Empire Machines is Austin indie that came in fourth in our 2012 Best of Austin reader’s poll, and it looks like they’re preparing to put a new EP into the world early this year. To get the word out, they’ve released a fresh-out-of-the-oven single, "The Plan," which has a distinct British-rock sound that we quite dig.
In fact, "The Plan" almost sounds like The Beatles doing Bloc Party, coming in on a big toms beat and then dropping some foggy-night appropriate rhythm guitar as (what I assume is) lead singer Matt Blackwell does his best to convince me that John Lennon had another son who got his voice. It’s pure indie rock that actually does focus on the rock part, with distorted guitars featuring prominently, and it’s a sign that this band that released their last EP back in 2011 has matured their sound nicely in the in-between years. Look for Empire Machines to put out the full EP soon, and in the meantime, get at a quality Austin indie track (that makes for quite good driving music, if I do say so) with the player below.