do with complex characters like the ones Eloise drew. And because of COVID, we didn’t want to risk shooting with a large crowd indoors. I remember Wendy asked me if the crowd could be animated. I asked our producer, assistant director, and my friend Elizabeth Abrams if I looked panicked during that part of our call, because I knew we couldn’t really afford to do that. But i also didn’t want to give up. I’m a big fan of directors like Michel Gondry and Spike Jonze, so I started watching their old videos for a spark of an idea. They really inspired me early in my career, and still do.  

Martin: Can you talk about the puppet tests you send the band early on? 

Elizabeth: I was getting really bummed by all the delays and constraints due to COVID, and felt like the video was going to be too hard to do with animation on the budget we had. Not that it wasn’t a good budget for a normal live-action video, but it’s hard to do a solid animated video without a big-time director budget! And I didn’t want to give you guys something cheap and floaty. But then I started wondering if we could steal from Michel Gondry a little, and use paper puppets placed so that they felt like they were interacting with the band. Kevin is really good at hearing my ideas and plussing them. He and I started brainstorming about how it could be cool and funny to do puppets. We half-joked about having standees made of some of the characters, and then it turned into less of a joke and more like, “We should try this, it sounds so fun!” That was the moment I knew it was the right way to go. I was so relieved you guys were into it!

Did you guys have any idea how the video was going to be? What was your genuine first reaction to the completed thing? I don’t think I had a good idea of if it was going to turn out good or not until we were almost done making it!

Martin: We had no idea, either, but trusted you! And suddenly the post-production work made the lo-fi style look super arty! Wow!

Martin: Got any more recent or upcoming projects we should know about?

Elizabeth: Mall Stories, a project started with Chromosphere through a mega grant from Epic and Unreal Engine, is coming soon. It’s a short about the Mongolian Grill in the Burbank Mall, featuring voices of the people who own it and work there. Beyond that I’m working at Apple TV, coming up with some new projects and helping other people on some stuff there.

Martin: You are an Emmy Award–winning animator, but do you go to a lot of concerts? Who are some of your favorite bands and do The Linda Lindas fit in there somehow? 

Elizabeth: My most recent show was CHAI with Su Lee at the Teragram Ballroom. I haven’t been able to go to shows much since my kids were born, and they’re kind of little still. And then there’s the pandemic. But prior to kids, I’d go to all kinds of stuff. My mom is a musician, and she took me to a lot of different types of shows—my very first was Suzanne Vega at the Wiltern. She also used to be a wedding singer, in a band called Pure Jade.They used to sing ’80s and ’90s hits. By the end of high school I was into a lot of KROQ bands, and I like a lotta ’80s new wave, punk, and Brit pop but also stuff like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Stripes, and Jack White’s other band, The Dead Weathers. Le Tigre and Bikini Kill are some other faves. I really got really into Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra because of a video game and have lately floated into the realm of electronic music like Delia Derbyshire and the Dr. Who theme song, and Mort Garson’s music for plants. Of course I love the Linda Lindas because they’re their own thing, made up of lots of influences I love, and are hella confident. That’s what seals it for me: They seem fearless.

Martin: Will we be seeing you at shows this summer? Because this video takes place in an imaginary Save Music in Chinatown show, I’m jonesing to do another one…

Elizabeth: Heck yeah! As long as there’s not too much COVID happening!

Find out more about Elizabeth HERE.

See Linda Lindas tour dates HERE.

Order Growing Up on wax from your favorite record store or go HERE.

The Linda Lindas in Moxie!

The Linda Lindas almost weren’t in Moxie. On the set, Amy Poehler told the band she wanted them to be in the Netflix movie after seeing them open for Bikini Kill at the Palladium. But we heard that others on the team thought they were too young to be in a high school movie. Bela and maybe Lucia, who were 15 and 13 when they shot their scene, could pass. But 12-year-old Eloise and 9-year-old Mila? No way!

It’s practically urban legend that Bikini Kill lead singer Kathleen Hanna stood up for the band, saying they were the only ones who could play their song “Rebel Girl” in the movie (the song plays a key part in Jennifer Matthieu’s YA book). A line about The Linda Lindas being allies from a nearby middle school was added and tutors were hired to watch them at the recording studio and take them away from the movie set during downtime to do homework. Bummer, but they still got good snacks and food from craft services!

After a flurry of recording their songs during Thanksgiving break and filming in the first week of December in 2019, there was no news regarding the movie until the trailer came out in February 2021. Whew, the movie was finally coming out on March 3. Cool, the band was still in it. Then they got asked to play for a preview screening for cast and crew, which is how they found out their Muffs cover was going to be used, too. Rad!

Due to the pandemic, the band members were filmed at home on dropped-off gear, with Sawhorse Productions directing from afar and then assembling all the pieces. It was awesome to finally see Amy Poehler introduce the stream and tell everyone to stick around for a performance by the “amazing” Linda Lindas. It turned out great!

The movie turned out great, too! I love how Poehler mashes up the rebellion of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School with the squeaky clean vibe of a John Hughes-era teen movie and then subverts both with intersectional feminism. The humor is low-key (and not gross-out like modern teen movies) and so is the riot grrrl indoctrination. I kept waiting for our hero to go through her mom’s crate of records and wanted the concert scene to be longer, but there are more than enough buttons, stickers, flyers, zines, and posters to appease us viewers who took part in the riot grrrl scene. And enough reflection to let everyone know it wasn’t perfect.

