A Chicago-based band that would only release a handful of recordings, the Bonemen of Barumba were founded by Tom Jonusaitis and Mark Panick in the suburbs of Chicago in 1980. Over the course of the next four years or so, the band would release two EPs (Bonemen of Barumba and Driving the Bats Thru Jerusalem) and one LP (Icons) on local label Fever. They would also make a small name for themselves for entering a float in a suburban Illinois parade. Considered by some to be an art-funk group in a similar vein as the Pop Group, the Bonemen of Barumba didn't have the selling power their label had hoped, and the band split after their third release.