In this age of cookie-cutter pop punk bands and cookie-monster metal bands, very few groups can be called unique or original. But that is irrefutably what Oh My God is. The trio from Chicago is made up of over-driven organ, raunchy bass and drums, and the band’s upcoming album is its first in a six-year recording history with a guitarist. Organist Ig and singer/bassist Billy O’Neil took some time out of their drive from Iowa-to-Chicago to talk about their current tour, some interesting movies, and why it’s okay for them to use a guitarist.

Northern Star: What are you doing right now?

Ig: We’re actually in the van, driving to Chicago.

NS: Where are you driving from?

Ig: We played at Iowa State last night. We’re driving to Chicago now, and we’re heading back to wrap up a few shows. We’re finishing up 37 shows with our grand finale Chicago show, which will be our first Chicago club show in about a year in a half.

NS: What’s the story with the new album?

Ig: We’ve been real busy and we’re all playing in different bands, but we had a plan to start playing with a guitar player. We talked to the guitarist (Jake Garcia) from a band we’d played with a bunch of times, Darediablo, and we decided to do an album together. We’ve been recording since the year 2000 and we’ve always been just organ, bass and drums, and we thought this might be a chance for us to do an album with a guitar player. Even though that wouldn’t be too earth-shattering for most bands, we’ve kind of been labeled a guitar-less band so it’s kind of a big deal. We’re just using the guitar to emphasize the ideas rather than define them. The guitar allows us to have some more artillery.

NS: Are you planning to tour or record more albums with guitar?

Ig: We’ve been doing the whole tour with guitar. People come up and say they miss the three-piece, but we’re excited about it. It is different, because we’ve been playing a bunch of new songs but we’ve been playing old songs with guitars as well. Some people say we’ve never sounded better, but some people are confused.

NS: So is Jake a permanent member of the band?

Ig: We’re not using the word permanent or temporary. We’re just doing this album and this tour and just loving it. We feel mightier than ever.

NS: So you’re driving back from ISU. Seen anything interesting on the road so far?

IG: Helluva lot of roadkill today. We drove the whole state of Kansas the other day, and every other mile there was a Jesus billboard, and the whole road was covered with giant tumbleweeds. It was really a weird sight. Today it’s all roadkill.

NS: Where has this tour taken you?

Ig: We started out in Chicago, went to New York, drove down through the south and southwest, through California, through Idaho, and now we’re heading back to Chicago, really packing a lot of shows into these days. I’m really glad we decided to have DeKalb and Chicago shows last, because we’ve really got our thing down now. We’ve been improving our thing this whole time, and everything’s sounding really good.

NS: Have you played with any interesting bands this time out?

Ig: We did about 11 or 12 shows with a band from New York called Breaking Laces, who we toured England and Scotland with last year, and they’re going to be playing the Chicago show with us as well.

NS: And you’ve played at the House Cafe before, right?

Ig: Yeah, my other band, Them vs. Them, played there not long ago, and Oh My God played the House about six months ago. I really think John (Ugolini), who books the shows, is a really great guy doing a really great thing there. It’s great when you get a place like that and you have someone who knows what they’re doing and can get big shows through there. He’s really doing the right thing with that place.

NS: Have you gotten to see any interesting movies while you’ve been on the road?

Billy O’Neil: We all saw the movie “The Departed.” We enjoyed it. I want to see that “Borat” movie, but unfortunately we haven’t seen too much besides the bands we’ve been playing with every night.

NS: When you’re on the road, how do you usually start the day?

BO: Usually we just get into the van. I take a shower the night before, but the other guys do it in the morning. We get up, get on the road, stop for something to eat and keep cruising. Sadly, a lot of times it’s past breakfast time anyway.

NS: How do you pass time in the van?

BO: We get so many CDs that people give us, so a lot of times we’ll listen to other bands’ records. Usually I take a couple books out on the road. Or we look at dirty magazines.

NS: And lastly — what’s the deal with the band name?

BO: Some people always ask, “Is that a religious name?” And the answer is no, it’s more like, “Oh my god, we put that pizza in the oven two hours ago!”