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Jonny Cohen.

HE IS

Jonny Cohen

THE LOVE MACHINE

Allen Blackman,
Ken "Bidjje" Kavanaugh,
Pete Nelson

HOMETOWN

Washington, D.C.

MOST POPULAR

A Quiet Reminder
Jonny Cohen's Love Machine

GREATEST HITS

Addicted to Chapstick
Chessmaster from Hell
Extra Ticket
Indian Giver
Let's Pretend
John Saxon
Washington, D.C.

ALSO

JONNY's own website
JONNY on Facebook
JONNY on Twitter

DESCRIPTION

Indie singer/songwriter Jonny Cohen formed his band, The Love Machine, in 1987 after moving into the Silver Spring, Maryland group house also home to D.C. area cult hero Root Boy Slim; its basement was the site of regular jam sessions including members of Unrest, Butch Willis & the Rocks and countless other local acts, and their music soon inspired Cohen to began writing his own material. Recruiting a backing unit including former high school classmate Pete Nelson on guitar, Cohen cut a demo of the song "I'm Not an Anorexic" which so impressed TeenBeat label chief Mark Robinson that he invited the group to open for his band Unrest during their performance on the University of Maryland station WMUC. TeenBeat subsequently issued 1989's Jonny Cohen's Love Machine album, followed two years later by the Space Butterfly EP. After a 1992 seven-inch, "Indian Giver," Cohen resurfaced the following year with the full-length Getting Our Heads Back Together. After a four-year hiatus, the group resurfaced with If Six Were Eight.

Jonny Cohen
outside the Fogg Museum, 2011
Photo by Mark Robinson
[download high resolution file]

Jonny Cohen
performing at the Khyber Pass, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania?
Photo by Mark Robinson?

Jonny Cohen
at the Teen-Beat banquet, Arlington, Virginia
Photo by [unknown]

Jonny Cohen's Love Machine
tee-shirt (ca. 1991)

The Jonny Cohen Love Machine illustration by Ian Jones from the album Clambake Fiasco

Jonny Cohen
as pictured in the 1982 Walt Whitman High School yearbook (Bethesda, Maryland).

THE LOVE MACHINE

1989-

Jonny Cohen,
Pete Nelson,
Ken Rudd,
Carl Stivers

1991-

Jonny Cohen,
Rocco Coleman,
Alan Cox,
Ken Rudd

1992?

Jonny Cohen,
Phil Krauth,
Pete Nelson,
Mark Robinson

1994?

Jonny Cohen,
Mike Dennis,
Keith Fleming,
John Leonard,
Pete Nelson

1996?

Jonny Cohen,
Mike Dennis,
Keith Fleming,
Sam Janotta,
John Leonard

1997?

Jonny Cohen,
Keith Fleming,
Sam Janotta,
John Leonard,
Pete Nelson

2007-

Allen Blackman,
Jonny Cohen,
Ken "Bidjje" Kavanaugh,
Pete Nelson

2015 SESSION

Allen Blackman,
Jonny Cohen,
Ken "Bidjje" Kavanaugh,
Pete Nelson
Carl Stivers

THE VULTURE TRIO

Jonny Cohen,
Sam Janotta,
Matt Shortridge

THE SHOETREES

Jonny Cohen,
Sam Janotta,
Matt Shortridge

SPACE BUTTERFLY SHOETREES SESSION

Jonny Cohen,
Sam Janotta,
Pete Nelson,
Matt Shortridge,
Ward Shortridge

PITTSBURGH SESSIONS

Frank Boscoe,
Jonny Cohen,
Mark Robinson

MISCELANEOUS ACCOMPANIMENT

Kris Roth,
Eric Weaver,
Mark Mansfield,
Mark Robinson,
John Stanton,
Karl Straub

JONNY'S OLD HOUSEMATE

Root Boy Slim

FILM

INDIAN GIVER

Performed live with Shoetrees at Rockin' Rex, Yonkers, New York, February 11, 1993.

TOUGH GUY

Short film for the song from the "A Quiet Reminder" album. May 30, 2017.

