The Electras

The Electras would've almost certainly been relegated to the fuzzed-out annals of '60s garage rock history if not for the post-garage career of bassist (and future Senator) John Kerry. Forming in 1961 at Concord, New Hampshire's exclusive St. Paul's School (a prep school whose alumni include actor Judd Nelson, cartoonist Gary Trudeau, and FBI director Robert Mueller), the Electras' primary goal was to "meet more babes" according to the maraca-playing co-founder Andrew Gargarin. Gargarin and guitarist Larry Rand were desperate to meet the girls from visiting schools and struck upon the idea of forming a rock combo. The pieces fell together quickly, Gargarin and Rand found eager classmates to occupy the drums (Peter Land), rhythm guitar (John Prouty), piano (John Radcliffe) and saxophone (Tim Norris), and settled on fledgling bass student John Kerry to round out the low end. The septet taught themselves a handful of instrumentals and a couple of gruff vocal numbers ("Summertime Blues," "Ya Ya," etc.), and played their fuzzy surf-inspired numbers at school dances and debutante parties. In 1962, the group (minus sax player Norris) gathered around one microphone and made a tape recording of their tunes, sending the tape off to RCA's custom recording division and subsequently pressing up 500 LPs to sell at dances. Their eponymous debut was never widely available, but internet rumors persist of copies of the album changing hands online for over $2000. The Electras proved to be their only recording, and the band dissolved at some point thereafter, but Kerry continued to play guitar though his 2004 presidential run. (For the truly curious, sound samples can be found at http://www.kerryrocks.com.) ~ Zac Johnson