Miracle Legion - Definition and Overview

Miracle Legion was a Connecticut-based new wave jangle pop band begun in 1984, consisting of singer Mark Mulcahy, guitarist Mr.Ray Neal, drummer Jeff Wiederschall, and bassist Stephen West. Constant comparisons to R.E.M., were largely inaccurate due to the fact that other than a few similarly sounding songs, the respective bands' sounds were largely dissimilar lyrically and musically. Their first EP, The Backyard, was released by Incas Records in 1984, when it became a college radio hit. Their second full-length album,on Rough Trade Records, Surprise Surprise Surprise wasn't released until 1987, their next album, Glad, released in 1988, was a mixture of new songs and live tracks. In 1989, Mulcahy and Neal changed the direction of the band, having lost their rhythm section, with Me and Mr. Ray leading to the band signing with the now defunct Morgan Creek label and the Drenched album in 1992. The label wouldn't give them the money to release an album, or release them from their contract so they wandered in limbo until the Portrait Of A Damaged Family album was released in 1997 on the Mezzotint label. Mulcahy continues to perform as a solo acoustic artist, Mr.Ray now resides in Scotland.