If this new single and video don’t win an ARIA, we genuinely don’t know what will.
Girl and Girl have never exactly shied away from life’s darker corners, but their latest single finally cuts through the metaphor.
It’s called ‘It’s Dead’, and, as frontman Kai James puts it, they figured it was time to “just come out and say it.”
The Queensland garage-rock favourites have returned with two new tracks, ‘It’s Dead’ and companion release ‘Hell’, giving fans another dose of the band’s cathartic, chaotic brand of post-punk before they hit the East Coast this July and August.
Recorded with producer Jasper (Bones and Jones) inside his famously unconventional meat fridge studio in Ocean Grove, ‘It’s Dead’ was born from a weekend that sounds almost as memorable as the song itself.
Band members camped outside the studio, woke up for swims in the ocean and estuary, survived a brutal summer storm, and somehow still found time for guitarist Seb to complete an entire 1,000-piece puzzle between recording takes.
For James, though, the song only clicked after abandoning its original direction.
“It was originally a very different song… maybe even something joyful,” he says. “But once I began to pull at the thread of death and destruction, it all just poured out.”
That tension between destruction and creativity has always sat at the heart of Girl and Girl’s songwriting. James describes writing songs as something closer to dreaming than deliberate composition, where ideas surface before he fully understands them himself.
“Sometimes it feels good to destroy yourself in art,” he says. “I guess it’s better than doing it in real life.”
The accompanying video, directed by Alexandros Kalas, leans fully into that chaos. Packed with practical effects, fake blood and an all-out brawl, it matches the song’s relentless energy without taking itself too seriously.
The new singles continue an impressive run for the Brisbane four-piece. Since forming in 2020, Girl and Girl have built an international following through relentless touring and explosive live shows. Their 2024 debut album Call A Doctor, released through Sub Pop, earned praise from critics around the world, spending 12 weeks inside the US Submodern Alt Specialty chart’s Top 10 while collecting support from NME, Rolling Stone, BBC 6 Music and beyond.
They’ve since taken their sweat-soaked live show across Europe and North America, played standout sets at SXSW, Laneway Festival, Reeperbahn, Pitchfork Music Festival and The Great Escape, and shared stages with the likes of Dry Cleaning, Blondshell and Naked Giants.
Now they’re bringing the new material home.
The East Coast run kicks off in Coolangatta before winding through Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Byron Bay and the Gold Coast, giving fans their first chance to hear ‘It’s Dead’ and ‘Hell’ live.
Girl and Girl East Coast Tour 2026
- Friday 17 July — Inner Relm Party, Coolangatta Hotel, Coolangatta
- Saturday 18 July — Beatnicks Records (Instore), Gold Coast
- Saturday 25 July — Junk Bar (All Ages), Brisbane
- Saturday 25 July — Junk Bar (18+), Brisbane
- Friday 31 July — Northies, Cronulla, Sydney
- Saturday 1 August — The Curtain, Melbourne
- Friday 7 August — Byron Arts Factory, Byron Bay
- Saturday 8 August — Super Secret Block Party, Gold Coast
Tickets are on sale now. ‘It’s Dead’ and ‘Hell’ are both out now.
