(tin angel records, cleveland / new york)

get ready for two of the ultimate divas:

finally, LITTLE ANNIE and her dearest friend, the extravagant singer and pianist BABY DEE, have been able to document their long-running collaboration with an album: STATE OF GRACE is featuring the matchless BONNIE „PRINCE“ BILLY and has been released on the UK's TIN ANGEL RECORDS in fall 2012. LITTLE ANNIE's autobiography YOU CAN'T SING THE BLUES WHILE DRINKING MILK is out now, too. for anyone interest in POSTPUNK and all sorts of subcultural things this is a read not to miss!

growing up in late 1970s NEW YORK, ANNIE BANDES-O'CONNOR lived a funky and dangerous teenage life. she was the singer of the atonal dance-punk band ANNIE AND THE ASEXUALS then, "screaming about thorazine and being in mental hospital“ (FRANK ZAPPA). later on she moved to the UK and teamed up with the adventurous polit-punk collective CRASS as well as the pioneers of electronic music, COIL. later on she became a regular on producer ADRIAN SHERWOOD's influential ON-U SOUND imprint - undoubtedly one of UK's important independent labels, fusing dub, spoken word and post-punk to a respected experimental hybrid. like BABY DEE, ANNIE has worked with CURRENT 93 and ANTONY HEGARTY. while the last 10 years she extensively recorded with composer / pianist PAUL WALLFISCH, developing her completely own balladic and jazzy cabaret singing style.

BABY DEE has an equally wild and vivid biography. born in CLEVELAND in the 1950s, she moved to NEW YORK in the early 1970s, worked as a choir leader and music teacher at a catholic church in the BRONX, to later join the CONEY ISLAND SIDESHOW CIRCUS. eventually she rode through the city on a rebuilt tricycle with a harp mounted in front of it. to establish her own tree-cutting business she returned to CLEVELAND, but now fully concentrates on her musical career.