Little Annie

About the only thing that stays unchanged for New Yorker Annie Bandez as she bounces between mediums with a restless creative drive is the name Annie. Also known as Annie Anxiety and most recently as Little Annie, Bandez is a painter, writer, dancer, spoken word artist, actor, and musician whose work embraces the avant-garde, hip-hop, rap, punk, electronica, reggae, and rock realms with uncanny ease and discernment. By the age of 16 she was fronting a ragged punk group in New York City called Annie & the Asexuals. A year later she left for a two-week visit to England and ended up staying 13 years. It all makes sense in the life of Annie, who somewhere in her actual and intellectual travels ended up being an ordained minister, as if she wasn't already wearing enough hats.

She's written three works of prose, is a prolific and successful painter, has appeared in numerous plays and films, and has musically collaborated with Paul Oakenfold, Kid Congo Powers, Bim Sherman, Coil, and many other artists. She has released several albums of her unique hybrid of post-punk, jungle, dub, hip-hop, and avant-garde, first as Annie Anxiety for 1984's Soul Possession and 1987's Jackamo (both on On-U Sound) and then as Little Annie for Short and Sweet (On-U Sound, 1992), Short, Sweet and Dread (On-U Sound, 1995), Diamonds Made of Glass (Streamline, 2001), Little Annie & the Legally Jammin' (Italic, 2003), and Songs from the Coalmine Canary (Durtro Jnana, 2006).