On eBay, $5 can buy a switchblade comb, flowering moose nuggets, a fart extinguisher or boss-be-gone pills. This Friday, $5 buys access to a versatile, five-band lineup at Jose’s.

The Taphandles – from the overcast streets of Seattle – make their Monterey debut with sandpaper-rough, acoustic soul tunes. “Illusion,” off the group’s debut EP, begins with the soft-spoken growl of a vintage organ before breaking out into an explosion of acoustic funk fronted by Jake Patterson’s resonant vocals. “Pepper” has the raw, whisky-pickled emotion of a dusty old trailer park in Mobile, Alabama. Patterson – who writes many of the songs with his older brother and bandmate Lane – says the two were inspired to write the tune at a bar over several pints. The first line of the song is: “Have another pint, fit my head just right.”

Friday will be an extra special evening for Finkle is Einhorn: The Peninsula band will play its first live performance. The quartet, fronted by local badass surfer Brian Gorrell, plays punk and reggae-inspired originals like “Too Much Police” and “Payback.”

“We’re gonna get together and do this show and see where it goes from there,” says Gorrell, who also plays guitar. “Everybody’s been playing music for a long time so we’re all amped up to get together and rock the house.”

Gorrell says there may be a horn section backing the band on Friday to give its sound more of a reggae kick.

The Santa Cruz-based Birdhouse – another band in its infant stages – doesn’t keep its Grateful Dead influence a secret. In fact, “Sunflower Blue” is an obvious homage to the Dead’s nature odyssey, “Scarlet Begonias”; the tune features acid-washed arpeggios spouting from Jeff Carters’ lead guitar. Daniel Talamantes’ vocals on the spacey “Wooden Birds” meander as if they were floating over mountains on the moon.

The quartet recently released a live album, Live With Feathers, and is currently working on its debut LP.

The evening will be rounded out with two staples of the local music scene: Celtic hard rockers Bog Iron and everyone’s favorite party band, Serpico. Serpico bassist and the show’s promoter, Keigan Skydecker, says his band may even have a couple of new tunes up its sleeve. All in all, $5 will buy a hell of a lot of entertainment on Friday.

THE TAPHANDLES, SERPICO, BOG IRON, FINKLE IS EINHORN and BIRDHOUSE play 7pm Friday, April 23, at Jose’s Underground Lounge, 638 Wave St., Monterey. $5. 655-4419.