Writing a concert into the story was a great move for a movie with zines and leather jackets, too. And featuring The Linda Lindas instead of a fake band or a bigger band with no connection to riot grrrl or punk rock was kind of brilliant. They are young girls. They are half Asian and half Latinx. They have played with riot grrrl legends and pioneers like Bikini Kill, Alice Bag, and Phranc, in addition to bands that build on it like Best Coast and Bleached. And while their scene is brief, it is packed with pure joy, true friendship, and punk rock power.

Audiences who aren’t familiar with the subculture can look up The Linda Lindas and see that they are living, breathing examples of the legacy of riot grrrl and DIY punk. They were already covering “Rebel Girl” and dedicating “Big Mouth” to the memory of Kim Shattuck before they were asked to be in the movie. And if they are real, why can’t intersectional feminism, unity, compassion, and revolution be real, too? 

Thanks to Amy Poehler and Kathleen Hanna for getting The Linda Lindas in there! Thanks to Sawhorse Productions for making the video and letting the band share it! Thanks to Bikini Kill and The Muffs for being awesome! After being such a huge fan and seeing them so many times, I can’t believe my daughter, nieces, and our family friend are now a small part of their stories. One day, we’ll see movies in theaters and bands at shows again, but this is very exciting and inspiring right now.

Hello, Linda Lindas!

Mostly originally printed in Save Music in Chinatown: The Sixth Year Zine (November 2019). It leaves out the most important stuff, like how often they practice, hang out, and have fun together, and sticks mostly to shows but it’s worth putting out there as a record before it gets completely outdated!

I wish I could say that Save Music in Chinatown shows spawned The Linda Lindas, but Bela, Eloise, Lucia, and Mila were brought together by fate.

Pre-Linda LIndas at Girlschool LA at The Bootleg (February 2, 2018)

Out of nowhere, an acquaintance reached out to me asking if Eloise would be interested in taking part in a project. Kristin Kontrol, who I knew through her old band, Dum Dum Girls, had been invited to take part in a music festival called Girlschool L.A. After initially declining because she was in between projects, Kristin decided it might be interesting to get a group of kids to play. Kristin had seen pictures and video of Eloise singing at Save Music in Chinatown (“Bloodstains” with the Neptunas? “Paranoid” with Tabitha?) and thought of her.

Pre-Linda LIndas with Karen O. at Girlschool LA at The Bootleg (February 2, 2018)

It was a crazy idea, especially since there were only a few weeks to prepare and the children would have no musical experience, but Wendy and I said sure. Then I suggested Kristin enlist Eloise’s cousins Lucia and Mila, since the three of them have been singing, dancing, and putting on shows together since they were toddlers. And if it worked out, they might get access to my sister Angelyn and brother-in-law Carlos’s backyard studio and gear for the project, too. Not only did that happen, but Carlos wound up being the second coach on the project.

The Linda Lindas at Ed Lin book reading and signing at Vromans in Pasadena (October 9, 2018)

The first practice with the cousins and a bunch of other kids culled together via social media was cute but rough. Thinking that they needed a ringer who could actually play an instrument, Angelyn and Wendy reached out to see if our friends’ daughter, Bela, who was taking guitar lessons, might be available. She was.

The Linda Lindas at Save Music in Chinatown 16 at the Grand Star (November 3, 2018)

After a handful of lessons, a lot of practice, and much pizza, Kristen + The Kids were was a big hit at Girlschool L.A., playing stripped-down covers of Cat Power, Dum Dum Girls, Mazzy Star, Best Coast (with Bethany and Bobb), and Yeah Yeah Yeahs (with Karen O.). It was a one-off project with no plans to follow up, but connections were made and seeds were planted.

The Linda Lindas with Chip Kinman from the Dils at Save Music in Chinatown 17 at the Grand Star (January 27, 2019)

A few months later, Bela was invited by her friends in Frieda’s Roses to open a show for them at The Hi-Hat. Bela invited Lucia, Mila, and Eloise to be her band and they went on to play their first show together. They didn’t have a name yet, and were billed as Bela and Friends. Bethany and Bobb from Best Coast were in attendance, as well as Jen from Bleached, establishing them as hardcore supporters from day one.

The Linda Lindas with Money Mark and Justin Maurer at Jackie Rocks! at the American Legion Eagle Rock (February 23, 2019)

By now, I was dying to have the girls play a Save Music in Chinatown show, and because our sixteenth show was going to be celebrating my fiftieth birthday they couldn’t say no.

The Linda Lindas opening for Bikini Kill at the Hollywood Palladium (April 26, 2019)

They also needed a name. The girls came up with some pretty interesting and funny ideas for names, but eventually I brought a screener DVD from my days as a magazine editor who wrote about Asian cinema. Nobuhiro Yamashita’s 2005 movie Linda Linda Linda is about Japanese high school girls who learn a punk song by The Blue Hearts, “Linda Linda,” for a talent show. The understated and gorgeous art movie stars Japanese indie musicians as well as the very cool Korean actress Bae Doona. I though The Linda Lindas sounded like a band from the ’50s but could also refer to the Japanese punk song or art movie, or simply mean “really pretty” in Spanish. The girls agreed and The Linda Lindas were christened.

The Linda Lindas opening for Bleached at the Moroccan Lounge (July 11, 2019)

I don’t recall exactly how it happened, but my friend Ed Lin saw a flyer and asked if The Linda Lindas would play some songs at his book release event in Pasadena. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, that turned out to be their first public show and a warmup before their first Chinatown show.

