Dan And The Fam Indulge Infomercial Insanity On “OHSO”
With society still overflowing with snake oil salesmen and Ponzi schemes multiplying at every turn, it feels impossible to escape the constant flood of get-rich promises and miracle cures embedded in our modern society. At this point, they’ve become almost synonymous with the American Dream itself, perhaps best embodied by the Rockefeller name, an enduring symbol of wealth and power whose roots trace back to the world of fraud and a literal “elixir” salesman. The call is coming from inside the house, as they say, so why blame people for succumbing to the surreal mania of it all? Why not crank the absurdity up another notch? Luckily, that’s exactly what Richmond psych-groove outfit Dan and The Fam deliver in the new video for “OHSO.”
The video, directed by Alex Bond from Still Thinking Productions, drops the band in a fever dream that’s both a capitalist paradise and a moral hellscape. An all-too-familiar late-night telemarketing ad triggers a cultural frenzy as people scramble for the one-stop shop capable of fixing everything from broken bones to spilled toothpaste. Of course, just as the hysteria reaches its peak, the government swoops in to curb the mania, though not without another product already waiting in the wings to take its place, a pointed reflection of the endless lobbying and profiteering that has kept the country trapped in a medical quagmire long after much of the rest of the world moved on.
Guitarist and vocalist Dan DeMarais steps into the role of product spokesman in the video, blurring the line between classic pitchmen like Billy Mays and Don West and more insidious figures like Jordan Peterson and David Miscavige. Still, buoyed by the rest of the band’s cheeky commitment to the premise and the song’s chirpy energy, the video never feels overbearing, heavy-handed, or caustic. Instead, it leans fully into the campiness we’ve already normalized all around us, hopefully enough to help viewers spot the next cultural craze a little quicker than the last. But as the song’s chorus reminds us, that’s easier said than done: “Oh\ It can be\ So\ Hard to see.”
The song itself reveals a sharper critique lurking beneath its animated melody and playful exterior. “Talk to me with your eyes and see\ That we don’t need our words to speak” opens the first verse, craving sincerity inside a system that rewards obfuscation at every turn, especially when confusion can be monetized and insecurities transformed into profit. Later, “Spin the wheel and hope it lands on nine\ Tell me what you cannot define” gestures toward the culture of chance, spectacle, and blind optimism surrounding modern consumerism, or perhaps what it was always destined to become. Who even knows what we’re chasing anymore with each new spin, yet we still find ourselves eager for the next trend, product, or revelation.
Still, exhaustion quietly bleeds through the second verse (“I’d rather float than sink or swim“) before the band digs into the emotional conditions that make these cycles possible in the first place (“The pressure builds within and breaks the mold\ Sweet relief no more grief in the seeds I’ve sown“). The song isn’t interested in mocking the people who fall into these endless loops of promises and false solutions. Instead, it understands why they exist at all: the universal desire for something that can make the workday feel a little lighter, the next bill cycle a little easier to stomach, and the looming weight of existential dread just distant enough to ignore for one more night. Delivered over a dancing groove and snappy guitar lines, it makes for a sharply observant piece of psych-groove that disguises its unease beneath an irresistibly playful surface.
“OHSO” has been a core part of the Dan and The Fam repertoire for several years now, first appearing on the band’s 2023 album Live At The Broadberry before receiving a proper studio recording and standalone release in 2024 as the group’s third official single. Since then, the band has added two more singles to its catalog, “SWAMPDADDY” and “Lapse,” with the former even receiving a kind of backdoor pilot at the end of the “OHSO” video, swapping the late-night telemarketing aesthetic for the equally dystopian world of pharmaceutical advertising. Here’s hoping the next entry arrives sooner rather than later, though “OHSO” stands firmly on its own as both a hilarious spectacle and a quietly unnerving mirror of modern life.
Watch the video for “OHSO” below and make sure to follow Dan And The Fam on social media for more.
