As I said yesterday, this week's song of the day theme is ladies whose voices make me shiver, quiver and in some cases, cower...

'PS Exclusive' by Life Without Buildings
If yesterday's choice made a few people feel old and others rather young, today's will make some people swell with indie-pride, whereas others of you may tilt your head quizzically like a big dog that's just sniffed hot chocolate. Life Without Buildings are a band from a parallel universe where Bjork is Madonna, dEUS are U2 and the Longpigs are Radiohead. Some call it a wishful 90s, others think of it as an indie gutter better left undead and alive in the hearts of the few.
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that I (and many of you, from the reoccurring threads) absolutely adore Life Without Buildings (ditto the above) but for reasons I'm not even sure I can explain or entirely comprehend. On the face of them they're an art-school angular punk rock band, not that far from the crossroads where math-rock meets jangular indie-pop Maximo Park (who're massive fans) but then that face has the head(s) of Sue Tomkins, an in-yer-face 'art-hole' (© CSS) who at times feels almost estranged from herself. Her lyrics are fractured glimpses of conversations between her inner monologues and lines which sound like they've been picked from the newspaper and diaries shredded on the floor of a gerbil cage, yet they cohere and cajole to genius effect.
Part of me wonders whether Life Without Buildings are one of the driving forces behind me starting DiS in the first place, because often I don't know why I spend hours and hours searching for music and I come back to bands as vital and affecting as this, and remember the ones who got away and imagine what might have happened if they never signed to Rough Trade.
Anyway, the Live at the Arrandale Hotel album is the only thing on Spotify and most of their albums are hard to get hold of. However, very few bands that would make my 'must own' list but LWB are a band I can't help recommending to people again and again as an example of the possibilities of (indie) music and alternative high watermarkers to the standard Roxy Music, Kate Bush, Bowie benchmarks. Won't someone please get them to reform for a Don't Look Back gig or give them the Moldy 'Juno' Peaches treatment? kthxbi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_Without_Buildings
Listen on Youtube if you don't have Spotify or want to hear the studio version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg1zI_P3iBM

Listen to DiS' Song of the Day Spotify playlist here: http://open.spotify.com/user/seaninsound/playlist/2X2pqoL4G7glBX4js6MU8K