Beerland, known for music, old school video games, and, um, beer, will host a kind and compact cluster of five bands this Friday night, with all five bands making names for themselves within the confines of our fine city. Headlining will be The Diagonals, a subtle and scratchy outfit that, despite their somewhat workmanlike stylings while on stage, carries an innate danceability. Beyond that, Diagonals vocalist Steve Garcia, in some of his more speed-speak moments, has been compared to a young Michael Stipe...you know, before Michael Stipe had that whole fifteen years of boredom thing.

Sharing the top of the bill is Shapes Have Fangs, an esoteric bunch of fellows who mix the occasional Beach Boys-esque breakdown with an unabashed willingness to test the bounds of influence and obscurity--by many accounts, Shapes Have Fangs is also a band not afraid to push it in concert. Further down the docket is Harlem, a Tucson band brand new to Austin that offers a hard-to-dislike passion while managing to sound somewhat like recent lo-fi breakthrough Times New Viking. Because of the fun they seem to have playing together, Harlem should be a band to watch as they get adjusted to Austin's scene and develop their still-nascent sound.

Rounding out Beerland's deep Friday lineup are The Pillow Queens, a rough and tumble garage-y type group who make up for a lack of refinement with almost boundless energy, and Wine and Revolution, a smoothly strummy group whose sound would not feel out of place in the early sixties--they even mix in occasional whistling. Put all together, it's an interesting mix of bands and musics, yet there's an identifiable vein running through them: all of these bands bear their influences fearlessly, regardless of what those influences may be. And since everyone knows that confidence is cash, this looks to be a pretty solid show.

The Diagonals [MySpace]
Shapes Have Fangs [MySpace] [Virb]
Harlem [MySpace]
Pillow Queens [MySpace]
Wine and Revolution [MySpace]