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When Mike Enzor was a toddler in the late 50s, his Dad would play Louis Prima records extremely loud, and much to Dad's delight, Mike would pound in time on anything that would make a drum-like noise. So at age 5, Mike started taking drum lessons. At age 7 he saw The Beatles on Ed Sullivan and began to listen to rock n' roll. Finally at age 11 his drum instructor informed him there was nothing else he could teach him, so he promptly forgot how to read music and began jamming with schoolmates playing rock n' roll. By the time he was 13, he had become a huge rock fan and listened to records constantly. Guitar soon beckoned and he acquired his now famous Harmony Strat -O-Tone from a friend who bought the guitar at a pawn shop for $12.00. To this day Mike records and performs with his trusty out-o-tune Strat-O-Tone. But drums were still the thing that got him in bands. The problem was the only bands around during his teen years in Torrance, Ca. were cover bands. No one even considered trying to write their own songs, and Mike felt stifled trying to play like the drummers on the records they were covering. By his late teens, Mike had given up drums entirely. Things started to turn around when in his early 20s he played bass guitar in the ground-breaking L.A. punk band, The Skabbs (1977-79). It was the first band he'd played in that did all original material, and Enzor never wanted to play in a cover band again. Disillusioned after The Skabbs failed to make a dent on the local scene before the tragic death of Skabbs leader and mentor Steve Salazar, Mike met the love of his life, got married, had kids and generally settled down. But not entirely... In the early 80s, Enzor played guitar in a beer-soaked mock blues band, The Blues Abusers. Finally in the mid-80s he took his old drum kit out of the shed and began playing with avant-guard prog-popsters, The Magpies. Once again Mike felt the magic of playing original material. In 1991, Mike bought his first 4-track recorder and at the tender young age of 34, began writing and recording his own songs. Years of collecting and listening to records began to pay off, and Mike found it easy to write songs in a variety of styles, and play all the instruments himself. He loved the fantasy of "making records" the way he wanted to make them. In 1992, Enzor released his first collection of original songs, "Self Titled Debut Solo Effort." Next came 1995's "Concept," then the breakthrough, "Album Oriented Rock," released on his own Career Death label in 1998. His latest, "Sentimental Leaves of Absence," released on Career Death in 2002 is his best yet. In addition to recording and performing his own works, Enzor has provided percussion for a variety of Los Angeles artists including ex-Imperial Butt Wizards guitarist Dan Janish, drunken garage-rock maniacs Pinebox Derby, indie rockers Magnetic Health Factory and fusion instrumentalists Clearpool. He currently plays bass for fellow Career Death recording artists The Forget. Mike was seen in New York at CMJ '98 backing up singer-songwriter Alec James, and can also be heard on CDs by all the above mentioned artists. He also has contributed to soundtracks for the independent features "Eight Lanes To Hamilton" and "Leaving Los Angeles Newsletter." Mike Enzor currently resides in his hometown of Torrance, Ca. "Mike Enzor is DIY-to-the-core (something I respect big time), a helluva musician, and a reputable producer to boot. His solo work consists of lots of mid-fi pop songs that deserve to be heard..." Farmer P - Fresh Cow Pie "Mike plays basic, strummy, and understated songs with a pensive but not entirely melancholy feel... If he was 19 and pretty, he'd probably have a record contract at this point." Matt Roberts - Shredding Paper "Simple like seeds, yet under the best conditions seeds grow into the most complex and beautiful forms. They reflect deep satisfaction of beauty and then feed the world. Mike Enzor has handfuls of water and sonic seeds and they're rooted on his new record, "Sentimental Leaves of Absence". They sprout humble in their beauty, tended with focused passion, offering poignant nutrition for those lucky enough to locate Mr. Enzor's uncharted farmland. Mike's not distributing his produce by boxcar, but take a look at the little roadside rock'n'roll stand and you'll find him proudly displaying his bounty of diverse rock poppies, colorfully bright and warm. He's pulled together style varieties only a discerning pop music vulture could amass, holding sure his trusty Strat-O-Tone to turn fresh ground, his rich easy voice confiding. You can almost imagine him leaning back listening to these self-performed and produced tracks, watching them press up toward the sun, his rock and roll hybrids revealing new combinations of what great rockers have eternally reaped. These tunes bleed forth from gotta-get-it-out compulsion through a standard and timeless guitar, bass and drums foundation. Easy tempos and crisp sounds mix with doses of welcome heavier flavors, sprinkles of pure pop, psychedelic stretches and summer AM transistors. Peer closer into this glass flower of sound and the shards are revealed, obsessively selected and gently connected as a whole. In a moment over 35 minutes, Mike and his influences conspire to pry you away from the tragicomedy of modern occidental life, suggest you take that favorite chair there and gaze out at the calming vision of careful parallel rows of vining sound. Simple." - Stoogey Track List: 1. Space Martians 2. My Old Town 3. Operation T-Shirt 4. You Don't Know How To Cry 5. Ballad of The George Washington Bridge 6. Stress Academy 7. Margarita 8. Goodbye 9. Trial 10. Love On Me 11. Driver 12. Girl I've Never Heard 13. I Got Nuthin' 14. Stalker's Lament 15. Fender Deluxe 16. Just Like Goodbye Suggested CDs:Other Genres:
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