Kharlos sounds like suburban kids jamming in the basement tripping out on their mom’s stash of benzies. The kicker is that that all three members Buffalo music scene veterans nearing their 30’s, or at least getting there. The trio’s EP, Hail Kharlos Vol. 1, is stacked with four songs that are equally adrenaline filled (“Better”) as they are soul warming (“Alright”). The band is just so Zen. They are overboard and self-assured, and they are okay with that. The raspy, echoing vocals of Benjamin Maries make you want to cuddle up with your favorite 80’s High School dramedy as he sings songs about cats and Acid trips.
Kharlos is dance music for the emotional vacant and the rest of us degenerates who have no other excuse for being assholes. This is our Ann Arbor. Kharlos is grunge with exactly two and a half bumps of 30mg, pharmaceutical grade Adderall, because after all you want to dance, but you also want to deep clean the shit out of your apartment later. It’s a process. Kharlos is the time capsule that was found underneath a case of Old Milwaukee next to Bobby Stinson’s bloated corpse. Kharlos is what you want the band at your underage high school graduation party to sound like, but always end up sounding like the Breckin Meyer fronted Loveburger.
Kharlos manage to cover everything from The Replacements to Nirvana. They are reminiscent for nostalgic elder 80’s kids, without sounding like a shitty cover band we will hear in another 20 years. Kharlos is like a teleportation device for the Millennials who missed boat. This is what all of those fat, balding vinyl vermin Gen Xers at Spiral Scratch have been talking about. Then again, what else could you expect for a couple members of Merchants, a fifth of Ronald Raygun and a Space Wolf? You can do the math on that one.