Not bad for a band whose guitarist, Salazar, started out with an electric guitar she got for free. “My first electric guitar was a Fender Tele that I got for free,” Salazar tells Guitar World.

As of February 2011, “We figure that’s roughly 950 shows, 1900 sets, and 2850 hours of music,” said singer-guitarist Robert Harvey. By all estimates, the Electric Waste Band, a classic-rock ...