Press and Bio
Bio coming soonish
for now...
Animal Hospital is Kevin Micka.
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Links to reviews of the S/T Release
Review for SF Station by Matt Forsman 12.16.06
View reviews below with out having to click on link!
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Links to interviews and other press
January 2005 interview in the Weekly Dig
View interviews and press below with out having to click on link!
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Other Media Links
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Hampton Beach,New Hampshire 9.06
The Mountain Bar with House Of Low Culture 10.06
Photos by:Katharine Fisk Shields
self portrait
REVIEWS!!!!!
Review/Blurb from Aquarius Records
ANIMAL HOSPITAL s/t (Mr. Records) cd 12.98
Loop-based one man band Animal Hospital (Kevin Micka) creates a mesmerizing and lush soundworld on this debut self-titled release. Chock full of post rock delights, warm swelling soundscapes, hypnotic arpeggiated guitar lines, pounding crunchy drum beats... And what's super cool is that he is able to replicate all of this live, all by himself! Armed with only a guitar, a drum kit and a shitload of loop pedals and effect processors, he builds these tracks from a single loop into a dense and triumphantly heavy postrock jam. Droney and dirgey and dreamily melancholy, Mr. Micka has produced an album that is at once angular and technical while maintaining a vibe of lonesome sadness, which ends up being pretty damn powerful and at moments, straight up beautiful. The actual recording is amazing as well (his engineering is on par with his soundcraft), producing a warm and glistening sound.
Great rainy day post rock!
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A Review fromSF Station
Animal Hospital - Animal Hospital
Released on Mister Records
By Matt Forsman (Dec 14, 2006)
Few experiences induce more stress in the family pet than a trip to the veterinarian or animal hospital. For those who have (or had) pets, you’ve probably had the experience of your pet becoming a seething mass of anxiety prior to the trip to the vet. In lieu of a canine (or feline) quaalude or sedative, musician Kevin Micka (aka "Animal Hospital") offers an auditory solution in his self-titled debut album Animal Hospital. This is not to say that Micka’s brand of music will only appeal to pets. While this may be the primary audience, Micka’s got a sound that will appeal to species a bit higher up the evolutionary chain as well..pet owners, specifically. In all seriousness, Micka is a gifted musician and Animal Hospital provides an eclectic (and often satisfying) listening experience that is a pretty solid beginning. How can you not enjoy an album with wonderful track names like "Killer Gnome" (you can’t help envisioning a malevolent lawn gnome running amok while listening to this one), "Paralarva", and "Below The Ocean"? Nearly devoid of lyrics, you’re left to your own devices to create meaning/substance from the track titles and accompanying sounds. Micka kicks things off with the aforementioned "Killer Gnome" and despite the imagery it may evoke, the track itself is far from malevolent. Rather it is a leisurely, wandering track simply constructed from Micka’s guitar strumming, deliberate drumming, and some electronic equipment. It’s the kind of track you’d expect to see showing up in the soundtrack of an independent film that delves into the darker, murkier side of life. This is not to say it’s a depressing track, just one that suggests a certain uncertainty. There is a tone and feel to many (if not all) of the tracks in Animal Hospital that is reminiscent of DJ Shadow’s classic Endtroducing. Micka unquestionably has a very different sound and sensibility, but the tone and mood is similarly dark, moody, and evocative. For those with an aversion to music that is absent of lyrics, moody and atmospheric, Animal Hospital provides little solace but for those who can appreciate something a bit more crepuscular, Micka’s constructed something pretty solid in this album. If there’s one shortcoming to Animal Hospital it is the sometimes striking similarity from one track to the next. It would be nice if each track had its own distinct identity, but that isn’t necessarily the case. But, each track is thoughtfully constructed and well orchestrated resulting in a debut album that is more than worth listening to. Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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January 2005 interview in the Weekly Dig
Animal Hospital
Self-contained and Really Heavy
* by Michael Brodeur
* Issue 7.01
* Wed, January 05, 2005
Indie townies who care not for their delicate little ear bones are certainly familiar with Kevin Micka's full-band project The Common Cold. Their distinctive grinding of reliable post-rocky song-mapping against old-skooly, loose-cannon chimp rock has made them local faves over the years, and this approach to organized noise serves as a unique premise for Micka's beautifully spiraling departures as Animal Hospital.
The morning after Christmas brings a nasty snowstorm-the first big dumping of the season-and it's just enough to make me wimp out on trekking 9-to-39-style out to J.P. to see Micka off as he departs for his second national Animal Hospital tour. Adding to this feeling of wimpiness is hearing Micka discuss this tour's hectic schedule in detail.
Over the next four blurry weeks, he will see three corners of the country (nuts to you, Florida), a wide variety of basements and, hopefully, some repeat attendees anxious to get another look at his unique twist on one-man-bandmanship.
So where's the first stop?
Oh, man, St. Louis.
Whoa. What's that, like, 18 hours?
Yeah, something like that. I used to know all these people in Columbus, but they all moved. I'm toying with the idea of just driving the whole thing.
Are you traveling alone?
I was preparing myself to go alone, but I kind of started to chicken out this past week. I didn't expect anyone to be able to make it-but my upstairs neighbor Rob is going to come along for two weeks. I've known him for about a year; he's a cool guy. He committed to coming, like, 24 hours ago. From California on, it looks like I might be by myself.
What do you take with you?
Half a full band's amount of equipment. Guitar amp, half my drums, a box of pedals, a mixer-it's self-contained and really heavy. In comparison to The Common Cold, it's like everything but the bass amp.
That's a lot of shit.
Yeah, I've been trying to think of ways to reconfigure things.
So do you call yourself a “one man band”?
I think I'm getting more used to that term. The last week of the tour, I'm booking all by myself, and in some ways, it helps to make it all sound more appealing-so I've been using the term a bit more. Obviously, it would be better if people were more interested in the music than in some sort of shtick, but I thought at the very least the pedal nerd people would be into it.
Can you give our readers who aren't pedal nerds an idea of how the Hospital works?
Sure, I had to explain this to all these family people last night; it's hard for me to make it sound not too technical. There's a looping pedal that records what I do. I might start a song at my drums (which are miked), I play a measure or so, and then I'd have a guitar that I pick up and layer a guitar track on it. Then I continually layer things, and it all goes into a mixer that I control. I've spent so much time on all of the technicalities, I'm excited to actually relax and work more on the creative side of things.
What gave you the idea for Animal Hospital?
In the beginning days of The Common Cold, we had talked about it. I had always thought of looping the drums (mainly so I could play guitar-I've just played guitar longer). We never really seemed loaded with commercial potential, so we always wanted to try out whatever ideas we could. This one was always there but never materialized. This past summer, I gave myself a deadline and booked a trip. It took a couple months to work out the details, but surprisingly, it's come out just as I expected it to.
What about next year?
I'll probably tour off and on; as long as I can afford it and it doesn't depress me-usually by the third or fourth tour, if things haven't improved, it's kind of trying on your ego. Neptune just got back from Europe; they booked their own tour and drove themselves. Makes me think I should try to do that. Before I'm 30, maybe. So that gives me about a year. Even if it was just a week's vacation with a few shows booked in there. In a way, I have grand plans, since I don't have to wait on anything. Well, except financial things. And girlfriend things.
Ha. That's a good ending.
Well, as long as it doesn't sound bad.