Performing at Falls Festival 2010

There are some folks who wouldn't dream of seeing in the New Year anywhere outside the fabled Lorne/Marion Bay axis, and despite the binary look of the transition between '10 and '11 there's nothing black and white about the Falls Festival lineup this time around. Surfing a revival of interest in her work, in part sparked by The Runaways movie, Joan Jett reminds us how it's done fronting the Blackhearts on "I Love Rock 'N Roll," while hip-hop legends Public Enemy shake up the mix with "911 Is a Joke," and duo of the moment, Angus & Julia Stone, ride in on the back of their ARIA triumph, quietly brandishing "And the Boys."

Beautiful Girls and Diamonds light up our Falls Festival Next Steps.

The dynamic women of Falls '10/11 make their mark here in Next Steps, in the shape of Ladyhawke, aka New Zealand's Pip Brown — who, incidentally, once belonged to another cinematically named band, Two-Lane Blacktop — here rocking melodiously through her 2008 hit "Paris Is Burning," as well as breakthrough artist (Megan) Washington with her sure-fire crowd-pleaser "Sunday Best," and Marina (Diamandis) & the Diamonds, issuing a consumer warning on "Oh No!" — "If you are not very careful/Your possessions will possess you." The Beautiful Girls are, of course, three hairy men who make warm, mellow tunes — check out their "Music."

Men with synths put the groove into our Falls Festival Deep Cuts.

When the time comes to really bust a move in celebration of the New Year, Falls is eager to oblige by sending out Norway's Casiokids, whose bass vibe on "Fot I Hose" is so fat it should really go on a diet (but hey, resolutions can wait till sunrise), Montreal's A-Trak — aka Alan Macklovitch, whose older brother David is one half of Chromeo — turning wallflowers into funky triffids with "Say Whoa!," and Mandurah's Tim & Jean, who cook up classic '80s synth sounds for breakfast with "Come Around." The charms of Eagle & the Worm are altogether more chaotic, but no less captivating, as their crackers-for-maracas party tune "All I Know" confirms.

Rap titans, legendary lady-rockers, bangin' dance acts, bands so tuned into the zeitgeist that astrologers turn to them for advice . . . the Falls Festival, split between Victoria and Tasmania, has just about everything required for a vintage New Year's Eve. And if, one day, your great grandchildren ask you if you were there, you can spin them a line by digesting the contents of this Essentials selection, cunningly crafted from the best of the artists on the dual-venue roster. As a hot index of great bands, this collection is off the charts, whether you prefer the decade-defining post-punk revivalism of Interpol, the re-animated psychedelic rock of Tame Impala, the sexed-up art-dance of Peaches, or the stripped-back country blues of Charlie Parr. The Falls celebration starts right now.