The Linda Lindas at Hurley Studios (August 1, 2019)

Alice Bag, Chip Kinman, and Phranc were among the fans at The Linda Lindas at their first show at Save Music in Chinatown (Phranc, Ford Madox Ford, LP3 & The Tragedy, The Horseheads). It was electric!

The Linda Lindas opening for Alice Bag at the Hi Hat (August 10, 2019)

How could they not make a surprise appearance at the next show with the all-Dangerhouse lineup of The Dils (first show in 40 years), Alley Cats, Neko Neko, and Rhino 39?

The Linda Lindas at Viva! Pomona at the Glass House (August 24, 2019)

The next show was a benefit for Jackie Goldberg with Money Mark and Best Coast. Mark played bass and our friend Justin Maurer provided ASL translation on The Linda Lindas’ cover of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl.”

 

The Linda Lindas at Save Music in Chinatown 19 (November 3, 2019)

Kathleen Hanna tweeted the video and it has 57,000+ views to date. Then she invited the band to open for Bikini Kill at the Palladium. Unbelievable.

The Linda LIndas at Self Help Graphics’ Dia De Los Muertos Celebration (November 2, 2019)

They went on a roll, opening at Bleached’s record release show, playing a live session at the Hurley Recording Studio, and opening for Alice Bag with Midnite Snaxxx, before playing their first festival, Viva! Pomona. Pretty good for 9-to-15-year-old girls. And they started at 8 to 14!

The Linda LIndas with Fur Dixon at Save Music in Chinatown 20 (January 26, 2020)

With so much action, I was little relieved that they were up for playing the first Save Music in Chinatown show of our seventh year, just a day after playing Self Help Graphics’ Dia De Los Muertos gig!

Except for a surprise appearance with Fur Dixon at Save Music in Chinatown 20, they haven’t played any shows in 2020 but have been keeping busy with projects that will turn up in time (keep an eye on SXSW and Netflix). And now several shows are lining up:

Friday, February 21 – Center for the Arts Eagle Rock
Sunday, April 19 – L.A. Times Festival of Books
Saturday, April 25 – Alex’s Bar, more info TBA
Sunday, May 3 – Save Music in Chinatown 21, lineup TBA

 

Follow The Linda Lindas at http://instagram.com/the_linda_lindas for the latest news, and see you at their shows!

Note: The zine with this article, including different typos and the Friends Files in their full printed glory, is available only at Save Music in Chinatown shows.

 

Save Music in Chinatown 20 recap with WÜRM, Fur Dixon, Slaughterhouse, and Otniel Y Los Condors

Henry and Otniel from Otniel Y Los Condors with The Duke at SMIC20

As news trickled through Los Angeles about the shocking and violent death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and other victims of a helicopter crash, a handful of us were in a beautiful bubble. Quivering and doomed to pop, but beautiful nonetheless.

Otniel Y Los Condors at SMIC20

At the Grand Star Jazz Club, just three or four miles away from the shell-shocked Staples Center, we were celebrating our twentieth Save Music in Chinatown all-ages matinee carrying on the punk rock tradition of the neighborhood’s old Hong Kong Cafe to raise money for music education at its public elementary school. So pardon me if you’ve heard this 19 times before, but maybe it’s new to someone else. And the facts probably mutate every time I look back. 🙂

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@otnielyloscondors learned "Life of Crime" just for #savemusicinchinatown 20. ¡L.A. punk por vida!

A post shared by Martin Wong (@martinkendallwong) on Jan 27, 2020 at 5:41pm PST

The shows were born when Wendy and I received a flyer from Castelar, where our daughter just started attending Kindergarten, asking families for donations to support the school’s excellent-but-underfunded music program. We knew they wouldn’t get a lot of dough from the community’s largely immigrant and working class households (one of the things Wendy and I love about the school because that describes her parents and my grandparents) and wondered what we could do.

Eddie, Veronica, Taylor, and Nick from Slaughterhouse with Wendy and me at SMIC20

Wendy and I went to Chinatown when we were kids, ate dim sum at Golden Dragon with my in-laws almost every weekend when we started dating, and had our wedding banquet at the Empress Pavilion before our daughter started going to school in the neighborhood. And we also dug that The Germs, X, Bags, Go-Go’s, Black Flag, and other cool bands played right there at the Hong Kong Cafe during the first wave of punk. We thought it would be interesting to build a bridge between the overlapping-but-never-really-connecting subcultures, which we happened to be parts of, to help kids.

Slaughterhouse at SMIC20

Somehow, our DIY matinees have kept going for seven years now.This time around we had our new friends Otniel Y Los Condors opening up the show, carrying on the East L.A. punk tradition of The Plugz, The Brat, and Los Lobos with their fully realized and rocking bilingual cuts. Rock solid rhythm section with Henry and Edgar, ripping leads by Luigy, and the killer melodies of OT–they have it all and brought a ton of friends and family, too. My type of band. And they learned a Weirdos song just for us!

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@sslaughterrhouse bringing the Hong Kong Cafe vibes to #savemusicinchinatown 20!

A post shared by Martin Wong (@martinkendallwong) on Jan 27, 2020 at 1:01pm PST

Slaughterhouse went on next, with dark and heavy vibes that recall early TSOL and X. I love how Veronica prowls the floor while Taylor, Eddie, and Nick blow up the stage with their energy! So cool to catch bands like them and Otniel Y Los Condors while they are on the cusp of taking over the world.

