On a pilgrimage to indie-rock mecca, Ben Wills and longtime friend Matt Knutson drove from Denver, Colo., to Athens in 2005 after reading about its music scene in magazines and hearing about it from friends.

They brought with them their catchy, harmonies-laced brand of pop-rock and decided to set up shop.

“We’ve been playing music together since we were 10,” bassist Wills said of himself and lead vocalist/guitarist Knutson. “We’ve really only had one band.”

In the three years since the two’s arrival, The Empties’ sound has ripened, as evidenced in this month’s release of the band’s first full-length album.

“It’s gotten more raw,” Knutson said. “The music scene out here is so different, and playing a college music town is a lot different than playing in a huge city. If we had moved to Atlanta or something, it probably would have gotten more poppy.”

Adjusting to a new prolific music scene and having a constantly changing lineup of musicians have also contributed to The Empties’ sonic evolution.

The band has, for the most part, gone without a permanent drummer.

Musicians from other bands step in for a show or maybe a month.

Despite the frequent rotations, The Empties use the situation as a source for new ideas.

“A lot of our sound has changed because of the different drummers we’ve had, and now we have this new guitar player,” Wills said.

The new guitar player is Chris Giddens, a University alumnus, who has been playing with The Empties for about a year and has quickly adjusted to the band’s on-the-fly performance methods.

“We’ve gotten used to winging it a lot,” Giddens said. “At a lot of shows, we’ll show up and they’ll have one microphone plugged into a tiny speaker and say that’s their PA system.”

“And then when we play a big theater, they’ll give us a two-hour sound check and tell us to do whatever we want. We’ll just say, ‘Are the mics turned on? Then it’s fine.’”

The most refreshing thing about The Empties is that the band members don’t take themselves too seriously.

The band readily admits to and laughs at their own performance mishaps and ridiculous album title ideas.

“We didn’t want to have a bad name,” Knutson said. “We were going to have one called ‘Mallard’ and have this duck theme, maybe release ducks at our show.”

“‘Mallard’ is the best one we came up with,” Wills said. “That’s when we decided on self-titled.”

The album follows the band’s 2005 “Dorothy” EP and is the result of all the changes in the past year.

“These are the 12 songs that are the best we’ve done,” Wills said.

“A lot of people’s [final] album is a reflection of what they’ve done,” Knutson said. “We’re starting with that album, as a reflection of what we haven’t done.”

Tomorrow night’s show at Tasty World will feature the new tunes off the album.

The official release date is Halloween, but the album will be available for purchase at the show and can already be found at Wuxtry and Schoolkids Records.

“If you like fun rock music, you will have fun,” Giddens said. “I think that we bring it pretty hard live. We’re a performing band. That’s where we shine. It’s loud. It’s fun.”