This Saturday Jigsaw Records opened it’s indie-pop doors to the public. The shop, located on the second floor of Resolution Audio in Ballard is a wee place full of indie-pop rarities that make my heart beat triple-time. No matter what your favorite indie-pop format, I am fairly certain you can find whatever is on your ebay seach list here (or owner guy Chris could connect with the record label to find a copy). There are scads of new and used cds (even 3-inch cds), delectable vinyl selections, cassette tapes (yep!), and even badges and zines to round out your packed indie canvas bag.

For the meek among us, the store might seem a bit intimidating to find. It is set in the far northeast corner of the antique-mall style second floor of the fancy audio shop. Once you make it through the downstairs shop to the carpeted stairs in the far back, pass the heavy metal / death metal record store, head straight back to Jigsaw where Chris will most likely greet you with open arms full of sweet jangly pop.

The best and most dangerous part? All of that rare and out of print stuff isn’t priced as such. As our coolest Finest Kiss friend put it, the stuff is set at “90’s prices.”

Saturday night’s show spotlighted the Seattle talent that fits right into Jigsaw’s mission statement of featuring “indiepop, power pop, indie rock, lo-fi pop, twee, and pretty much any other kind of fun pop music that we fancy” with performances by Math & Physics Club and D. Crane of BOAT. It was MAPC’s first appearance in two years and a very rare solo set by D. Crane of BOAT.

Math & Physics Club took the mic at the stroke of 7p and ran through a 25 minute set of songs from their first album and previewed a couple selections from their new album, set for release in late May / early June. The new songs were a next step from the older ones, with more pronounced vocals and percussion while keeping their signature sweet and coy lyrical stance. With a 7p all ages show, came the cute gaggle of wee ones running about,  which perfectly synced up with the lo-fi indie-softness of the carpeted venue.

D. Crane took the stage and promptly handed out face masks for audience members to don during set. As a fellow who prefers to play in a band with friends, he dressed up audience members to stand in as band members in the likes of characters from Law & Order. My favorite was Ice-T.

He went through a set of a few songs from the recent Setting the Paces album and one made up on the spot from audience member suggestions (full set list on the BOAT website). The audience-inspired song, “Ten Tons of Tomato Paste,” was a delightful off the cuff tribute to home cooking. Dave even whipped out the ukulele for us (video) for a couple songs.

The wonderful topper to the evening of cheap indie-pop? I came home with an import comp of indie-pop bands doing Sound of Music covers (BMX Bandits doing “Eidelweiss”!), an ultra rare out of print Suburban Kids with Biblical Names 7“, and a 12” record recommended to me by both Keenan and Chris Mac by the band Good Luck. Score!

An added note to those who want to clean out their indie-pop records before stocking back up? Jigsaw is currently acquiring stock for the store and mailorder. Per shopowner Chris:

If you’re interested in having us carry your records, cds, cassettes, handmade cd-rs or whatever, please send us a note! We’ll take music from any label or band, big or small, but we are still pretty selective about what we accept. To get a feel for what we’re about music-wise, check out our other site, IndiePages.