Fur Dixon at SMIC20

Fur Dixon was next, and I still can’t believe that she actually approached us about taking part our humble benefit show. Wow. She played bass for The Cramps the first time I saw them at the Hollywood Palladium in 1986! These days, she’s playing in a raw, stripped-down blues style with gorgeous riffs to go with her punkerbilly snarl.

Fur Dixon with The Linda Lindas at SMIC20

A few days before the show, I asked Fur if she would be into The Linda Lindas (kind of our house band, featuring our daughter Eloise (11) and her cousins Mila (9) and Lucia (13), who have been coming to our shows since they were kids, along with their friend Bela (15)) singing backup vocals on “Don’t Tread on Me” (the a-side of her 7″ single and my favorite song by her). This escalated to Mila playing drums, Eloise playing bass, and Lucia and Bela singing backups. Fur was cool with everything and even dropped by their band practice the day before the show to teach them the song. They worked on it for about 40 minutes that afternoon, practiced one more time on the day of the show, and then nailed it on stage.

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Ex-Cramp roots punker Fur Dixon playing "Don't Tread on Me" with special backup by The Linda Lindas at #savemusicinchinatown 20!

A post shared by Martin Wong (@martinkendallwong) on Jan 27, 2020 at 9:15pm PST

I still can’t believe WÜRM headlined our show. One week after The Last played our previous Save Music in Chinatown show in November, I went to see them at the Hermosa Saloon and was hanging out with guitar slinger Philo. During small talk, he mentioned that he had started playing with Chuck Dukowski, and I said, “No way! WÜRM?” He went on to say that Chuck’s newly reborn pre-Black Flag band was going to play with No Age and Milo Gonzalez at The Smell, adding that it was really important to Chuck that they play all-ages shows.

WÜRM at SMIC20

Having fond memories of the Chuck Dukowski Sextet playing our third benefit show, I reached out to The Duke the very next day and the show was confirmed by that evening. Wow. The first WÜRM show since 19895! What an honor, and a real cool preview for next month’s big show at The Smell. In addition to Philo with original members Chuck on bass and Loud Lou on drums, a younger guy German handled vocals and was a beast. What a combo!

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First WÜRM apoearance since 1985: Chuck Dukowski, Loud Lou, Philo, and German ripping through "I'm Dead" at #savemusicinchinatown 20!

A post shared by Martin Wong (@martinkendallwong) on Jan 27, 2020 at 12:53pm PST

In addition to killer songs off their album and “I’m Dead” single, they played two great new cuts that happened to be engineered by my buddy David O. Jones, who kindly accepted the show’s sound duties after our sorely missed friend and longtime sound guy Nate Pottker moved to Washington, D.C. I love how our shows make the big city we live feel like a small community.

David O. Jones from Alice Bag Band and Carnage Asada, Lora from Chuck Dukowski Sextet, and Dave Travis from Carnage Asada and Cafe NELA at SMIC20

I also love that not only do my favorite bands play for the cause, but that the crowd is full of family and friends, including members of bands that have played for us before, local activists, Chinatown locals, and punk lifers. And kids. And many of the bands’ families with kids! Seeing this multigenerational and intersectional scene grow in our space has been a very cool and unintentional byproduct of these shows.

Photographer Zen Sekizawa, Atomic Nancy, and artist Mario Correa at SMIC20

I was too young to attend the Hong Kong Cafe back in the late ’70s and early ’80s but these days are pretty great, too. Not only do we have a potent mixture of legends and cool newer underground bands that carry on the tradition, but we have cookies, coffee, and children dancing around in front. And for them to support the cause of public school, music education, and kids in an underserved community is even better.

Eloise from The Linda Lindas with Kristen and Jim from The Crowd, The Stitches, and 16 Again at SMIC20

Thanks to the bands, the raffle donors, the bake sale helpers, everyone who helped set up and clean up, everyone who came to the show, and all the supporters who spread the word. Walking out of the show into the sad Los Angeles skyline lit in purple and gold underlined the truth that nothing lasts forever, including these shows. We appreciate that so many of you out there have helped us last this long, continue to make a difference, and have a blast.

With David O. Jones and members of Otniel Y Los Condors after SMIC20

Our 21st show is shaping up to be on May 3! Hope to see you there.

The Making of Meet The Linda Lindas

A couple of days after The Linda Lindas played the Hollywood Palladium, my phone rang. At the time, Erik Caruso and I were planning mural painting at my daughter’s school, Castelar, which was timed to go with a Save Music in Chinatown fund-raising concert as well as the upcoming art show and noise jam at Harry Wirtz Elementary in Paramount, where my friend is a fifth-grade teacher.

“I would love it if The Linda Lindas could play the art show,” said Erik. “But I know the girls are students, too, and will be at school. So I’m wondering, did you happen to shoot video at the Palladium?” He thought it would be cool for his students to learn about the band, who are aged 8, 11, 12, and 14.

Funny he should ask. Ever since the concert, Wendy and I had been obsessing over three videos from different angles, smartphone footage from a handful of sources, and a bootleg audio recording from our friend Nate. We figured that all the pieces would sit in a box and collect dust like vacation or wedding photos that never get turned into an album.

So we opened up our hard drive to Erik and his filmmaker friend Mike Panganiban. They also dropped in on the next Linda Lindas practice to shoot some extra footage and conduct a casual interview, and then got even more footage a few weeks later at the Save Music in Chinatown matinee–less than 24 hours before the piece was shown at Wirtz Elementary!

