One-Eyed Doll

MEET ONE-EYED DOLL:
One-Eyed Doll is the Austin, TX based power-rock-duo led by guitarist and singer Kimberly Freeman. Kimberly's wild stage antics and quirky humor have granted her generous recognition in the world's live music capital, and now a growing street team is vandalizing the planet with her message of rock.
The duo is backed by drummer and thespian, PJ Evans: AKA NUMBER 3. 3 joined shortly after the production of the January 2007 release, "Hole" after two years of being the band's 1 fan and roadie. The prolific actor and precise drummer has turned out to be a fresh addition to the project and doesn't seem to mind Kimberly's make-up jobs and jump-kick drum-dives.
One-Eyed Doll is based in Austin, Texas and has been playing in various forms for thousands of years.
LIVE REVIEW:
"In live performance, Kimberly Freeman of One-Eyed Doll, combines the rock-star bravado of a Jack White (or Jack Black) with the visual impact of a Japanese Anime... a super heroine that's alternately fierce, outrageous, vulnerable and sweet. Dressed like a punk-metal baby doll, she punctuates her raging guitar work with a a three-foot mane of hair she whips and flails about rhythmically, mesmerizing the audience with displays of physical agility that literally burst the confines of the stage. And similar to the White Stripes or Black Keys, she is accompanied by a lone drummer... If you haven't seen them, what are you waiting for?!" Marsha Mann,
INSITE MAGAZINE
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ALBUM REVIEW:
Singing, songwriting, guitar-weilding punk doll Kimberly Freeman is the creator of this super-charged anime-style rock due, screeching out nursery rhymes and cooing evil phrases throughout an energizing, forceful album of precocious ditties like, "Scapegoat" and the creepy, "Meth Monster". Her belted-out ferocity and fabulous looks remind me of Dominique of Stolen Babies, but the music's less self-conscious , more ballsy Pixies meets Siouxsie meets Hole. Austin's One-Eyed Doll is captivating, wild and never predictable, the way indie rock should be.
Celine: 6.2007
SENTIMENTALIST MAGAZINE (NY)
ALBUM REVIEW:
"One-Eyed Doll is dirty, corrupt, and dangerously sweet. Her dark heavy rock tantalizes heavy metal fans and grants entrance to the mainstream with bustling popular harmonies.
Adorned with humungous guitar riffs and Kimberly Freeman's sugared girlish voice, the debut album Hole will send you into a fit of pleasurable desolation.
One-Eyed Doll doesn't hesitate to reveal what's on her mind. Her candied voice praises suicide and Prozac, and sends and ode to needles in a mental hospital. To contrast the disturbed images of desperation, One-Eyed Doll also stands strong for what she believes. She won't tolerate players, abuse, or hypocritical America.
Freeman stands strong against an ex in "Scapegoat." The track is introduced with a plucking guitar progression. The drums slide into the background as the track oscillates between slow composure and raging intolerance. "And I'm not your scapegoat, / And I'm not your punching bag, / And I won't be sorry, / Cause I'm the best thing that you'll never have," Freeman fumes. "Scapegoat" has all the elements of the sweet and anti-authoritarian Avril Lavigne at her best. Only Kimberly Freeman takes on this role naturally, while it seems Avril has to strive to achieve the disaffected image.
The assailing side of One-Eyed Doll attacks listeners with "Suicide Serenade." We become acquainted to this track with the first four notes of the "Star Spangled Banner." Just as a singer might say "see," the guitars scream with fierce anger before coming to a close. Then a pop beat combines with Freeman's sweetest voice to bop a repetition of "Happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy America!" The track quickly teeters back to harsh metal and descriptions of people falling to their graves.
"Master" broadcasts the artsy side of Kimberly Freeman's work. The subtle track holds an aura of slow paced surrealism. A sample of laughing and screaming kids quietly decorates the track as the simple track radiates with raw beauty.
The quirky side of One-Eyed Monster reveals itself in "Hoochie Mama." Scott Sutton, who appears as a frequent guest throughout Hole, shines on the drums during this track. Sutton slams the percussion while changing tempo and rhythm. Freeman's intelligent and playful lyrics refuse to allow a seedy man to think he has a chance with her. "You think it should be easy to get in my pants. Well it took me five minutes to put these things on, I can hardly breathe let alone be turned on," Freeman seethes. "And I don't want to hear your new death metal riff," she adds to drive home her disinterest.
