Teen-Beat. Jonny Cohen.

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 Space Butterfly 7-inch vinyl 45

JONNY COHEN Space Butterfly 7-inch vinyl 45 unused artwork

JONNY COHEN Indian Giver 7-inch vinyl 45

JONNY COHEN'S LOVE MACHINE Getting Our Heads Back Together album

JONNY COHEN'S LOVE MACHINE If 6 Were 8 album

THE JONNY COHEN LOVE MACHINE A Quiet Reminder album

THE JONNY COHEN LOVE MACHINE Clambake Fiasco album

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

Jonny Cohen, Teen Beat, Khyber Pass, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

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

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

SONGS

A Quiet Reminder
Addicted to Chapstick
The Angry Employee
Bad Driver
Catfish & Carp
Cavernous Tabernacle
Chessmaster from Hell
Christmas Trees Everywhere
The Civil Underminer Engineer
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
I'm an Animal
I'm Not an Anorexic
Indian Giver
John Saxon
The Last Ride of Fibber McGee
Let's Pretend
Little Stickmen
Magic Act
Maniac Laugh
(Theme from) Marine Boy
Mind Your Mind
Mucosa Man
Mutant Bug
New Teen-Beat Theme
Over My Head
Racecar Roger
Repair Man
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.
Windowpain
Woodshed

peek-a-boo