Food Will Win the War is scheduled to play The Middle East on Sunday. (Photo: Nicole Cordier)

The name of Brooklyn band Food Will Win the War will tickle the memory of some disparate groups: For those around during World War I and II, it was a slogan used to inspire food production and conservation; for those who read The Onion’s AV Club site, it was a winner of “The Worst Band Names Of ’07” along with such greats as Gay Witch Abortion, The Hobbits of the Shire and Doofgoblin (which played on the same bill with Food Will Win the War in Charlottesville, N.C.).

But unlike Butt Stomach and Harmonica Lewinsky, Food Will Win the War is still around — in fact, is playing The Middle East on Sunday because it is touring behind the release of a new album, “A False Sense of Warmth” — and gathering great reviews.

Interview magazine touts its “dreamy pop sounds mixed with complex human emotions” in the November issue. Time Out New York calls the music “quietly elegant … with a moody intellectual streak.” And Michael Brodeur said in a Boston Phoenix review from just over three years ago that “Missing NYC’s Food Will Win the War would be a big mistake — especially if you like smooth, smoky, fine-tined, scaled-down fare à la Elliott Smith or Erlend Øye.”

If you believe Brodeur, the six-piece band (variously described as “alt-country” and influenced by Elliott Smith, The Magnetic Fields, Neutral Milk Hotel and the Pixies) plays late Sunday at The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square, with 8 p.m. openers Kelley McFarling and Tallahassee, a Boston band claiming it is “without a doubt the only band fronted by a former NFL offensive lineman who gave up that life to pursue music.”

The album is on sale on iTunes or at Armageddon Shop, 12 Eliot St., Harvard Square.

Food Will Win the War’s Rob Ward recommends buying tickets ahead of time by clicking here.