Alice Cohen


Alice Cohen, also known by the stage name Alice Desoto, is a New York City-based American singer, songwriter, musician and fine artist. She has performed as the lead vocalist for two major label bands, the Vels and Die Monster Die. The Vels were the more commercially successful of the two, with their 1984 single "Look My Way" peaking at No. 72 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. Cohen has also pursued a solo career and has released six studio albums since 2008.

Early years

Cohen grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of two professional jazz pianists, Robert Cohen and Harriet Levin Cohen. Her father Robert was a respected figure in the Philadelphia jazz community, having performed for decades in the area, and he also had a chance performance with highly influential saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Career

The Vels

Cohen is best known for her work as the primary songwriter and lead singer of the Vels, a Philadelphia new wave band that she co-founded in 1980. In 1984, they signed a recording contract with Mercury Records and released two studio albums, Velocity and House of Miracles. They had one minor hit and a successful MTV music video.
The Vels toured the U.S. in 1986, opening for British band the Psychedelic Furs.

Musical history

In 1980, Cohen wrote the disco song "Deetour" for Karen Young which was then released as a single in 1982, re-released on Horse Meat Disco in July 2009. To date this is the only time that she has written a song for someone else. The track "Souvenirs" was originally written for the Bangles but the recording deal failed to materialise and the song was instead recorded for the Vels' second album House of Miracles.
After the Vels broke up in 1987, Cohen's career changed direction and she became active in the indie rock/underground and touring scene. Cohen's best-known venture in this period was the band Die Monster Die. DMD released two studio albums: 1992's Chrome Molly on Dutch East, and 1994's Withdrawal Method on Roadrunner Records. The band broke up soon after.
In 1996, Cohen sang a track in the Martin Scorsese-produced movie Grace of My Heart, directed by Allison Anders.
In recent years, Cohen has performed frequently as a solo act, as well as collaborating with a number of groups including LYDSOD, Long Lost, Raw Thrills, Castles, and Espadrille. In 2008, she released her debut solo studio album Sky Flowers on her self-owned label Crinoline. Other solo studio albums include Walking Up Walls, Pink Keys, Wild Vines & Tenement Shrines, Into the Grey Salons, and her most recent album Artificial Fairytales.
With the release of Cohen's solo albums, she became active in video and animation, creating music videos to accompany her own releases, as well as composing soundtracks for other animations and video projects.

Visual arts

Cohen's collages and paintings have appeared in galleries in New York City, San Francisco and elsewhere. She has made music videos for dozens of indie bands and musicians.
In 2008, Cohen began to produce animated music videos for artists such as Ducktails, Coasting, Broken Deer, and Greatest Hits, using found imagery and objects in traditional cutout and stop motion animation style.
Other video/animation work includes "Single Sentence Animations" for the independent publisher Electric Literature as well as gallery and installation work. Cohen animated 17 episodes of the 2016 TV show Single + Swiping for Full Screen Network.
In 2010, Cohen had her first solo exhibition of visual works including video, collage, and installation, which took place at Live With Animals gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Her work has been screened at Anthology Film Archives, The Film-Makers' Cooperative, Printed Matter, Inc., Microscope Gallery, Millennium Film Workshop, The New Museum, the Morbid Anatomy Museum, and the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland.

Discography

Solo releases

Music videos