Life Without Buildings was one of those influential bands that came out of the Glasgow School of Art. While they never made it as big as Franz Ferdinand they definitely left an imprint on the independent scene of the early 00s. Despite there being almost no online record of the band, a few diehard fans have maintained the impeccably named group Life Without Life Without Buildings. The first time I heard them was on a mixtape from a friend, that held the live version of “New Town”.
That track is from their live album, which was their second and last release – recorded in Sydney, where they also had a strong following. Below is a clip created by their label mates on Trifekta, Sodastream, who were also popular in Scotland. Trifekta later become home to Architecture In Helsinki, who approached a similarly lackadaisical approach. Also on Trifekta were The Go-Betweens and Minimum Chips. Life Without Buildings were hugely influential to later post-punk bands, such as Shrag but also current bands like Drahla from the US or Lexicon from Australia. Way before they became famous on Tiktok thanks to Beadadobee. My mate Björn Sandberg wrote an interesting piece on that, well worth a read.
Just over 20 years since the original release on Tugboat, Rough Trade are reissuing the classic album Any Other City on vinyl next month.
