na: life without buildings

Today I go all mushy for two fantastic UK bands: Life Without Buildings and the Answering Machine.

Life Without Buildings, Live at the Annandale Hotel: If I were magically given the powers to make everyone I know get into a band (outside of Tazer, the Affair and Day for Night), Glasgow’s Life Without Buildings would be near the top of my list.

Life Without Buildings broke up five years ago after releasing one absolutely spectacular record, Any Other City, that is nearly impossible to find. It’s an extraordinarily airy post-punk record, with open, jangly guitars, the drums and bass more insistent than urgent and Sue Tompkins’ iconic vocals chatty and manic. (For more on Tompkins, head here.) The entire record had an accidental feeling, like maybe this isn’t what they set out to sound like but here they are in their honest, naked glory. Judging by the band’s swift demise, this might not be all that off.

eMusic doesn’t have Any Other City — indeed, no digital music service that I checked seemed to — but today we did get Life at the Annandale Hotel, a live album recorded in Sydney, Australia (as to when, I have no idea). It is stupendous, incredible, insert embarrassingly-hyperbolic-but-totally-true adjective here. And definitely start with the end: “New Town” is as life-affirming a song/performance as you will ever here. I’m just sitting here shaking my head at how amazing this all is. I can’t recommend it more highly.

The Answering Machine, Silent Hotels: Previously raved about on 17 Dots here, the Answering Machine are a young UK band who are clearly poised for The Good Life, or at the very least an NME cover or two. Clearly from the Strokes school of modern retro-rock, they have great arrangements and even better songs, coy and snide in that “Yeah I’m young and a Brit” kinda way. “Silent Hotels” is their second single, and it’s phenomenal: spacious, urgent and somehow relaxed, too. “It’s Over! It’s Over! It’s Over!” is also very strong, although “The Information” is a bit rubbish. My pick for the breakout band at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.