Wendy took Eloise to the screening and said that the students were captivated by the video, cheered when each song ended, and had a bunch of questions afterward. We parents thought that a bigger audience would enjoy it, too, and maybe even get inspired by the story of kids, sisters, cousins, and friends making noise, having fun, practicing a lot, and being heard. Mike kindly added credits and made some tweaks, and that was it.

Like the band itself, the video just sort of happened naturally and then turned out to be really cool. Thanks to Erik for envisioning it, our new friend Mike and his crew for all their work, Nate for the audio, Daniel Wu for the cameras, and everyone who shared their videos and supports the band! Catch The Linda Lindas on Thursday, July 11, at the Moroccan opening for Bleached and Saturday, August 10, at the Hi-Hat opening for Alice Bag!

The Linda Lindas, forming (February 2018)

 

Save Music in Chinatown 18 with The Gears, Gitane Demone Quartet, Marriage Material, The Castelalas, and The Linda Lindas, plus murals at Castelar!

At the tail end of six years and eighteen Save Music in Chinatown all-ages matinees to raise money for Castelar Elementary’s music program, you’d think we’d have it all figured out. Paying tribute to the neighborhood’s old Hong Kong Cafe, where The Bags, Weirdos, X, Black Flag, Germs, and Go-Go’s played during L.A.’s first wave of punk, check. Killer bake sale and cool raffle, check. Exposing kids who can handle it to DIY culture and seeing some of them even form a band, check. The project that Wendy and I started with inspiration from our daughter Eloise and help from our friend Nate has outlived our expectations, become a small but loyal community, and exceeded our dreams. Check out the insane list of L.A. punk legends who have become friends: Adolescents, Alice Bag, Phranc, The Dils, Channel Three, The Crowd, Mike Watt…

Just two weekends ago, how lucky were we to have The Gears play for us a second time, lugging their gear up and down the long red stairway to help out the kids of Chinatown and bringing along their new guitarist and our old friend Rikk Agnew, too. And if you weren’t moved by seeing a mob of little kids knowing exactly what to do when the pride of Glassell Park played “Don’t Be Afraid To Pogo,” off their essential 7″ single that was released 40 years ago during the first wave of L.A. punk… Well, you were probably attending the wrong show.

I was reminded that we grownups are just as lucky as the youngsters by my friend Bert, who was from visiting from Scotland and remarked that he only dreamed of seeing The Gears when he was a punker growing up and playing in bands in Washington, DC.  The Gears are one of those legendary L.A. punk bands that never toured or gained as much attention as they deserved, and we gotta see them every chance we get! You never know when when they’ll play the last chord–I thought it was last year.

Our co-headliner was The Gitane Demone Quartet, featuring members of Christian Death and Screamers. The all-star death rock combo didn’t lighten up their set one bit for a rare appearance in broad daylight and actually ended it by dedicating “Eva Braun” and “We Must Bleed” to the punks! I am super proud that the children at our shows don’t need cleaned-up Kidz Bop versions of rock songs, and can handle gnarly tributes by lifers from L.A.’s underground.

Special thanks to Rikk Agnew, who plays in both The Gears and GDQ. He was into the idea of playing the double-header for the cause right from the beginning, and helped recruit both bands to volunteer their time and noise. Please don’t tell anyone that Rikk is not only a survivor and a legend of the L.A. punk scene but also a softie!

Marriage Material went on first, and I asked them to play because most of them would have attended as friends and supporters anyway. Also, I hadn’t seen them since Jenae began lending her vocals and holy crap! How did they get even more punk? And will we ever get to buy their awesome second EP on wax? Check them out! And subscribe to RazorCake!

I would like to thank the grownup performers for allowing the bands featuring children go last. They really should have gone on first, but one member of The Linda Lindas had dance rehearsals that afternoon and another was in the middle of ninth grade finals! The Castelalas made a guest appearance right before them and, after raising money for Castelar’s music program for years, it was pretty awesome to have a band with third, fourth, and fifth graders from the school taught by their awesome music teacher, Matt Brundrett. Eloise formed the Castelalas to play a talent show and, after practicing for months, they were too much fun not to ask them to play again.

As for The Linda Lindas, I have a feeling that when it’s all over our Save Music in Chinatown shows will be nothing but a trivia answer that only their hardest core fans know. Eloise went from being mascot to flyer artist to guest singer to member of the band with her cousins Lucia and Mila and their friend Bela. How cool is it these girls have not only had a blast playing super-fun garage rock covers of punk ‘n’ roll, but have shared our Chinatown stage with the  likes of Phranc, Channel 3, Alley Cats, and The Dils? And now The Gears and GDQ!

Maybe some of you saw The Linda Lindas with Best Coast and Money Mark at the Jackie Rocks! benefit in February. Or open for Bikini Kill at the Palladium in April. Or have tickets to the sold-out show with Bleached in July or their date with Alice Bag in August. If we’re lucky, they’ll come back to play in Chinatown again. It’s been as amazing as it was unplanned and unexpected to see them grow in the space that we have carved out, forming a multigenerational underground with first wave punks.

While The Linda Lindas and Castelalas represented a youth movement, there was also an art component added to our latest Save Music in Chinatown weekend. For the last several years, my friend Erik Caruso has been attending our benefit concerts for Castelar and Wendy and I have been attending the year-end art shows and noise jams that he has been organizing at Harry Wirtz Elementary in Paramount, where he teaches. This year, Erik set it up so our efforts would finally join forces.

