Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy is a tribute album to former Polaris and Miracle Legion front man Mark Mulcahy. [1] It was released on the Shout! Factory label on September 29, 2009. [2]
More than 30 artists recorded exclusive tracks for the album, intended to help Mulcahy continue making music while he was raising his three-year-old twin daughters after his wife Melissa died in 2008. [3] Notable contributors include Michael Stipe, Black Francis (as Frank Black), Thom Yorke, Dinosaur Jr., The National, Mercury Rev, Chris Collingwood of Fountains of Wayne, and David Thomas, whose band Pere Ubu was among those who had worked or performed with Miracle Legion and/or Polaris in the past. [2]
A deluxe edition was also released, including 20 bonus tracks over two additional CDs. [4]
John Michael Stipe is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of alternative rock band R.E.M.
Thomas Edward Yorke is an English musician who is the main vocalist and songwriter of the rock band Radiohead. He plays guitar, bass, keyboards and other instruments, and is noted for his falsetto. Rolling Stone described Yorke as one of the greatest and most influential singers of his generation.
Rocket from the Tombs is an American rock band originally active from mid-1974 to mid-1975 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The band featured David Thomas and was reconstituted several times with various line-ups starting in 2003.
Polaris is an American independent rock band that was formed as a one-off musical project in the early 1990s, involving members of the New Haven indie rock band Miracle Legion. They were commissioned specifically to produce music for the Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete, which was later compiled into the group's first and only album. Nearly twenty years after the show was cancelled, Polaris reemerged with its first tour and a cassingle of two new songs.
"Hey Sandy" is a song by the American indie rock band Polaris which serves as the theme song for the Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete. It's well-known by fans of the show and the band alike that the song's lyrics, nearly indecipherable, have generated considerable debate as to their meaning.
Miracle Legion was an American college rock band formed in 1983 in New Haven, Connecticut. They earned modest renown, especially in their native New England region, but also in the UK, where they were feted by music media such as NME and Melody Maker.
The Gravel Pit is a band from Boston's underground music scene, circa 1985–present.
Music from the Adventures of Pete & Pete is a studio album by the band Polaris, a one-off project involving members of the late 1980s and early 1990s band Miracle Legion, released on April 6, 1999. It features twelve songs composed by the band between 1992 and 1995 for the Nickelodeon television series, The Adventures of Pete & Pete. The album remains the only full-length release by Polaris.
James Victor Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990. His commercial breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.
Mark Mulcahy is an American musician. He was the front-man for the New Haven, Connecticut-based band Miracle Legion. The band earned modest renown, especially in their native New England region. Mulcahy soon formed Polaris, a house band 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 and rebuilding his career. Mulcahy has opened for notable artists, including Oasis and Jeff Buckley and received homage from Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, who dedicated a song to Mulcahy at a Boston show.
Tom Gilroy is an American director, writer, actor, producer, playwright, poet, musician, and teacher. Gilroy has written, directed and produced five films, including the award-winning short Touch Base and the critically acclaimed feature Spring Forward. He has appeared in over 20 television shows and 30 films.
Andy Yorke is an English musician best known as the lead singer and guitarist for the band Unbelievable Truth. He is the younger brother of the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke.
The English musician Thom Yorke has released three studio albums, two soundtrack albums, three EPs, one remix album and 20 singles. The frontman of the alternative rock band Radiohead since 1985, Yorke's first singles as a solo artist were as a featured vocalist on the singles "El President" by Drugstore and "Rabbit in Your Headlights" by Unkle.
Aaron Brooking Dessner is an American musician. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band The National, with whom he has recorded nine studio albums; a co-founder of the indie rock duo Big Red Machine, teaming with Bon Iver's Justin Vernon; and a collaborator on Taylor Swift's critically acclaimed studio albums Folklore and Evermore, both of which contended for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2021 and 2022, respectively, with the former winning the accolade; as well as The Tortured Poets Department (2024).
Nigel Powell is an English multi-instrumental musician from Abingdon.
Surprise Surprise Surprise is the first full-length album by Miracle Legion, released in 1987.
Lo Fine is an indie rock band, and recording project, started in Northampton, Massachusetts by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin O'Rourke in 1998. Although primarily the work of singer and multi-instrumentalist O'Rourke, his early collaborators (1999-2007) included musicians Brian Marchese (drums), Thane Thomsen (bass), and Mark Schwaber (guitar), as well as Bruce Tull of the Scud Mountain Boys, and José Ayerve. They have released three full length albums, and three EPs, notably incorporating home recordings with studio tracks on their early releases. The music is noted for its slow pace, quiet volume, and poetic lyrics, as well as being described as meditative, gentle, and melancholy.
The Backyard is the second release by the American alternative rock band Miracle Legion, released in 1984 on Rough Trade Records.
Kenneth Maiuri(born 1971) is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Florence, Massachusetts. Since early 2016, he has been the keyboardist for The B-52's. He has played in numerous other bands, such as Pedro the Lion and The Mammals. He has been part of the live band for performances of "Picture-Stories" created by Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy, including The Slug Bearers of Kayrol Island, or, The Friends of Dr. Rushower; A Checkroom Romance; and Up from the Stacks. Maiuri co-composed the music to Jason Mazzotta's 2015 short film The Century of Love, Part I. In 2023 he backed up Eggstone’s Per Sunding for his first-ever US tour. He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Fresh Air, and Mountain Stage.
R.E.M. at the BBC is a 2018 live album box set by American alternative rock band R.E.M. released on October 19, 2018. The eight-disc compilation features sessions recorded between 1984 and 2008, including a bonus DVD of videos. Additionally, a two-disc best-of collection was released on the same day.