Jenny Toomey

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Jenny Toomey (born Jennifer Gillen Toomey in 1968) is an American indie rock musician and arts activist from Washington, D.C. She was a member of the bands Geek, Tsunami, Liquorice, and Grenadine, among others, and has also recorded under her own name.

Jenny 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. Among the artists released on Simple Macines are Tsunami, Grenadine, Franklin Bruno, Ida, and Scrawl, among others.

She is also the executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, a Washington, D.C. think tank which translates the complex issues at the intersection of music, policy and law, aiming to help (primarily independent) musicians, including intellectual property rights, health insurance, and the effects of corporate consolidation of radio and the music industry.

Toomey is a graduate of Georgetown University with a degree in philosophy. She is engaged to be married in September 2006 and lives in Washington, DC.