Erik’s project entails optional contemporary art lessons and projects for fifth graders throughout the school year, capped off by an art show featuring student work and pieces by contemporary artists who participate via video or attend in person, and a noise jam with artists, many of whom are musicians, and guest players. This time around, Tim Kerr, Mike Watt, Randy Randall, Ray Barbee, Mark Waters, Hagop Najarian, and others played “Minor Threat,” and Ian MacKaye even sent a video message to Erik and the students.

For years, Erik had the artists paint murals at his school as well, but lately he has been bringing artists to other schools and Castelar was this year’s destination. It was cool getting to hang out with Erik and the artists, a lot of old friends and now some new ones. Many of the crew were able to attend the Save Music in Chinatown show and most returned to Castelar a couple of mornings later to field questions from students about the murals. That provided an occasion for one more performance by The Castelalas, and it was a thrilling revelation to see so many students having their minds blown by cool art and music. While I don’t foresee our punk rock matinees turning into kiddie shows, I hope more children in Chinatown will be open to enjoying loud music, forming bands, and getting into DIY culture in general.

Not more than half a year ago, we thought that this could have been our last show with Eloise completing fifth grade. But it turns out Castelar will be adding a sixth grade next year. And then a seventh and eight grade after that! So unless the shows stop being fun, we’ll keep organizing them–especially since it looks like education and the arts won’t stop being underfunded any time soon. Hope to see you in the fall.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByY3gGdFWuuj3jxYMYahsu9uIRe7SQajm44fxA0/

Linda Lindas to the front! By Wendy Lau

The Linda Lindas with Kathleen Hanna at the Hollywood Palladium (April 26, 2019) Photo: Alice Baxley

I started this blog to have an outlet for writing and sharing after Giant Robot ran its course. But what my wife wrote about our daughter, her cousins, and their friend needs to be here too. By Wendy Lau:

After The Linda Lindas opened for Bikini Kill at The Palladium, I’ve thought a lot about… parenting. Martin and I have always believed Eloise is an exceptional and charismatic individual. But did I really believe she could do anything?

Last November, after The Linda Lindas’ first show at Save Music in Chinatown, Eloise’s music composition teacher Carl Protho said, “You better watch out. She’s going to play The Forum! The Greek! STAPLES Center!” I laughed and thanked him. He looked at me sternly and continued, “I’m not kidding. You better prepare yourself.” Right before he saw her perform at The Palladium last Friday, Carl texted, “Hold onto your heart!”

The Linda Lindas opening for Bikini Kill at the Hollywood Palladium (April 26, 2019) Photo: Alice Baxley

The day after The Linda Lindas’ previous show in February, Eloise and I ran into our friend Gabie Strong. We told her that Bethany from Best Coast sent a video of their cover of “Rebel Girl” to Kathleen Hanna because once Eloise yelled “Girls to the front!” she started crying. “Maybe they’ll open for Bikini Kill at The Palladium” was Gabie’s reaction. Again, I laughed.

Next thing you know, Kathleen Hanna tweeted the video, which has surpassed 55K views. And we all thought, that’s cool but it’s just Twitter. Then she invited them to open for one of the much-anticipated Bikini Kill reunion shows. Gabie was prophetic! First, I was shocked. Then super giddy. And then scared.

The Linda Lindas and Bikini Kill at the Hollywood Palladium (April 26, 2019) Photo: Alice Baxley

Us parents even confided our insecurities with Kathleen. Would people who paid good money to see Bikini Kill be disappointed to see a kid cover band open the show? But she was confident The Linda Lindas would make longtime fans feel like the struggle was all worth it and inspire teen girls to start their own bands. During their incredible set, so many people screamed, laughed, and even cried tears of joy. These little girls won over thousands of people waiting to see Bikini Kill! Kathleen was right.

I truly believe my kid can do anything. Moving forward, I will always protect her but never stand in her way. This post has been about Eloise because I’m her mommy, but I could write a whole essay on each of The Linda Lindas: Lucia, Mila, and Bela. These unbelievably awesome girls just showed us all they’ll rule the world.

Wendy and Eloise backstage at the Hollywood Palladium (April 26, 2019) Photo: Jessie Cowan

Catch The Linda Lindas this summer!
– Sunday, June 2 at Save Music in Chinatown 18 with The Gears and Gitane Demone Quartet (All-ages matinee)
– Thursday, July 11 at Bleached’s record release show with DJ Bethany from Best Coast at the Moroccan (18+) 

Into the Danlands: Eloise’s interview with Daniel Wu, Into The Badlands Season 3, Final Episodes edition

While editing Giant Robot magazine, I got to interview a lot of cool filmmakers and actors. So I was pretty excited when Eloise told me she wanted to interview Daniel Wu for a school assignment to write about a famous Chinese person. Why not? He’s a longtime friend and I thought conducting the interview in Mandarin would be an outstanding project for her dual-language fourth grade classroom. I traded some texts and Eloise placed a phone call to Uncle Dan last May.

As Into The Badlands is about to conclude its third and final season, I asked Eloise to translate the interview into English to get us viewers ready for its long-awaited return. And if you are a fan of hardcore Hong Kong-style martial arts and choreography, dig the energy and production value of cable shows like The Walking Dead, and appreciate the humor of Nick Frost but haven’t checked out the AMC series yet, don’t miss the double premiere on Sunday, May 24, and Monday, May 25! Prepare to be entertained, addicted, and blown away every week.

