Jenny Toomey

Who is Jenny Toomey?

Jenny Toomey is an American indie rock musician and arts activist from Chevy Chase, Maryland, and later, Washington, D.C. She was a member of the bands Geek, Tsunami, Liquorice, Grenadine, So Low and Choke, among others, and has also recorded under her own name. In November 2007, she was appointed Program Officer for Media and Cultural Policy in the Media, Arts and Culture Unit at the Ford Foundation.

Toomey co-founded the Simple Machines record label in 1990 with a housemate who left the project soon after. Toomey ran the label with Kristin Thomson from 1990 to 1998 out of their house in Arlington, Virginia. Along with TeenBeat and Dischord, Simple Machines helped document the D.C. punk and indie rock scenes. Tsunami was also greatly influential in the D.I.Y movement among the punk, grunge and indie communities. Among the artists released on Simple Machines are Tsunami, Grenadine, Franklin Bruno, Ida, and Scrawl, among others.