Effective period / Period of releases: 2002

Members: Suzi Blade, Lalena Fisher, Christine Lee (2), Caryn Havlik, Nina Kyle, Joe Salvati, Jake Alrich, Jeanne Gilliland, Josh Zisman, Norie Manigault, The Mothermold

Founded by singer and guitarist Lalena Fisher and bassist Jeanne Gilliland, The Color Guard performed their complex-but-catchy heavy rock songs in their home base of New York City as well as around the Midwest from 2000-2007. They released four CDs.
Visual artist Fisher had co-founded The Hissyfits while attending Pratt Institute in 1996, but left that band in 1999. The Color Guard’s first lineup—with Valerie Massimi on lead guitar and Chris Lee on drums—recorded a self-titled debut CD-EP with engineer Louie Lino in 2000, and Fisher created unique handmade packaging for each copy.
Their second release was the full-length album Speech for Heated Hearts in 2002, recorded by Hillary Johnson. For this CD, Nina57 played lead guitar and opera-trained Jake Alrich played drums and sang harmonies along with Gilliland. The album received a highlighted "Listen 2 This" recommended review in Entertainment Weekly, and four stars from Allmusic.com.
The band recorded their second full-length with Louie Lino in 2004 and titled it Dark Pop. Josh Zisman served as lead guitarist, and the album featured the talents of three different drummers: Caryn Havlik, Norie Manigault, and Jake Alrich. The band considers Dark Pop its most masterful release.
Cornucopia was The Color Guard’s final farewell release in 2007; they recorded it at NYU with additional tracking at Zisman’s home studio. Joe Salvati played drums on the six-song EP, which was paired with a performance DVD documenting a show at CBGB 313.