The E-Types

In the mid-'60s, this group from Salinas, CA, (near San Jose) played a pleasant blend of British Invasion-inspired pop/rock and a touch of garage. With prominent keyboards, three-part harmonies, and original material with minor-keyed shifts, they sounded something like a mix between the Zombies and the Turtles. Very popular within their (pretty limited) stomping grounds, they made no impact whatsoever on a national level, issuing four singles on small labels (most of them with producer Ed Cobb, who also handled the Standells and the Chocolate Watch Band). Certainly they were a promising outfit, capable of offering strong original material (most of which, oddly, was penned by a friend who wasn't in the band, Larry Hosford). They didn't have enough time to convert that promise into truly significant work, however. They disbanded in 1967, when their carefully executed pop/rock was falling out of fashion in California, in favor of psychedelia.