Performing at Big Day Out 2011

The six-city festival behemoth smashes into 2011 with the subtlety of a blazing asteroid, headlined by punkfather Iggy Pop who, despite the 2009 death of founding Stooge Ron Asheton, rocks on with a solid Stooges lineup, mining classic album Raw Power for much of his set list: we open up these Essentials with the still-electrifying "Search & Destroy." Co-headliners Rammstein jet in from Germany with their over-the-top brand of Neue Deutsche Härte industrial metal — check out "Pussy," and its counterpoint from Nick Cave's Grinderman "No Pussy Blues" — while other notables include M.I.A. ("XXXO") and fidget house-crashers the Bloody Beetroots ("Warp 1.9"). International acts from Cape Town and Sao Paulo supercharge our BDO Next Steps.

Our selection of performers from the 2011 B.D.O. lineup continues with a satisfying sense of bran-tub unpredictability — plunge in your hand, and each time you'll come up something different and surprising. South African rap phenomenon Die Antwoord (which translates as "The Answer") mixes up English and Afrikaans on 2010's "Enter the Ninja," and the contrast with Angus and Julia Stone could not be more pronounced: the ARIA Award-laden duo delivers "Big Jet Plane" with a tender kind of melancholy. Elsewhere, Brazil's CSS fizzes through "Music Is My Hot, Hot Sex" and New York's Ratatat slathers "Seventeen Years" in mock-baroque freakiness. A load of Kids are handed the reins of BDO, in Deep Cuts.

Ravin' like there's no tomorrow has always been a massive part of the overall B.D.O. experience, and here we've included several of the outfits on the 2011 roster most likely to cause a groove explosion — Kid Kenobi and his partner in rhythm, MC Shureshock, pump up the party with "Acid Break (Vox)," Bulletproof uses former Salmonella Dub lynchpin Tiki Taane to excellent effect on "Soundtrack to Forever," and Aukland's Kids of 88 pack an awesome electropop crunch into 2009's "My House." Plan B stirs some soul into the mix with "She Said" and Andrew W.K. takes it back to 2001 with "Party Hard" from his debut album, I Get Wet.

Six locations, seven nights, and a rock 'n' roll touring party stacked top-to-bottom with mad skills — no doubt about it, Big Day Out, going strong since 1992 and growing exponentially, is the summer festival to beat. Size, variety, sheer sonic splendiferousness . . . B.D.O. has it all, and we've handpicked a wide-ranging collection of tunes that showcase many of the 2011 performers at the top of their game. As usual, it's a case of rock in the red corner, rave in the blue corner, and a glorious fusion of crossover cuts in the middle: so chop 'n' change between Wolfmother ("New Moon Rising") and the Black Keys ("Howlin' For You") on one hand, Primal Scream ("Movin' On Up") and LCD Soundsystem ("I Can Change") on the other. Or simply dive in, and see where the current of our B.D.O. 2011 Essentials takes you.