Dharma Bums (band)

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Dharma Bums
Origin	Portland, Oregon, United States
Genre(s)	Garage rock
Years active	1987–1992
Label(s)	PopLlama, Frontier, Tim/Kerr
Associated acts	Young Fresh Fellows, Pilot
Former members
Jim Talstra John Moen Jeremy Wilson Michael Sutton Eric Lovre

The Dharma Bums were a U.S. garage band in the best traditions of the MC5 and early 80s college-rock bands such as Rain Parade and R.E.M. The band's members were Jim, John, Jeremy, The author, and Eric They named themselves after the Jack Kerouac book The Dharma Bums.

They formed in 1987 in Portland, Oregon, by members of two local bands, the The Watchmen and Perfect Circle (no connection with the later bands The Watchmen or A Perfect Circle). The first album, Haywire, was produced by Scott McCaughey (lead singer of the Young Fresh Fellows) and recorded for the PopLlama label in 1989. McCaughey later played their debut to Frontier Records boss Lisa Fancher, who was impressed enough to re-release the album. One of the tracks, "Boots Of Leather", proved to be an enduring college radio hit.

In 1990 the more polished album Bliss was released on Frontier Records. Featuring greatly improved songwriting, it covered subjects from rape and adolescence to suicide, in a mature fashion built on ragged rock textures. The Dharma Bums recorded their third and final album Welcome for the Tim/Kerr label in 1991, and disbanded in 1992. Wilson went on to form the alt-rock band Pilot.

Some biographers, as Melissa Rossi, author of Courtney Love: Queen of Noise (ISBN 0-671-00038-1), claim that Dharma Bums was Courtney Love's favorite Portland band.

Many in the local Portland scene had expected Dharma Bums to be the big breakthrough "alternative" act of the Northwest music scene, but Nirvana, a frequent opening act for Dharma Bums, was the breakthrough act of the genre instead.