You Can't Sing the Blues While Drinking Milk: The Autobiography of Little Annie AKA Annie "Anxiety" Bandez

by Little Annie, Annie Bandez

Little Annie AKA Annie "Anxiety" Bandez is one of rock and roll's survivors. Annie is a Musician, artist and writer. Her autobiography You Can't Sing The Blues While Drinking Milk is a first hand account of growing up on the street corners of New York, the birth of it's punk scene there and in London, her early experiences with addiction and hustling to her music career and collaborations with the likes of Bim Sherman, CRASS and Marc Almond.

Little Annie takes us on a seldom seen look at the life of a creative instigator, a tale without the retrospective gloss and censorship. Annie has explored her own version of the American Dream in a dark romance. A journey populated by junkies, pimps, criminals and drag queens in dive bars to anarchists, punks, musicians, artists in studios all over the world.

The book includes fowards by Lydia Lunch, David Tibet, David J, Antony Hegarty and Baby Dee.

Genres: Music

267 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2012

Reviews

[eLwYcKe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the closest I've ever felt (in book form) to someone sitting next to me and telling me the story of their life.
I've loved Little Annie, or Annie Anxiety as she was back then when I first heard 'Soul Possession'....and then a devotee after hearing 'Jackamo' one of the most underrated albums ever.
Here's her autobiography...it was a bit babble-y, a bit gossipy, wholly heartfelt by a holy fool furnishing us with some racy anecdotes, some amusing asides ,sad notes, happy times and fearful, frightful tribulations. I could hear that inimitable voice throughout and it was fabulous to be in her company.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book to start my 2015 reading too, Before this I was really it aware of Annie's involvement with CRASS the anarcho punk music/alternative media collective whose own origins are covered well in penny rimbauds my revolting life....CRASS form but a small part of this as Annie has crammed masses into her time on earth.
Musically she has surfed punk,disco,the avant garde and lounge type styling and the book reflects this and the collaborators she has worked along through these guises...as such it's a book heavy with personnel and sometimes I found it difficult to recall an individual who reappears later on in the book unless(as is the case with many anyhow) I was aware of their work before this book.
It's a book that although unflinching in looking at the darker tales in Annie's life(and as such reads as a very honest tome) is never bleak nor self pitying ..in fact the light and shade is perfect and I think leads to Annie being a well rounded figure as the book closes.
I have little of Annie's work though had some awareness of her before this book via the works of David Tibet who is one of many who adds an introduction to this book...however there is little doubt I will make up for this now and seek out some of the music.
The chronological life ends at 2000 and I suspect the last 15 years have added more to this tale as Annie is still creating.

[REO Bookwagon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased the ebook for my Kindle last week. Very interesting in the beginning, especially Little Annie's school years & time performing/touring with the English anarchist-punk band CRASS but my interest wasn't held towards the book's finish line. The chronology gets a bit hazy, as Annie explains, due to her alcohol blackouts and drug (speed, heroin) use. In my humble opinion, the first half of Annie's life seems more interesting than the second half.