Eloise Wong, Happy Birthday, Uncle Dan (Detail), Liquid Paper on Cardboard, 2019

Eloise: Hi!
Daniel: Hi, how are you?

Eloise: Good, thank you for doing this.
Daniel: No worries. Are you ready to start?

Eloise: Yes. So my first question is, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Daniel: When I was 13, I wanted to be an architect.

Eloise: And when did you get into acting?
Daniel: In 1997, right when I graduated from college. I went to Hong Kong, and someone asked me to be in a TV commercial. Then the director of my first movie, Yonfan, saw the commercial and looked for me.

Eloise. Oh!
Daniel: It was just that easy.

Eloise: Wow!  Since you weren’t experienced, was acting extra fun? More difficult?
Daniel: More difficult, because I had to work on two things: How to act and how to speak Chinese. Both at the same time!

Eloise: When you were filming in Hong Kong or China, what was the most fun movie you worked on?
Daniel: My most fun movie was One Nite in Mongkok. Of all my films, that is my favorite.

Eloise: What’s a difficult thing about acting that most people don’t know about?
Daniel: A lot people think that acting is really easy, and you just go to the location, go home, and that’s it. But you have to do a lot of homework. There’s more homework and preparation than actual work. And filming just one hour of a movie can mean four or five hours on the set.

Eloise: When you were in China, you were already a big star. Why did you come back to work in America?
Daniel: I didn’t give up on China, but I’m an American so I can do English films, too. Now I do both.

Eloise: Is Into the Badlands the hardest thing you’ve ever worked on?
Daniel: Probably. I work really hard on it—more than in movies. For Into the Badlands, I have to do kung fu every day for 10 hours and it’s exhausting. It’s also easy to get hurt.

Eloise: Do you think your work has had a positive effect on the world?
Daniel: Um, I hope so! I’m not trying to change the world, but I hope at least a few kids who watch Into the Badlands will want to learn kung fu. When I was a kid, I watched movies and wanted to learn kung fu. I think that would be a good influence.

Eloise: Which of your movies should us 10-year-old kids to watch?
Daniel: The movie I just finished, Tomb Raider. I think it’s got a good message that girls can be heroes, too.

Eloise: When are we going to El Cholo to eat green corn tamales with you again?
Daniel: I hope we can do it soon. Your dad introduced them to me and I really like them! Maybe next month I’ll come and we’ll have them.

Eloise: Yes!
Daniel: Are there any more questions?

Eloise: When did you meet Daddy?
Daniel: In 1995 or 1996, I really liked reading Giant Robot magazine. I wrote a letter to your daddy saying I really liked it, and if they needed help I would contribute. The first time we met was in New York City. I was visiting my sister and don’t know what he was doing there—probably Giant Robot stuff.

Eloise: That’s all. Thank you!
Daniel: Good luck. I hope you get an A on your report. If you don’t, I’ll come to your school with my sword!

 

Watch the final episodes of Into The Badlands Season 3 on AMC and stream the previous episodes on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. And, yes, Eloise got an A on her project and, no, Eloise is not allowed to watch the series yet!

Jackie Rocks! concert to get out the vote for Jackie Goldberg with Best Coast, Money Mark, The Linda Lindas with Justin Maurer, and The Phews

Wendy, Eloise, and I have been putting on benefit shows for Castelar’s music program for six years now and it’s been great. Music education, kids, Chinatown, and punk rock–totally unplanned but perfect. And it has been a slippery slope from raising money for the school to becoming advocates for Chinatown and activists for public education, supporting community efforts to slow down the takeover of the historic neighborhood by developers and backing the teachers in their fighting back against the dismantling of public education by privatizers and union busters. After getting fired up by last month’s teacher strike, it made sense to help organize an event to support Jackie Goldberg’s bid for the seat of LAUSD school board 5 .

Wendy and I met Jackie Goldberg in March 2016, shortly after Castelar Elementary was identified for co-location. We had no idea what that meant, so we went to a TEACh (Transparency, Equity, and Accountability in Charter Schools) meeting where we were introduced to Jackie and given information and encouragement. We went on to help stop the charter school from taking space and resources from the neighborhood school in Chinatown.

So last weekend, we teamed up with my sister Angelyn and a bunch of friends (especially Euphronia and Lois) to organize a benefit show and rally for Jackie. To support the legendary activist and educator in a multigenerational, DIY setting with so many families and kids who are affected by the LAUSD school board election seemed like a perfect fit and Jackie’s campaign manager Zoë agreed. After confirming that Jackie would be able to drop in on our event, we started putting together our bill.

We thought it would be really cool and important to have public school kids play the event and have a voice in an election that concerns them most. Of course, The Linda Lindas (Save Music in Chinatown faves featuring our daughter, nieces who attend a District 5 elementary school, and their friend) would play. And we had just become friends with Justin Maurer at our last Chinatown benefit although he was already a regular. The ex-Clorox Girl and member of Maniac had been in the spotlight providing ASL translation in the teachers strike, and how cool would it be for him to sign for the girls?

We got some other pals to support the cause and get on the bill, too. My old friend Money Mark was already a Jackie Goldberg fan and my brother-in-law Carlos had been working with Best Coast, who were already Linda Lindas fans. We wanted to have more kids from schools in District 5 and our friends’ son’s band, The Phews, were into it. Getting family and old and new friends behind a cause and having fun doing it is the best, and our show was exactly that.

