Competitions amongst bands always bring us back to our childhood days of attending battle of bands contest at our high school. Oh, the memories that come with that sentence are endless.

Rolling Stone has been bringing us back to those days with their competition, “Choose The Cover” contest, which is now down to four bands. A fan favorite has been the Chicago four-piece, Empires. The group will embark on a national headlining tour beginning June 15th and play a hometown show on May 21st.

Before you commit to any of their tour dates, which we advise you should, we will fill you in on Empires’ eclectic sound. As you can already guess, their music is catchy, but within the memorable beats is an innovative sound that we have a hard time putting our finger on. So, here it goes. Empires has that alternative rock vibe, but they also exude a folkloric sound. The two genres are able to blend impeccably so that neither one is lost within the other. This musical mixture creates powerful tracks that are inspirational, causing a listener to feel invincible at times. Not a bad feeling to be instilled within you when you are leisurely listening to music.

As with all of their songs, which are entirely written, engineered and produced by the band leaving them totally free from creative restraints, Empires has allowed fans to download their music for free on their official website. Their tracks, “Bang”, “Damn Things Over”, “Hard Times”, and “Young” can also be heard on Rolling Stone’s official website.

Head on over to these sites and let the euphoric emotion in with Empires.

by Lonnie Nemiroff