Soulside, also spelled Soul Side, was an American

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

band from the greater

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

area. The original name of the band was Lunchmeat which was formed by high school students Bobby Sullivan, Chris Thomson,

Scott McCloud Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and ''Making Comics'' (200 ...

and

Alexis Fleisig Alexis Fleisig is an American drummer and photographer, best recognized for his involvement with several Washington, D.C., D.C.-based bands. Known primarily for his involvement in the post-hardcore group Girls Against Boys, Fleisig was also a fou ...

in 1985. Lunchmeat played their last show under that name on August 29 of the same year as the group went on hiatus while the members went to college. The next summer the band reunited under the name Soulside recording an album at Inner Ear with

Ian MacKaye Ian Thomas Garner MacKaye (; born April 16, 1962) is an American musician. Active since 1979, he is best known as the co-founder and owner of Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label and the frontman of hardcore punk ...

Don Zientara Don Zientara ( ) is an American record producer and musician. He owns and runs Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, located just outside Washington D.C., and is most widely known for his production work with Fugazi, Minor Threat and various ...

, and Eli Janney. The album was the second release on Sammich Records. At the end of the summer, the band again went on hiatus as the members returned to college except for Thomson who had decided not return to college and formed Ignition with Chris Bald. When the other three band members returned from college in 1987, they had all agreed to quit college and dedicate themselves to the band. They recruited high school friend

Johnny Temple John Ellis Temple (August 8, 1927 – January 9, 1994) was a Major League Baseball second baseman who played for the Redlegs/Reds (1952–59; 1964); Cleveland Indians (1960–61), Baltimore Orioles (1962) and Houston Colt .45s (1962–63). Tem ...

to replace Thomson on bass. In 1987, the band returned to Inner Ear studios with Ian MacKaye to record their second album, ''Trigger'', for

Dischord Records Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idles. ...

. The band toured throughout the U.S. They disbanded in summer of 1989, after an extensive three-month European tour which included the recording of '' Hot Bodi-Gram''. The other members of the band were unhappy with Sullivan's topical and political lyrics while Sullivan was worried the group had become a "party band" during the long European tour. They played a few more shows after the European tour but broke up soon afterwards. Soulside was the only American band to play at one of the illegal punk shows held in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

in the 1980s, shows put on in tolerant Lutheran churches against the wishes of the dictatorship and its security organs such as the

Stasi The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...

. The shows normally featured banned

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

groups, and only rarely did international bands appear, traveling into East Berlin on tourist visas and playing with borrowed gear. Following Soulside's demise, Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple, and Alexis Fleisig would join Eli Janney to form the

band

Girls Against Boys Girls Against Boys is a post-hardcore band which formed in Washington, D.C. and subsequently relocated to New York City shortly after their formation in 1989. The band released albums on the labels Adult Swim, Touch and Go Records, Geffen Record ...

at the end of the 1980s. Janney had frequently been a part of Soulside's tours, doing the sound at their shows.

Bobby Sullivan Bobby Sullivan is a musician and activist. He grew up in the Washington, DC punk music, 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 th ...

went on to form a band called Seven League Boots, who played a blend of reggae and punk. Afterwards he was involved with Rain Like the Sound of Trains, Sevens, and Spontaneous Earth. Following his time with Ignition, Chris Thomson would serve as the lead vocalist for

Circus Lupus Circus Lupus was a post-hardcore band based in the area of Washington, D.C. The band originally formed in Madison, Wisconsin, where one-time Ignition and Soul Side bassist Chris Thomson met guitarist Chris Hamley and drummer Arika Casebolt while ...

. In 2017, Soulside reunited to play one show in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

at Scott McCloud's fiftieth birthday on November 5 at the Lucerna Music Bar. In 2019, the band played several shows in Europe and recorded three songs which were released in August, 2020 on Dischord Records via

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

. A 7-inch vinyl single with two of the songs was also released.

Band members

(drums) *

(guitar) *

(vocals) *

(bass 1987–1989, 2017, 2019–2020) * Chris Thomson (bass 1985–1987)

Releases

* "Thanks" Split Single w/

Mission Impossible ''Mission: Impossible'' is a multimedia franchise based on a fictional secret espionage agency known as the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). The 1966 TV series ran for seven seasons and was revived in 1988 for two seasons. It inspired a serie ...

- Released under the "Lunchmeat" name (Sammich, 1985) Re-released with the title ''Getting Shit for Growing up Different'' * '' Less Deep Inside Keeps'' LP/CD (Sammich/

Dischord Dischord Records is a Washington, D.C.-based independent record label specializing in punk rock. The label is co-owned by Ian MacKaye and Jeff Nelson, who founded Dischord in 1980 to release ''Minor Disturbance'' by their band The Teen Idles ...

co-release, 1987) * ''Trigger'' LP (Dischord, 1988) * "Bass" b/w "103" 7 inch Single (Dischord, 1989) * ''Hot Bodi-Gram'' LP (Dischord, 1989) * ''Soon Come Happy'' CD (Dischord, 1990) (Note: a compilation of ''Trigger'', "Bass" single, and ''Hot Bodi-Gram''.) * "This Ship" b/w "Madeleine Said" 7 inch Single/digital EP (Dischord, 2020) (Note: Digital EP comes with a third song, "Survival") * ''A Brief Moment in the Sun'' LP (Dischord, 2022)

References

External links

Dischord Records
band mini-site {{Authority control Dischord Records artists American post-hardcore musical groups Musical groups established in 1985 Musical groups disestablished in 1989 1985 establishments in the United States Indie rock musical groups from Washington, D.C.