Uh-oh.

It looks like Panic! at the Disco might have just started up a new trend: Sticking exclamation marks in the middle of your band name (perhaps you’ve heard of local rockers Watchout! There’s Ghosts)

But there’s another exclamated local band that just likes the sound of stuff blowing up.

“I just really liked the word ‘explosive,’ so we tried different variations with that word in it,” said Oh My! Explosive vocalist Dan Empleo. “It just fit us so well; it’s what we wanted our name to say.”

Don’t confuse Empleo with a mischievous pyromaniac; the band name he chose has only to do with the sonic combustibility of their music, and I'm not at all advocating that their brand of music has anything to do with Panic! at the Disco.

“We’re not quite ‘hardcore,’ but we’re heavier than ‘screamo;’ there’s influences of both,” Empleo said. “I don’t really know what we are.”

Oh My! Explosive is a young band, which makes figuring out your sound just part of the growth process. But this quintet, which performs at the 180 Teen Center on Friday, February 6, is quickly becoming a favorite in the fledgling local hard rock scene.

The 180 is at 17 W. Lockeford St. in Lodi. The show gets rolling at 8 p.m., and cover is $5. Roseway and October, Embrace Her will also be playing.

It hasn’t exactly been an easy start for OM!E. In their first year of existence, they’ve already endured several lineup changes; two former members are now part of A Light in August, and two others have recently left the band for personal reasons.

The core of the band now consists of Empleo, guitarist Adam Lily, bassist Jeff Olay, guitarist Ryan Hinth, and newly added Cody Koroslev.

Couple the lineup shifts with a few transportation issues and breakdowns that have made it rough for the band to even get to their gigs. Fortunately, as they’re scraping together cash to buy a van, their pals from La Circa have loaned them the use of their wheels, and several friends have offered the group rides.

“We all help and support each other, and we don’t get jealous of each other,” said Empleo, who is longtime chums with many fellow members of San Joaquin’s “screamo scene.”

“When we first started, we wanted to write heavy electronic music,” Empleo said, “but now we can’t find a keyboardist capable of writing that kind of stuff, so we’re more of an experimental group.”

Drawing influences from hard rock bands like Underoath, Oceana and Oh, Sleeper, the group has an inventive take on hard rock, with Empleo’s gutteral and raucous vocals that deliberately avoid the screamo genre deathtrap of incoherence.

“I don’t like that, when you can’t understand the screaming,” said Empleo, who’s been training his wails with such aides as the “Zen of Screaming” DVD. “I want people to understand what I’m saying; I put my heart and soul into my lyrics.”

“I’m not one of the singers that just comes in and says ‘you do the riff and I’ll do the lyrics;’ we all have our input, and we’re always open to suggestions,” added Empleo, who along with his band mates old and new, seems to be on the right track.

“With the lineup we have now, I feel strong that this is what we want to do, and we’re really happy with the music we’re writing right now. I’m really picky about it, and I don’t want to sound just like any other band.”

BAND WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/ohmyexplosive

UPCOMING LOCAL DATES:

Feb 16 – Grave Covell Hall at UOP

Feb 21 – The Burning Bush

March 14 – “Big Show” at 180 Teen Center, with La Circa, We're Not Friends Anymore, All or Nothing, With Grace We Fall, The Fall of Autumn, and more.

April 3 – Empire Theatre w/ Alesana & Drop Dead Gorgeous