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.

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