London's Windmill scene needs to slow down. It feels like every damn day we learn about another exciting new band that comes out of this one club. Nobody can keep up! The latest band in that post-punk wave is Cusk, a gothy-grungy young duo who played their first show a few years ago. Naturally, that show was at the Windmill.
Cusk is the team of Esmé Creed-Miles and Evie Hilyer-Ziegler, two multi-instrumentalists who met at an improvisation night. They've been playing around London for a while, and now they've signed with the Bird Records, the new label that Black Country, New Road's Charlie Wayne co-founded. Cusk's debut single "Blue Tac Piano" is the label's second release. (The first was Ninush's The Flowers I See You In EP, which came out in February.)
"Blue Tac Piano" is a very impressive debut single. It's a heady churn with smoky, intense vocals that can't help but recall Courtney Love. But this isn't a retro-grungegaze situation. The vocals are scratchy, and the guitars are heavy, but the violins and pianos conjure a stormy Stevie Nicks-esque atmosphere. Check it out below.
