Polaris was a one-off musical project in the mid-1990s involving members of the Connecticut indie rock band Miracle Legion.
Mark Mulcahy, Spot "Scott" Boutier, and Dave McCaffrey performed music for the Nickelodeon television show The Adventures of Pete & Pete under the name Polaris because a fourth Miracle Legion member was not available at the time; occasional guests included Joyce Raskin, Dennis Kelly, and Buell Thomas.
Polaris performed many of the songs featured on the show, including the theme song, "Hey Sandy", and its members took "TV names": Mulcahy was "Muggy", Boutier was "Jersey", and McCaffrey was "Harris Polaris." In addition to appearing in the opening credits of each show, the band featured prominently in the episode "A Hard Day's Pete", in which Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli) is mesmerized by a garage band's song (Polaris' "Summerbaby") and forms his own band to keep the tune in his memory.
Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, released in 1999 on Mulcahy's Mezzotint label, contains many of the songs Polaris recorded for the show and is the group's only album release.
Polaris is thought to be named after the UGM-27 Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile designed by the United States during the Cold War. This is based on the introduction of the album version of "Hey Sandy", which mentions Polaris in this context.
