(Photo of Kay Kay and His Weather in 2009 by Andy Aupperlee / Explosion 5000 from the TIG Flickr pool)

The weekend is upon us... and boy have we earned it. Even though the festivities in Austin have stolen some of our local hotties, there's still plenty of music  (and sunshine in the forecast) to be had.

One of the many things going on tonight is BirthDIYfest at the Vera Project. The all ages show will feature BOAT, Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground, Feral Children, Kids and Animals, and the Nextdoor Neighbors and the venue will be filled with booths for local DIY organizations, artists, venues, record labels, and the like. A full roster of whosies with links is on the BirthDIYfest MySpace page. Also, rumor has it that there actually will be some actual birthdays celebrated there, another reason the space will be full of sweetness.

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at Jigsaw Records

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.

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It's that time of year again... SXSW is upon us! I wasn't able to gather the necessary resources to head down there myself, so I'm looking forward to spending the next four days living vicariously through all of you headed Austin-ways.  I know that your hands (and days) will likely be full of free stuff (beer) and running into your band heros, but keep the twitters and flickr feeds full with your adventures!

I must admit, to protect myself from getting too depressed about missing this year's fest, I haven't kept extremely close tabs on who is playing where and when and what gift bags will be circulating. But, I have found two things that I'm particularly sad to miss this year.  If anyone hits these events, definitely report back (heck, whatever you see, feel free to report in!):

• 1. The world premiere screening of the film Strange Powers – Stephin Merritt and the Magnetic Fields
• 2. The undeniable indie-pop fest going on at Waterloo Bicycles (so many bands I've wanted to see in one place!)
• 3. The special guest duets that sneak up on you... one in particular I've heard a rumor about is the teaming up of a Fratelli and Colin of Mull Historial Society. Billy Bragg is there this year and I *know* he's going to join someone on stage. I just know it!

May the YouTube powers be with everyone down there!

Needless to say, you SXSW-ers are going to have a great time. I guess I'll make up for all that I'll miss by looking back and trying to relive some of my favorite adventures of SXSWs past:

• 1. Matt & Kim interview, with legos and a dorky interviewer
• 2. Los Campesinos! interview, in a hot tub with an interviewer who shouldn't have worn a hoodie
• 3. Chasing down Running into Owen Wilson
• 4. The time Dana chased down ran into Amy Winehouse
• 5. Everything else I've seen / done at SXSW, especially the hootenanny

What are your favorite SXSW memories?

We're all at SXSW in our hearts!

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Wonderful World: This one played at SIFF last year, and I totally missed it. Matthew Broderick plays pessimist Ben Singer; divorced, jobless, and completely hopeless. When his roommate gets sick, hot sister Khadi arrives and shakes up Ben’s world. Sounds pretty formulaic, I know, but I’m interested.

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As with most weekends around SXSW time, the clubs were packed with music this weekend. What shows did you see?

Each night had a bunch of choices from Rocky Votolato, Laura Veirs, Mike Watt, The Big Pink, a Wooden Birds instore at Sonic Boom, and some Hollow Earth Radio fest action with Sir Richard Bishop... just to name a handful of the many options.

On Friday night, I found myself at Goldie's where some friends did a killer karaoke version of "Empire State of Mind" (totally YouTube-worthy) and on Saturday at the grand opening fun at Jigsaw Records (photos and recap coming soon) with performances by Math and Physics Club and D. Crane from BOAT.

And you? Add your photos to the TIG Flickr Photo Pool and tell us all about it!

(Rocky Votolato photo courtesy of Kirk Stauffer Photography)

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Music from The Big Pink was the 1968 album from The Band. Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell know this, as their band's website is musicfromthebigpink.com. Yet, The Big Pink, circa 2010 bears little resemblence to The Band of 1968, and sounds more like what might happen if My Bloody Valentine reveled in the mid-90s Blur/Oasis/Pulp Britpop scene, rather than precede it.

The Big Pink are a London-based, shoegaze duo who are playing (I believe) their first show in Seattle Friday night at Neumos. Their debut album is modestly called A Brief History of Love and it was released on 4AD last September. That's what Wikipedia will tell you about The Big Pink but what you really need to know is that the LA Times called what they (and tourmates A Place to Bury Strangers) do "kicking the bejesus out of your reverb unit."

{The Big Pink plays Neumos Friday, March 12 with A Place to Bury Strangers, io echo and Grave Babies; $15 adv, 21+.}

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Local movie house, Northwest Film Forum, will be screening the stunning Leonard Cohen Live at the Isle of Wight, 1970 film this weekend.

Due to poor planning, the festival itself quickly turned ugly and many of the artists were heckled and booed off of the stage. With things well on their way to chaos, Cohen was awoken in the middle of the night to perform his set. Ever charismatic, he instantly calmed down the audience and performed a mesmerizing set of songs from his first two albums (Songs of Leonard Cohen and Songs from a Room). He also performed a few songs from his next album (Songs of Love and Hate) that wouldn't be released for another year.

This Friday and Saturday, 03.12.2010 and 03.13.2010, you have the opportunity to see this concert documentary on the big screen. The show starts at 9:00 p.m. both evenings. As a massive fan of early Cohen material, I highly recommend it. Tickets are $6.00 for members and $9.00 for general public.