Disturbing yet wonderfully addictive, One-Eyed Doll proves that Kimberly Freeman is the foul, daring girl that every man wants but won't necessarily get. The Austin-based artist may not allow men control to control her, and she's certainly not taking anybody's foolishness. One-Eyed Doll would prefer control your emotions with her hook laden tracks, incredible voice, and diverse range."
Lauren Proctor, 5.2007
JUST PRESS PLAY MAGAZINE
ALBUM REVIEW:
This uniquely heavy/sweet rock band is predominantly the brainchild of Austin vocalist/guitarist Kimberly Freeman. Between her metalesque guitar assault, sweet-toned yet fierce voice, danger-laden lyrics, and eclectic make-up, Freeman directs the band persona to something like heavy rock Japanese anime. Among the best moments, “Scapegoat” twists nicely between arch-pop verse and full-bore rock chorus, “Hoochie Mama” jerks a knot in guys who think with their groin (“You think it should be easy to get in my pants/Well it took five minutes to pull these things on/I can hardly breathe let alone be turned on”), and the galloping “Nudie Bar” is a plot for revenge against the boyfriend-stealing establishment (propane tanks are involved). One-Eyed Doll can sound straight ahead yet provocative as on “Black Forest” or archly dark as on “Recipe 4 Success” and “Suicidal Serenade.” For nearly an hour’s worth of hard rockin’ crunch at around $10 on CD Baby, it’s hard to go wrong with this quite interesting disc.
Don Thomason, 5.2007
THE AMPLIFIER MAGAZINE
LIVE REVIEW
"I just wanna say that I had the greatest musical experience of my life last night. Maybe even better than seeing Rancid live. Out of pure happenstance, because they were playing at the Zombie Party at Red Blood Club in Dallas, I saw a two-man band called "One Eyed Doll" And I am now in love.
From the very first power chord, she set off on a manic rampage across the stage. Kicking people, pulling men down onto the ground by their shirts and standing on their backs while playing, spitting, sitting subdued on the stage looking like she was about to cry, jumping over the drum set, and even jumping off stage to curl up on the floor in what I can only describe as a rock-gasm.
If you like punk, or angry chick rock, or good soulful writing, or amazing live performers with charismatic stage presence, then meet me in at the Rockyard in Fort Worth on the 19th at around 7. I'll buy beer. I was so moved by the lead singers performance that I crawled up on stage after the show just to tell her that I loved her work and help her carry an amp. We got to talking and I mentioned that I wished I could by a CD, but I didn't have any money, so instead I gave her a comic as a gift. She Gave me a CD anyways, and then asked me to sign the comic for her.
I've got more grownup stuff that is significantly less awesome to deal with, but its all good, because for the moment I have my new trifecta of happiness:
Zombies, Comics, and Rock and Roll"
- E. Scott Rivera
Author of "Mind City"
ALBUM REVIEW:
Somewhere in Texas there is a storm brewing. Fuelled by discontent with life, the storm manifests itself in all sorts of ways and some of them are musical. If you want an example of this, try this album from the band One Eyed Doll.
With titles like "Meth Monster" and "Nudie Bar", this is not likely to be a collection of wholesome Christian tunes. Taking "Nudie Bar" first, Bluesbunny pauses to wonder why they always play Tina Turner tunes in such places. Maybe things are different in Texas. Or maybe the nudie bars in Texas are staffed by female vampires. It would be worth a field trip to find out and this song is a hardcore rockfest with the sort of homicidal tendencies that reminded us of the Meteors. "Meth Monster" comes across like hippie poetry gone evil with the sugary sweet vocals counterpointed with that trademark death metal riff. "Hoochie Mama" should be licensed by that boy Tarantino to liven up the soundtrack of his next movie as Kimberly Freeman snarls "… if I wanted a caveman". God knows the boy needs some help in his selection of feminist anthems. We took a special liking to "Recipe 4 Success" with its throwaway fifties novelty pop feel were not for those rather worrying lyrics. Wholesome it is not as we are urged not to make friends with our food as"… that makes it harder when you kill them". I don't think we shall see this one performed on American Idol.
Loud, dark and twisted really sums this album up. It is like Rodgers and Hammerstein writing a musical of a Grimms Brothers fairy tale after developing a crystal meth habit. Musically, it is let down by an over reliance on standard death metal riffs but lyrically it is a gothic gem. Admittedly, the natural home for this album will turn out to be inside a '57 Chevy with blacked out windows but it is well worth tuning your ears to its particular frequency on the home hifi. Failing that, turn the volume right up and annoy the neighbours. Satisfaction guaranteed.