I love how Mark and Justin joined The Linda Lindas, Justin signed for Jackie, and Carlos played with Money Mark and Best Coast. The Linda Lindas played with Best Coast, too. The sold-out show had a real friendly feel to it, and afterward we were able to donate about $3,000 to Jackie’s campaign between ticket sales, a cool raffle and silent auction, and delicious bake sale. More importantly, we got a bunch of voters together who will spread the word about Jackie. Hopefully, we helped children feel involved in the process and empowered, too.

Public education is at a crossroads in Los Angeles and our city needs Jackie to advocate for all children as well as the teachers, and protect schools from union-busting privatizers who aim to profit off children and our future at the expense of the public good. Jackie has decades of experience as an activist and educator, champion for underdogs, and progressive lawmaker.

Jackie is endorsed by Tony Thurmond, Dolores Huerta, Betty Yee, and Hilda Solis, and and is UTLA’s choice to balance out the school board that has been being bought by privatizing interests and carry out progress started in last month’s teachers strike. It’s a real gift for Los Angeles that Jackie is coming out of retirement to fight for our public schools and we hope to spread that message.

And the local election is not only important to families with kids who attend LAUSD schools. Everyone who wants to stand up to the privatization of public education, stop the attacks on the teaching profession, and improve conditions for every single student should be paying attention. The city we love and its future are better off with excellent and equitable public schools.

If you get junk mail for the special election, then you are in District 5 and can vote. Spread the word and get out the vote for Jackie on Tuesday, March 5!

Save Music in Chinatown 17 recap with Alley Cats, The Dils, Rhino 39, and Neko Neko with DJ Lisa Fancher

It got a pretty intense when The Dils played Save Music in Chinatown 17 last weekend. Over the years, our series of all-ages benefit matinees has maintained a fairly low profile and no show ever got so big that we’ve had to worry about children getting crushed. But of course the unexpected return of The Dils attracted wall-to-wall crowds and a line of punks of all shapes, sizes, and ages snaked down the stairs hoping to just hear, feel, and smell, the gig. I was seriously worried about us getting busted by the fire marshall, fights breaking out, or middle-aged skins or mohawks trampling kids for selfies with the band or to shoot it on their iPads.

But none of that happened, and the afternoon was as fun as it was exciting. I’m pretty sure none of us in the room (including singer, guitar player, and co-founder Chip Kinman) thought we’d ever see The Dils play their first show in 40 years right across the plaza from the old Hong Kong Cafe. And how many people can say The Dils played a benefit for the music program at their daughter’s elementary school? Or that their daughter sang “Class War” with them?  (The answer is two: me and my wife.)

I’m all for friends’ old bands getting back together to play festivals and big shows, receive the attention and love they deserve, and have a blast in front of huge audiences. And that made it even more unreal that this would happen at one of our humble benefit shows. The afternoon felt less like a star-studded, invite-only event that you read about in a magazine than a gathering of old friends who just happened to play together at the Vex, Masque, Starwood, or Hong Kong Cafe a lot back in the day. (Our friend, Save Music in Chinatown bake sale boss, and Castelar alum, parent, and volunteer Mamie actually used to work the Hong Kong Cafe door because her dad ran the venue!)

The Dils didn’t get together just to play our show. Chip and his rock ‘n’ roll animal son Giuliano had already played for us twice in their other band, Ford Madox Ford, and I simply asked if they wanted to play a warmup show after noticing that they announced a  Dils show in San Diego. We made it a doubleheader of Dangerhouse Records legends by asking the Alley Cats to come back and play for us again. With hits off the Yes L.A., compilation and URGH! A Music War, is there a more underrated, or unappreciated band from L.A. punk?

It was a perfect lineup to bring back Hector Penalosa (from Spirit of  ’77 garage punks  The Zeros) with his new power trio Neko Neko. He and his trusty drummer Nico had already played for us in various lineups of Baja Bugs and My Revenge. How could we say no when fellow Dangerhouse labelmates Rhino 39 came out of nowhere wanting to join the lineup and volunteer their back line to boot? And who else could DJ the show except our friend Lisa Fancher, the founder of Frontier Records and holder of the keys to Dangerhouse Records?

Sprinkled into the massive crowd, it was heartwarming to see so many friends, regulars, and longtime supporters including pals from KXLU, KCHUNG, and RazorCake, and members from Channel Three, Adolescents, and Midget Oddjob, as well as Bob Forrest, who have played for us or supported us since the beginning. Wendy and I have known some of the attendees since we worked together on Giant Robot. And college before that. Plus lots of family everywhere.

When Wendy and I started organizing Save Music in Chinatown shows, we hoped to raise some money for the music program at our daughter’s elementary school but had no idea it would last this long or that a scene would grow around it. We never dreamed that it would create a space where Eloise could make flyers, get to sing onstage, or form a band with her cousins and their friend. (The Linda Lindas made an appearance, too.)

We never expected to become activists for public education or advocates for the historic neighborhood where my immigrant grandparents or in-laws, and now daughter, found a place. All of that has been amazing and unexpected, and we couldn’t have done it without everyone who has attended our shows, helped out, and supported the cause along the way. Thank you.

Right now, Castelar Elementary only goes up to fifth grade and Eloise is a fifth grader. Any bands out there want to play what could be the final Save Music in Chinatown show on Sunday, June 2? Anyone out there want you join us?  Nothing lasts forever, so check it out while you can.