Formed in 2008 by lead singer Yishai Romanoff and guitarist Mike Wagner, they released their debut album, Better Get Ready (2009), on Shemspeed Records, followed in 2011 by This World is Nothing.
[2] Initially a solo act, Romanoff eventually brought in his friend Mike Wagner, as well as bassist Mitchell "Mordechai" Harrison and drummer Paul "Pesach" Alpert, to complete the band.
[3][4] The band's name is derived from a combination Moshiach, the Jewish name for the Messiah; oy vey, a Yiddish expression conveying exasperation and dismay; and Oi!, a British working-class genre of punk music.
While the music is inspired by Romanoff's teenage love of punk bands like Leftöver Crack and F-Minus,[2] lyrical topics include blessing God, Shabbat, Torah study, idolatry, Moshiach, and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov.
[6] Patrick Aleph of the website Jewcy summarized Better Get Ready as "a blistering punk rock siddurim that effortlessly ties together Black Flag and Rambam, 7 Seconds and the Rebbe, The Casualties and the Kabballists.