The Max Levine Ensemble

The Max Levine Ensemble is a DIY punk band from the Washington, DC metropolitan area. They play punk rock with various pop influences, and often have politically conscious lyrics. They used to have a rotating band roster that changed from tour to tour depending upon who could go. Though at one point they played regularly with 5-7 members, they generally play now as a three piece power trio consisting of David Combs, Ben Epstein, and Nick Popovici.

The band was formed in 2000 when David Combs met Max Levine while attending highschool at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. Max introduced David to various punk rock bands such as Propagandhi, Fugazi, and the Clash, as well as introducing him to radical politics. Combs had been playing in a ska band, and when Max asked him to cover punk rock songs in his ska band he thought it was inappropriate for the genre. Instead he invited several of his friends to start a new band that would play full sets of cover songs to be requested by Max Levine. They played their first show at a high school band show case in December 2000. The set consisted of 5 cover songs and 2 originals. From then on the band focused on original material, but kept the name The Max Levine Ensemble in homage to their friend.

Since then the band grew and developed, incorporating various influences into their pop punk sound. They self-released two full length CD-Rs in 2001 and 2002 that were later released together on Fight The Octopus records as "Chach, Cops, and Donuts." In 2003 they released their third full length, "How to Build an Intergalactic Time Machine" recorded with Hugh McElroy of the Black Eyes. The band tours the United States. Notably they joined up with Operation: Cliff Clavin for their reunion tour and a split 7" in 2004, and toured as part of the Plan-It-X Records bus tour in 2005. The split 7" with Operation: Cliff Clavin was co-released by 60 different labels as a benefit for the Bloomington Bicycle Project. In 2005 a split 7" with The Spirit Animals was released.

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