Short shorts New EPs from By Blood Alone and Pushing Zero BY SAM PFEIFLE

With the new affordability of CD duplication in recent years has come a number of developments in the local music scene. The pressure to get "signed" has lessened, as CDs can now be recorded on relatively cheap home software in the practice space, duplicated affordably, and be ready for independent release in no-time-flat. Who needs a label when $1500 gets you street product and the Internet gets you distribution? Taking this one step further is the renewed interest in the EP, that quaint idea of the "Extended Play" single: four or five songs, rather than a full-length 10 or so, which can serve as either a band’s introduction to fans looking for product to take home or as a tiding over for fans waiting between full-lengths.

Following their split with Universal, for instance, Jeremiah Freed released the Times Don’t Change EP, which kept them on the radar while they worked on their independent full-length follow-up, Slow Burn. More recently, Dead Season, a metal band from central Maine, quickly capitalized on a 2004 WTOS Battle of the Bands win by getting an EP to the masses while they continued work on a full-length album that should be released this summer.

In fact, Bull Moose’s local-music 10 best-selling albums (see "Top Ten," this page) has been recently littered and dominated by EPs. Animal Suit Driveby’s 110 Miles (#2), Twisted Roots’ The Seed (#9), and In the Arms of Providence’s Left My Voicebox in a Seaside Town (#9) are all short, compact, easily digestible nuggets of music that have been gobbled up by local-music consumers looking for affordable introductions to local bands (in the cases of ASD and ITAOP) or fixes for their jones (the Roots).

None of this would have been possible in the days where 1000 CDs cost $5000 or more. Now, you can get very short runs done for very short money. And, if you think about it, digital delivery makes small releases like these all the more likely. Hell, very soon you’ll be able to buy one song at a time from local artists’ Web sites if you so desire. You may even be able to walk into Bull Moose, dial up a song you want to purchase on available computers, plug in a credit card number, and burn your very own local mixtape right there in the store. Why not?

This week sees the release of two more of these EPs, By Blood Alone’s self-titled four-song EP and Pushing Zero’s five-song Rite of Passage. Both are of the introduction variety, though PZ had an EP, The Chosen, out last year as well. Since they’re a northern band just trying to really break into Portland and southern New England, however, Zero are still holding off on the big full-length splash. The wait could also still be monetarily related in their case: They don’t scrimp on the recording, that’s for sure. They recorded and mixed with Jon Wyman over at Big Sound, then had Adam Ayan at Gateway polishing things up in the mastering process. Professional recording and mastering may have become slightly more affordable, but it hasn’t seen the significant drop that duplication has. In this era of increasing digital distribution, some reports to me from local bands have duplicators virtually begging old clients to come back and put out more hard copies.

I don’t think duplicators have anything to worry about in the short term, however. Nothing keeps you top of mind with a young fan better than throwing free discs to the crowd, and more-established bands won’t stop wanting to have something to sell at shows anytime soon.

By Blood Alone, playing a release show at Geno’s this Saturday, July 16, are certain to have a merch table set up. They’ve been building buzz toward this release for months and you should expect a seriously tight set to kick this disc off. The four songs on the EP might not be exactly what you were expecting, however. By the look and name of them, By Blood Alone project a pretty heavy disposition, but the four songs here are loaded with pop elements and other points of accessibility for the non-goth listener.

The disc is dominated, especially, by vampy, repeating riffs culled from a spacey keyboard and slightly dirty guitar, which you’ll hear right away on the opening "Every Night." Lead vocalist Cruella starts things with a somewhat monotone delivery — "in my dreams, we have to run — treading in Dungeons and Dragons–style mythic lyrics about fighting for your life and being on the run. Sure, it’s dark.

But the chorus gets downright cheery when she drops the monotone for a singalongable strain that’s backed by major chords and then followed by a good ripping guitar solo at the three-minute mark. That hair metal element is countered for good measure in "Eternally," by an extended guitar jam that could easily fit in on one of the more grimy Widespread Panic discs. And "Deny Yourself," which starts off wondering "what happens when the wind stops blowing" features Cruella’s voice at its sweetest, not quite as emotive as on other tunes, but clearer and more inviting.

The product as a whole might remind you of what the B-52s would sound like if they penned an album right after all their dogs died in a freak electrical storm.

Pushing Zero, whose disc is available through their finely polished Web site, www.pushingzero.com, have a solid marketing campaign in the works as well, and they’ve taken great care with the look and feel of their product. They deliver pretty much what you might expect: hyper-technical musicianship creating some heavy rock influenced by the grunge era.

"It’s a long way down when you’re in love" sings frontman George Skala (remember Bim Skala Bim? They played a New Year’s Eve gig at the old Basement in 1999? Anyway, no relation) on the opening "Long Way Down." That should give you a flavor of the lyrical content — pretty standard rock fare. And Skala’s delivery, though in the opener mirrored by the guitar riff nicely, moves around a lot. Sometimes you get high and breathy, sometimes Chris Cornell growling, sometimes just his normal singing voice (which is best, as on the beginning of "Don’t Let Me Down," where it’s crystal clear). The semi-political "Wage War" gets closest to intellectually engaging, but stays too subtle.

The musicianship, however, stays well above-average. The rhythm section is rock-solid, anchored by bassist Andrew Pelczar, and guitarist Adam Hauk gets off some kicking guitar licks all over the place, rapid and tight. Both "Long Way Down" and "Satellite" should satisfy metalhead guitar geeks nicely.

All in all, the five-song offering comes off a bit like Audioslave covering Black Crowes tunes, which isn’t all that bad an idea, really.

Sam Pfeifle can be reached at spfeifle@phx.com