Eagle & Talon

Thracian (Eagle & Talon)

By Erin Wolf
Published: June 24th, 2009 | 7:00am

So the '90s are supposedly making a comeback. If this is true, then Eagle & Talon are the duo of drum majorettes leading the next wave of '90s post-punk pop across the playing field. Tacking campy elements of jazz band from their high school days, these two California transplants (Kim Talon is from Canada and Alice Talon is from Cleveland) throw random saxophone noodling into sparse and haphazard noise drums and guitar, stacked with creepy cartoonish chords.

Even with all these elements of mish-mosh, it seems to gel — producing a definitively unpolished sound that wants to be compared to Sleater-Kinney, but moreso recalls their offshoot project, Cadallaca. To sit and compare Eagle & Talon to other bands in this realm (like Casual Dots and Helium) would be fine, but Alice and Kim bring enough of their own to the table. Their oddball lyricism and casual perceptiveness gives them an air of confidence that is not necessarily riot grrrl as it is tongue-in-cheek.

On “Moisturizer (Wheat Calls)” Alice sings, “My face is itchy all the time,” while a Casio keyboard plugs out a funeral-like ode over disco drums. “Ice Life” finds Kim singing, “I am the snowman / I am the abominable snowman / My body is big and white / I’m gonna freeze you like hell freezing over," while Alice chimes in with her two cents on SATs and ACTs. Secrets at a slumber party, bad dance moves at a geek dance-a-thon, and a whole lot of "I don’t give a damn" run rampant through Eagle & Talon’s short song-blasts. Guitarist and main crooner Kim’s thin, clear voice sounds especially lovely on the mellower numbers, such as “We Were Figs,” while Alice amps up the snotty nature of the poppier songs with her speak-sing voice as she quirks it up on keys and skins. The two together on vocals are an offbeat pair of singing sidekicks if there ever were any — but that’s the heart of the appeal.

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