Pillow Army is a band all about opposing elements. Acoustic guitar and a string section make up the body of most of the songs, but - more times than not - that calm is stabbed by raucous intrusions from loud electric guitars, working as a counterpoint to the loveliness of the other instrumentation.

Pillow Army is influenced by purveyors of a certain kind of aggressive folk, a brood Neutral Milk Hotel certainly belongs to. The band has even gone so far as to invite criticism with a cover of "Oh Comely," the towering emotional centerpiece of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - a move that some would call blasphemous.

[The New Frontier Lounge, with These Are The End Times, Keg-The Lone Ranger of Rock, Thursday, April 15, 9 p.m., cover TBA, 301 E. 25th St., Tacoma, 253.572.4020]