Mark Mulcahy is an American musician. He was the front-man for the

New Haven New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is the third largest city in Co ...

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

-based band Miracle Legion. The band earned modest renown, especially in their native

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

region. Mulcahy soon formed

Polaris Polaris is a star in the northern circumpolar constellation of Ursa Minor. It is designated α Ursae Minoris (Latinisation of names, Latinized to ''Alpha Ursae Minoris'') and is commonly called the North Star or Pole Star. With an ...

, a

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

for the mid-1990s alternative television series '' The Adventures of Pete & Pete'' (1993–1996). They are best remembered for the song " Hey Sandy" featured in the opening credits of each show, and for nostalgic tunes such as "Waiting for October" and "Saturnine". Following the cancellation of ''Pete & Pete'', Mulcahy began playing his own shows in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and rebuilding his career. Mulcahy has opened for notable artists, including

Oasis In ecology, an oasis (; : oases ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (raised as Scott Moorhead; November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997) was an American musician. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, he attracted a cult following in the early 1990s performing at venues in ...

and received homage from

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

frontman

Thom Yorke Thomas Edward Yorke (born 7 October 1968) is an English musician who is the vocalist and main songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He plays guitar, bass, keyboards and other instruments, and is noted for his falsetto. ''Rolling Stone'' desc ...

, who dedicated a song to Mulcahy at a

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

show. An essay on Mulcahy's song "Hey Self-Defeater" (from the album ''Fathering'') was featured in

Nick Hornby Nicholas Peter John Hornby (born 17 April 1957) is an English writer. He is best known for his memoir '' Fever Pitch'' (1992) and novels ''High Fidelity'' and '' About a Boy'', all of which were adapted into feature films. Hornby's work frequen ...

's book ''

Songbook A song book is a book containing lyrics for songs. Song books may be simple composition books or spiral-bound notebooks. Music publishers also produced printed editions for group singing. Such volumes were used in the United States by piano man ...

''. In 2003, Mulcahy was invited to sing a Haiku poem, "Haiku Three In The Museum Garden", by Nobel laureate George Seferis, on the international release of electronica band Sigmatropic ''Sixteen Haiku & Other Stories.'' A subsequent limited edition 12-inch by Sigmatropic the following year, ''Could That Be The Voice?'' (Tongue Master Records), featured Mulcahy on two featured alternate remixes, "Haiku One" and "Haiku Four", as well as contributions by Edith Frost & Carla Torgerson ( The Walkabouts). Mulcahy composed the music for and performed in Ben Katchor's 2004 musical, ''The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, or, The Friends of Dr. Rushower''. Mulcahy also co-wrote the musical ''The Rosenbach Company'' with Katchor. Mulcahy recorded a cover version of

Shania Twain Eilleen Regina "Shania" Twain ( ; born August 28, 1965) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has sold over 100 million records, making her one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists of all time and the best-sel ...

's "From This Moment On" for

Engine Room Recordings Engine Room Recordings is an independent record label with a roster of indie rock and alternative rock musicians. Beyond marketing and distribution for its artists, the label does booking and artist management. Engine Room Recordings is part of th ...

' compilation album '' Guilt by Association'', which was released in September 2007. His song "Cookie Jar" was used in the 2008 movie ''

Management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

'' over the closing credits. A tribute album titled '' Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy'' was released on September 15, 2009, featuring contributions from

, Frank Black, The National, Dinosaur Jr.,

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father's militar ...

Juliana Hatfield Juliana Hatfield (born July 27, 1967) is an American musician and singer-songwriter from the Boston area. She was formerly a member of the indie rock bands Blake Babies, Some Girls, and The Lemonheads. Hatfield also fronted her own band, The Ju ...

, Mercury Rev, David Berkeley,

Frank Turner Francis Edward Turner (born 28 December 1981) is an English Punk rock, punk and Folk music, folk singer-songwriter from Meonstoke, Hampshire. He began his career as the vocalist of post-hardcore band Million Dead, then embarked upon a primaril ...

. The album also serves as a benefit for Mulcahy, whose wife Melissa died in 2008. Mulcahy re-emerged in 2012 with a reunion show with Polaris at Cinefamily's Everything is Festival III on August 28. Following the performance, a

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

page for Polaris appeared. Mulcahy played a four-date tour in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in early December, including a performance at the

All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released as the band's debut single in 1966. The song is from their 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the so ...

festival. In addition, Mulcahy's single "Low Birthweight Child/The Cottage That We Rented Had a Name" was released on December 10 by the UK-based Tongue Master Records. In 2013, he released his first full-length album in eight years, ''Dear Mark J. Mulcahy, I Love You'', and undertook a minor tour in the U.S. Mulcahy appeared on

J Mascis Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. (born December 10, 1965), better known as J Mascis, is an American musician who is the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo artist a ...

', ''Tied to a Star'' (2014), singing on two tracks. Miracle Legion was reformed in 2016–2017.

Partial discography

* ''Fathering'' (1997) CD on the Mezzotint Label/ Loose Music * ''C.O.D.'' (1999) 7-inch vinyl on Lissy Records * ''I Just Shot Myself in the Foot Again'' (2000) EP on Mezzotint * ''Smilesunset'' (2001) CD/LP on Mezzotint/ Loose Music * ''In Pursuit of Your Happiness'' (2005) CD on Mezzotint/ Loose Music * ''Love's the Only Thing That Shuts Me Up'' (2005) EP on Mezzotint * ''Low Birthweight Child ‘ , ‘The Cottage That We Rented Had a Name'' (2012) - 7-inch vinyl on Tongue Master Records * ''Dear Mark J Mulcahy, I Love You'' (2013) on Fire Records/Mezzotint * ''The Possum in the Driveway'' (2017) on Mezzotint * ''The Gus'' (2019) on Mezzotint * ''Franks And A Flag'' (2020) on Mezzotint

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mulcahy, Mark American rock songwriters American rock singers American rock musicians Nickelodeon people Place of birth missing (living people) Living people Singer-songwriters from New York (state) Year of birth missing (living people) Loose Music artists American male singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Connecticut