aaamusic | On 25, Jan 2011

Austin-based Oh No Oh My explain why their second LP is technically their first *real* album and announce a separate EU release via Moulleux Records in March to coincide with their European tour.
A lot has changed for Oh No Oh My since the initial rush of hype and success received from their quickly recorded, self-titled and self-released debut album that led to see them tour with the likes of Mew, the Flaming Lips and Gnarls Barkley – whilst also having their music plastered all over TV and movie screens for programmes like ‘Weeds’ and adverts for films such as ‘Juno’. For a start they released two EPs; ‘Between the Devil & the Sea’ and ‘Dmitrij Dmitrij’. So then what happened? Oh No Oh My grew up. Priorities manifested. A new focus set in. And the result of all that is ‘People Problems,’ the group’s first new music in three years and, in essence, the band’s first “real” album. It’s with ‘People Problems’ that fans of their previous releases will really notice this progression. They’ve developed a more mature sound to match a seemingly more abstract (and quite often dark) set of inspirations. In essence such insights into their experiences show this album is not simply a collection of songs scrambled together but instead 12 grandly small stories of the regular and the ordinary, the unusual and the exceptional- each taking turns to sneak in as songs only to turn around and reveal that they’re actually reminders of what it’s like to be a person. A person with problems.

A first listen to the upbeat strums of ‘So I Took You’ (surprisingly written straight after waking up in hospital following a truly horrific car accident) may not appear to set a perceiving conventional tone for what actually is the tale of a knife-wielding pervert’s warped endeavours with a hopeless victim. Oddly, both ‘Brains’ and ‘There Will Be Bones’ were also written after a car accident- but for reasons that are too obvious/gruesome to get into. Tracks such as ‘I Don’t Know’ explores the band’s own reflection of meaninglessness following the brutal mugging of one of the band members, whilst ‘Not The One’ expands that same reflection further after a less-than-successful police line up in relation to the offense. What makes the entire album such an intriguing piece of work is that Oh No Oh My’s musical style appears awkwardly cobbled with their broad, yet diverse lyrical references. Whilst their lyrics broach the topics of killing overbearing parents, a wrongfully convicted man, life’s meaninglessness, and even the bone-filled crypts of the Capuchin monks- these often seemingly oppressive topics never quite seem to equal what one might perceive as formulaic musical styles to match them. As lead singer Daniel Hoxmeier states in regards to the lively tempo, quiet percussion and subtle horns on ‘Again Again’; “It’s quite pretty for a song about reaching down someone’s throat”

With such an rousing collection of experiences creating the subject matter for the album, understanding the thoughts behind these songs enables us to fully appreciate ‘People Problems’ on an entirely different level. The band have gone one step further with this concept, by creating and updating a website (www.people-problems.com) that showcases both random people and fans they have met whilst on tour who are willing to publically share their own (and often bizarre) ‘people problems’ on camera.