Bluesbunny UK 2.05.2008
ALBUM REVIEW:
One-Eyed Doll is not just another Texas-based power-rock duo that sounds much bigger than its headcount. Fans of The Blackhearts, Siouxsie and The Banshees, Missing Persons, and similar outfits may be pleasantly surprised by what’s on this Austin-based band’s latest, Hole.
Except for some occasional overdubs, the album is a live studio recording. Frontwoman Kimberly Freeman’s more-sweet-than-sinister vocals and her impressive metal-tinged fretwork are buoyed by a scorching rhythm section, also known as Scott Sutton.
The album’s tone is encapsulated in the first track, “Suicidal Serenade,” the most creatively acrobatic of the baker’s dozen of tracks here. The brief homage to Jimi Hendrix’s guitar-based national anthem in the intro hints at the irreverence to come. Freeman, a kind of female version of The Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra, nails her vocal performance.
Her lyrics are laced with darkness, mostly humorous, and often empowering in a Riot Grrrl kind of way. Check out “Scapegoat,” in which the singer finally declares her independence from an abusive beau, and also “Black Forest,” a rather thematic approach but one that is more Tuscadero than Sleater-Kinney. Although Freeman’s voice is good, signature flourishes — like the tremolo effects on “Meth Monster” and “Hoochie Mama” — lend it a unique quality. A problem is that sometimes her stylistic flights are buried in the production or a little too hesitant in contrast to specific arrangements or the overall style of the songs. That said, there are plenty of moments on Hole when the unadorned, sweet, jewel-toned purity of her voice is simply dead-on, as on the dirge-like ballad “Master.”
With a few tweaks, One-Eyed Doll could easily go Big Time, mainly because of Freeman, a model-beautiful, charismatic, semi-darkwave frontwoman who has the ability to shred mercilessly and has a decidedly kick-ass voice, and also because of the novelty of a one-man rhythm section. The overhead costs for supporting a two-person band are probably not all that much, but the demands of pulling off the songs on Hole in a live setting warrant hazard pay.
Tom Urquhart, 9.2007
Fort Worth Weekly
ALBUM REVIEW:
Let's clear the air right away: this is a (capital R) Rock album. The band has a wonderfully theatrical style, but they are a rock band. A kick ass rock band.
This Austin, TX twosome knows their chops and, in the grand tradition of rock, plunder from a wide variety of sources: 70s thunder rock, both 80s glam *and* 80s metal, pummeling 90s alt rock... but there are also beautiful moving moments here (especially "Master"). It's not just the "hard" side of rock they explore.
Singer/guitar player Kimberly Freeman has the skills with her guitar and her voice to be lovely/sweet and snarly/vicious by turns. But the real trick is that she knows *when* to be one or the other. Together with drummer/bassist, she knows how to sooth us and just when we feel comfortable One Eyed Doll hammers us into the ground. Compare the accessible melodic hard rock of "Scapegoat" to the sledgehammer attack of "Black Forest". Yet the lyrical themes of the songs are the reverse of what you might expect. "Scapegoat" deals with the angry issue (being treated bad by ex-boyfriends) and "Black Forest" is about a "light" issue, Kimberly's love of the forest.
A good chunk of rock music has always been about relationships and the opposite sex. "Hole" has several such numbers: the already mentioned "Scapegoat" and the back-to-back attack of "Hootchie Mama" and "Nudie Bar". As Freeman makes clear in these songs if you're expecting some coquettish rock/sex kitten you've come to the wrong place. This album is about in-your-face attitude, not about coy come ons.
This recording isn't a catalogue of human wreckage. If you're hoping for a CD of a woman recounting the trauma of her life, move along. This is not about getting your voyeuristic thrills on someone else's suffering. This collection is about strength and pride.
But "Hole" isn't dull and serious, it's frequently hilarious (again check out "Hootchie Mama" and "Nudie Bar"). There's also "Suicidal Serenade" with it's attack on blind patriotism and the goofy fun of "I *heart* my Little Bus" and "Recipe 4 Success". Regardless of the topic tackled the music matches it with complexity and style. A number of styles.
There's no Svengali behind this band, just two talented folks who know when to beguile and when to bludgeon. Great rock isn't dead, it's just not on the TV or radio.
Now if we could just get them to Seattle to share a bill with Schoolyard Heroes.
2.20.2008
Sepiachord
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