Singer and songwriter Jonny Cohen founded The Love Machine in 1987 after moving into a Silver Spring, MD group house shared with DC rock legend Root Boy Slim. The house was the site of frequent basement jam sessions with Unrest, The Redeemers, Date Bait, Butch Willis and The Rocks, Under the Sun, Go To Blazes and other DC regulars. Those sessions inspired Jonny to write a slew of his own songs and to recruit 2 old high school friends for a band. Choosing the name "Jonny Cohen's Love Machine" over "Big Dick" and "Clambake Fiasco", the group worked up a live set and prepared to record its first record.

Although Root Boy proclaimed the Love Machine was "the worst band I've ever heard", others - including Mark Robinson - were intrigued. After hearing a tape of the song "I'm Not An Anorexic" Mark invited the Love Machine to open for Unrest on a WMUC (Univ. of Maryland) live music show. Robinson later heard the band's completed album and promptly issued it on the Teenbeat label ("Jonny Cohen's Love Machine", TeenBeat 39).

"If 6 Were 8" is the band's 3rd full length on Teenbeat and the lineup features Jonny Cohen, lead vocals, founding member Pete Nelson on guitar, John Leonard (Government Issue, Under the Sun, Weatherhead) on guitar, Sam Janotta on bass and Keith Fleming (The Keepers, Under the Sun, Weatherhead) on drums. Jonny's high school connection has continued- 4 out of 5 current members were classmates at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD.

The Love Machine plays live primarily in the DC Metro area, but also performs in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York to good reviews.

DC's Scene Magazine calls Jonny Cohen the "David Lee Roth of indie-rock" (whatever that means), the Charlottsville Weekly says the Love Machine "...plants itself somewhere between the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and Juan Garcia Esquivel, and rocks!" and Option magazine says Cohen is: "...trying to transform what makes him a weirdo outcast into something cool, and he succeeds with his Love Machine."