Truly one of the weirdest bands in rock history, New York's Americade emerged in the early '80s bedecked in stars-and-stripes outfits and singing about patriotic themes over a Van Halen-like hard rock style. Formed in 1979 by flashy singer P.J. de Marigny and his sibling guitarist Gerard, Americade were also the vision of their immigrant father, who seemingly miscalculated the possibilities of capitalizing on Americans' often over-the-top displays of nationalism. After absorbing the rhythm section of bassist Nick Sadano and drummer Walt Woodward III from N.Y.C.'s long-lived underground metal outfit Rachel (also a starting point for Riot singer Rhett Forrester, among many others), the band was on its way, and by the time they released their American Metal debut in 1982, bassist Dave Spitz (brother of future Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz) had joined their ranks. Pushing Americade's patriotic motif into sheer absurdity (P.J. met with particular ridicule for donning stage attire that made him look like "an American flag with skin"), both band and album bombed with consumers in no uncertain terms. Spitz soon moved on to bigger things (including a brief stretch with Black Sabbath, believe it or not), and the Marignys vanished from sight before attempting a halfhearted comeback a decade later via 1992's Americade.com album. Actually nothing more than a set of cleaned-up 1989 demos featuring next bassist Greg Smith, this appears to have been Americade's last gasp. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, Rovi