Bobby Sullivan

Bobby Sullivan, live in Asheville, NC with Spontaneous Earth

Bobby Sullivan is a musician and activist.

He grew up in the Washington, DC punk scene. Forming Soulside in 1983, their first release under the name Lunch Meat was a split 7” with Dave Grohl’s first band, Mission Impossible. After the first 7”, all their work (three albums and another 7”) was produced by Ian MacKaye and released on Dischord Records. Soulside toured extensively in the US, Canada, and Mexico, and toured Europe in 1989, including Eastern Europe.

After Soulside’s split, Sullivan formed 7 League Boots in Boston, a band which blended reggae and rock. After releasing two 7”s and one album on Constant Change/Cargo Records, they broke up and Sullivan joined Rain Like The Sound Of Trains in DC, before forming Sevens with his brother Mark Sullivan.[1] Both bands released albums produced by Tim Kerr.

In his later years, Sullivan became an activist. Mentored by Eric Weinberger, a civil rights activist who had been on the Freedom Rides, he worked with Food Not Bombs (soup kitchens for the homeless) for five years in DC and Boston. He also helped form the DC chapter of the Anarchist Black Cross, a political prisoner support network, giving him close relationships with Ramona Africa from the MOVE Organization and various former Black Panthers and Weather Underground members. Today Bobby still makes music as B.Subtle with Moving Temple and Spontaneous Earth, an “acoustic roots” band in Asheville, North Carolina. He also visits prisons and corresponds regularly with hundreds of inmates as Minister of Education for the Rastafarian UniverSoul Order, a prison ministry.

References

  1. "Review of ''Hot Bodi Gram''". Monochrom.at. Retrieved 2012-01-26.

Washington Post interview about Soulside reunion - Dec. 2014

Bandwidth coverage of 2nd album's reissue on vinyl - 2014

Interview on 24 Hours blog about the Prison Ministry - 2013