Andrew Jackson Jihad represent, I think, a fine example of music’s tendency to stage a collision between means and ambition. “I would say, it’s a combination of what we listen to and enjoy hearing, along with the means that we had — the instruments that were readily available to us when we started being a band,” says Sean Bonnette, lead singer of the band.

What they listen to is punk, and punk is what they produce, albeit delivered through frantically strummed acoustic guitars. Officially only a two-piece, Andrew Jackson Jihad features a constantly rotating bunch of contributors, and the recordings sound as full and immediate as any other punk.

Just acoustic.

Bonnette sings with a wide-eyed, full-throated Jeff Mangum-esque holler that compliments the hysteria that permeates his songs. Andrew Jackson Jihad make no attempts to hide their admiration for (and slight borrowing from) Neutral Milk Hotel — they’ve gone as far as to cover “Two-Headed Boy” for a cover albums series. It’s almost part of their charm to hear Bonnette working his acoustic guitar like a mule to try and get that elusive fuzz to come out. When the horns and nautical sway finally arrive on “A Song Dedicated to the Memory of Stormy the Rabbit,” you can practically hear Bonnette’s shoulders relax and his voice get a little sweeter.

A slight undercurrent of winking acknowledgement to Top 40 radio’s ooey-gooey center runs through Andrew Jackson Jihad’s music. They title a particularly politically-opinionated song of theirs “Candle in the Wind (Ben’s Song)”, and as much as I try, I can’t see condescension. When they contributed a folksy cover of  “You May Be Right” to a split punk 7”, punk fanzine Razorcake responded by calling it “completely unlistenable.”

Andrew Jackson Jihad now wear the quote like a badge on their website. If that’s not punk, I don’t know what is.

[Northern, Andrew Jackson Jihad with Kepi Ghoulie, Partners in 818, Saturday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m., cover TBA, 321 Fourth Ave., Olympia, olympiaallages.org]