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"Private Wars" was recorded in Chicago in 2005 with my brothers Rob and Dan, who play in a kickass metal band called Arriver. Jeff Panall did a great job recording it -- he relied heavily on room sounds for ambience, rather than digital reverb, giving the vocals especially a distinctive live sound.
Though it's not a concept album per se, many of the songs deal with surveillance, technology and the climate of paranoia that seemed so prevalent after the 9/11 attacks.
Local magazine On Tap wrote: "A strain of fin-de-siécle madness runs throughout, and the more closely Sullivan adheres to the demands of paranoia and the death of history, the more striking and original the songs become."
To support the release, I assembled a band here in DC featuring Matt Tebo on drums, Joe Loftus on bass, and sax players Dave Sislen and Jorge Kamine. We played several successful shows around town, mostly at the Velvet Lounge.
The single, "The Internet is Changing Everything," details several encounters with former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. One of them actually happened, sort of. The Onion called it "probably the only song ever written about the raw animal sexuality of former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, and certainly the catchiest. The rest of Sullivan’s new Private Wars is equally strong."
The song got airplay on CNBC and "Marketplace," which airs on NPR. I guess there aren't many other songs about Alan Greenspan out there.
The record got lots of favorable press. The Onion gave the record a "B+".