Dan Condon: Sick Tunes, Another Fucking Splendour List

I'm fed up with all of these Splendour In The Grass lists that have popped up on every second website over the past couple of days, mainly because they completely take away from the one reason we should be going to Splendour – sweet, sweet music.

Unfortunately there aren't really many hidden gems on the bill this year, it's a very recognisable line up. But there's enough good stuff on there for me to slap together a little list of my own.

So here are five acts worth a look in my opinion.

HAIM

Contrary to what some casual readers of this blog might believe, I'm not out there trying to be some kind of hipper-than-thou tastemaker who won't blog about something that has been sullied by the poison that is populist acceptance.

Thus, I love Haim. I'll still love them when they are legitimately the biggest indie band in the world and playing venues ten times the size as they are now and I'll still love them when they're clutching at straws on album number five, trying to recapture the cool they once had but coming across as nothing more than a nostalgia act.

THE DRONES

I See Seaweed is one of the best LPs of the year and their recent tour in support of it showed that the band are in as good a form in the live setting than ever. Seeing The Drones is an engrossing experience that works surprisingly well at a festival (sometimes against all odds) and on the Sunday they play a part of a great run of acts on the GW McLennan stage that also includes Gurrumul and You Am I.

I'd wanted to put their vicious new single – A Moat You Can Stand In – here, but I can't find a legal stream I can share with you so How To See Through Fog, the first single from their latest, will have to do. No matter, it's a corker of a song in its own right.

CLAIRY BROWNE & THE BANGIN' RACKETTES

You've probably heard of them, you might have watched one of their clips and tapped your foot to one of their songs on the radio, but if you've not yet seen Clairy Browne & The Bangin' Rackettes live then you need to amend that this weekend.

They dance, they sing, they smile and they make you want to enjoy everything there is to enjoy about life, which shouldn't really be too hard at 5.15 on a Friday evening.

WAJEED

For something a little different, head over to the Red Bull Music Academy Stage late on Saturday night to see Detroit beatmaker and producer Wajeed dropping tunes much like the above (I suppose. I actually have no idea what he'll be like).

Wajeed is one half of the Platinum Pied Pipers, worked quite a lot with the late great J Dilla and is behind the Bling47 label, which is well worth checking out in you're into underground hip hop. I'm just hoping I can stay up late enough to catch him.

POSTBLUE

Bunch of local Byron kids smashing out a kinda 90s grunge/early 200s emo hybrid (yeah, they're supporting Violent Soho in Brisbane) with some great moments, some moments that drag on a bit but the kinda big guitars, big drums and soaring melodies that might belt the shit out of your Saturday early-afternoon hangover. Maybe. They've got a long way to go, but there's certainly something in there.

Of course there's much more you should see (missing You Am I would be criminal, Frank Ocean might be the best 'urban', for want of a better word, act ever on the bill and I only just found out that Holy Balm are playing), but there are five to help you out.