The Linda Lindas Honor a Friendly, Ferocious Cat on New Song ‘Nino’

Teen punks the Linda Lindas are back with a new song that pays tribute to a very good cat, “Nino.” The song is expected to appear on the Linda Lindas’ next studio release, which will arrive in 2022.

The track is a sub-two-minute ripper that descends briefly into a clever psych-tinged breakdown. “Gentlemen by day/Hunter by night,” Bella Salazar sings of the titular beast, “Friendliest cat you’ll meet/Will protect you with all his might.”

“Nino” also helped balance the scales and set things right in Salazar’s home after she paid tribute to her other cat, a Siamese named Monica, on the Linda Lindas’ 2020 self-titled EP. The band also added of the song in a statement, “If you listen carefully there is a real-life, remarkably talented cat named Lil Dude playing piano on it. (We have the footage!) Enjoy!”

While the Linda Lindas have been kicking around for a few years now — even opening for Bikini Kill in 2019 — the group went viral in May with a video of them performing their song, “Racist, Sexist Boy.” The band inked a record deal with Epitaph soon after. 

Since issuing their self-titled EP last year, the Linda Lindas have released a handful of one-off singles including “Oh!” — which dropped in July and was featured on the Netflix show The Chair — and “Moxie,” which arrived in March and was made for the Amy Poehler-directed film of the same name.