Sometimes when a band has two songwriters, the initial burst of wonderful creativity is followed by an ignominious rift over ego clashes or creative differences -- just look at Lennon and McCartney, or Crosby and Young. But nascent Pittsburgh indie-popsters Mariage Blanc (who only started last fall) hope to exploit that interactive tension to their advantage.

"Mat [Ceraso] and I had both just graduated from Pitt," recalls Mariage co-frontman Josh Kretzmer, "and we were hanging around at Uncle Jimmy's in Oakland kicking around the idea of a band. We knew each other through mutual friends, and we were both writing songs, but we couldn't get bands together on our own. So we decided to do a split [release], but as we got more and more input on each other's songwriting, we said what's the point, we'll just form a band with two songwriters."

Mariage Blanc (not necessarily a nod to Billy Idol, although it means "white wedding") grew gradually in size, adding roommate Joshua Dotson on bass, drummer Jeff Ryan (brother of local songwriter Chris Ryan), and skilled keyboardist Sam McUmber, who until recently was also a member of party-jammers Hood Gang.

"We picked up Sam from the Mr. Roboto [Project] covers show," says Kretzmer. "I saw him in the Deep Purple cover band playing with the guys from Modey Lemon, and was blown away by his organ playing."

After months of steady gigging, a CD release titled "Mariage Blanc's Broken Record" finally comes out Saturday. Although it only contains seven songs, the album is an intimate-sounding work lushly produced with equal gusto both at Polish Hill's Machine Age Studios and in Kretzmer's own basement.

"We really made an intentional effort to keep the disc kind of quiet," he says. "It was difficult to force ourselves not to compress everything, turn everything up, and screw up the dynamic range. So the CD is a lot more mellow than many commercial CDs, but the loud parts are loud and the quiet parts are quiet. A lot of people who hear it notice that, because they're so used to hearing so much compressed music on the radio."

Another thing that "Broken Record" listeners will pick out are the arrangements, from clever chord progressions to the use of Wurlitzer, trumpet, Mellotron samples ("Sunken Ship"), and even a string section ("Famous Last Words") to create a full studio sound reminiscent of both '60s pop (Beatles, Zombies) and '70s production bombast (Electric Light Orchestra). Although Kretzmer claims that the '70s influence is more indirect through the impact of more modern-era bands like Wilco, later Elliott Smith, Of Montreal and Belle & Sebastian.

And what about Sufjan Stevens? "We appreciate him as someone who can arrange a good tune, although I think he makes a better producer and arranger than a songwriter."

According to Kretzmer, Ryan left the band to be replaced by Incommunicado drummer Chris Williams. But both McUmber and guest violinist/violist Jim Walton contributed quite mightily to the album's sonic success. "Sam has a piano degree from CMU, while Matt and I aren't trained musicians, but we dabble in a little theory."

Although Kretzmer and Dotson also profess a love for shoegaze bands and the latest iteration of post-rockers (they went on a road trip to catch the My Bloody Valentine tour), that doesn't show up so much in the band's music. "Broken Record" displays the kind of lovingly crafted, straightforward indie-pop that should have no problem settling down on WYEP alongside the likes of Triggers and Lohio -- especially the rotation-ready "Oh, The Humanity!" with its singalong chorus -- without offending college-radio sensibilities (they'll be appearing on WRCT's "Advanced Calculus" show on Nov. 17, and also have a WPTS on-air appearance slotted).

With an album whose arch chamber-pop sheen rivals possibly only CMU alumnus and Sufjan acolyte Steve Goldberg & The Arch Enemies (a neglected Pittsburgh gem, to be sure) what are the realistic prospects for recreating such a complex sound in a live setting? Kretzmer admits that you'll get a different experience. "Well, a lot of the string parts will be covered by guitar parts that aren't on the record, and with some of the songs, the trumpet and other arrangements are different for live than in the studio. Yes, it's an issue with us not having string players, but it's also fun for us to play the songs differently than we've been hearing them for the past few months."