Biography
The Dharma Bums, an overlooked college rock outfit, cultivated an intense following of devoted listeners, particularly throughout their native Portland, OR, yet dissolved at the precise moment when the Pacific Northwest’s underground music community began drawing widespread press coverage. Essentially a regrouping of the Watchmen, the band traced its roots to a high-school project assembled by Jeremy Wilson on vocals, Eric Lovre on guitar, and Jim Talstra on bass. The Watchmen built an Oregon audience through renditions of Elvis Costello, the Jam, and Joe Jackson alongside original material drawn from both 1950s rock and new-wave sources, though Lovre and Talstra’s graduation prompted the group’s dissolution. In 1984 Wilson launched Perfect Circle, a new ensemble devoted exclusively to original compositions. The following year Perfect Circle appeared on a Portland club bill with the Young Fresh Fellows, an encounter that brought Wilson into contact with producer Conrad Uno and the Young Fresh Fellows’ frontman Scott McCaughey; the band received an invitation to record in Seattle, WA, but split before the session could occur. After finishing school in 1986, Wilson relocated to Portland and invited Lovre and Talstra to rehearse. The three tracked four songs in a single evening inside a farmhouse, initially adopting the name the Afterludes before settling on the Dharma Bums and recruiting drummer John Moen, formerly of Perfect Circle. Proceeds from sold-out Portland performances financed a trip to Seattle to determine whether Uno remained interested in working with them. Those sessions secured a deal with Uno’s PopLlama imprint, which issued the band’s debut album, Haywire, in 1988; the track “Boots of Leather” became a college-radio favorite. Frontier signed the group in 1989. Two additional albums followed before the Dharma Bums disbanded in 1992. Wilson formed Pilot the next year.
Albums