BIOGRAPHY

Indie singer/songwriter Jonny Cohen formed his band the Love Machine in 1987 after moving into the Silver Spring, Maryland group house also home to D.C. area cult hero Root Boy Slim; its basement was the site of regular jam sessions including members of Unrest, Butch Willis & the Rocks and countless other local acts, and their music soon inspired Cohen to began writing his own material. Recruiting a backing unit including former high school classmate Pete Nelson on guitar, Cohen cut a demo of the song "I'm Not an Anorexic" which so impressed TeenBeat label chief Mark Robinson that he invited the group to open for his band Unrest during their performance on the University of Maryland station WMUC. TeenBeat subsequently issued 1989's Jonny Cohen's Love Machine album, followed two years later by the Space Butterfly EP. After a 1992 seven-inch, "Indian Giver," Cohen resurfaced the following year with the full-length Getting Our Heads Back Together. After a four-year hiatus, the group resurfaced with If Six Were Eight.

- Jason Ankeny (All Music)

LOTS OF POP LOSERS TRADING CARD

It doesn't matter if he's got a violin player or a heavy metal band backing him up, his insight is uncanny. Jonny has the ability to find humor in sad things, while at the same time making them all the more tragic. Woe be to the punker who comes to a show expecting mere comedy.

- Kristin Thompson & Jenny Toomey (Lots of Pop Losers music festival)

DISCOGRAPHY

SINGLES

Space Butterfly
Indian Giver
Working Holiday (April)

ALBUMS

Jonny Cohen's Love Machine
Getting Our Heads Back Together
If 6 were 8
A Quiet Reminder
Clambake Fiasco
Hamsters for Kerry

COMPILATIONS

Teen-Beat Fifty
Wakefield: Volume 1
Working Holiday
Wakefield: Volume 2
Wakefield: Volume 3
Wakefield: The Teen-Beat Boxed Set
Working Holiday Live
Sassy
1997 Teenbeat Sampler
1998 Teenbeat Sampler
2000 Teenbeat Sampler
2001 Teenbeat Sampler
2002 Teenbeat Sampler
2003 Teenbeat Sampler
Teen-Beat Subscribers' CD, 2004
2004 Teenbeat Sampler
Teen-Beat 20th Commemorative
Teen-Beat No.1 Record Label
2010 Teen-Beat / Other Music Sampler
Teen-Beat Holiday Card 2010/2011

NARRATOR

Teen-Beat No.1 Record Label

ALSO

Teen-Beat's Fifth Anniversary
Teen-Beat's Ninth Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat Circus Tour
Teen-Beat's 11th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 13th Anniversary Celebrations
Full Teen-Beat Moon
Teen-Beat's 14th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 15th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 16th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 17th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 18th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 19th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 20th Anniversary Celebrations
Teen-Beat's 21st Anniversary Celebrations
UNREST: Teen-Beat 26th Anniversary
Teen-Beat Graphica Exhibition
Jonny Cohen Short Films

SONGS

A Quiet Reminder
Addicted to Chapstick
Amusing Patterns
The Angry Employee
Bad Boy
Bad Driver
Better Day
Catfish & Carp
Cavernous Tabernacle
Chain of Events
Chessmaster from Hell
Christmas Trees Everywhere
The Civil Underminer Engineer
Clambake Fiasco
Collisions
Commercial Zonked
Cool Bomb
Desparate Nikki
Disappointed in the Jetsons
Doubting Heart
The Dress
Drugs
Escape from the Planet of the Apes
Extra Ticket
Eye of the Storm
Faith
Frontal Lobotomy
Girl Fight
Hamsters for Kerry
Here Come the Robots
I'm an Animal
I'm Not an Anorexic
Indian Giver
John Saxon
The Last Ride of Fibber McGee
Let's Pretend
Little Stickmen
Lost in Space
Magic Act
Maniac Laugh
(Theme from) Marine Boy
Messin' with My Head
Mind Your Mind
Mucosa Man
Mutant Bug
My Philosophy
Neutral Man
New Teen-Beat Theme
Over My Head
Racecar Roger
Repair Man
Rock'n'Roll Cop
Rubber Man
Salamandr
Shadows in the Sun
The Silence of Rebecca
The Snow at Night
Space Butterfly
Spaced Out
Speed Racer (Theme)
Super Star from Mars
Surf Clam
Time Loop
Tough Guy
Trixie the Depressed Milk Cow
The Vulture
The War at Four
Washington, D.C.
What Goes Around Goes Around
Windowpain
Woodshed