St Jerome's Laneway Festival has gained quite the reputation as the type of ticket you keep on the down low.

Limited tickets available to check out some of the biggest names in alternative new music; the cats who miss out have been known to scale buildings and thwart lasers to steal friends' ticket stashes. This year, based on the line-up released on Monday, you’d probably be advised to invest in a safe for your tickets, or a guard dog, or quite possibly, a guard bear that shoots bees from its mouth, which in turn have laser-shooting capabilities. Each year the festival is responsible for causing countless kidlets to jump to new conclusions about their new favourite bands, dredging up back catalogues with more enthusiasm and know-it-all nichery than my grandfather about Lena Horne.

But where to find such sweet sweet music? This year, the country’s laneways will be yet again filled with the sounds of music so fresh it’s right off the bone. The festival kicks off in Brisbane’s CBD and makes its (lane)way to Auckland’s Silo Park, Melbourne’s Community Arts Centre in Footscray, the spooky Sydney College of the Arts, Adelaide’s Fowler’s Courtyard and the Perth Cultural Centre before finishing up in Fort Canning in Singapore.

With a track record worthy of many a Fish Records Hall of Fame including Florence and the Machine, Yeasayer, Chk Chk Chk, The XX, Mumford and Sons and Warpaint, Laneway is no stranger to an “awwww shieeet yeah!” line-up release. This year is no different. Electronic enthusiasts will dig the suave beats of Geoffrey O’Connor, US space-outers Chairlift and electro barons M83 fronting their new found saxophone preferences. The real winners this year will be fans of crisp, drive-yer-jeep-down-the-coast indie with Givers, The Drums, Girls, The Horrors, Yuck and The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart exuding squees from the best of us.

On first release, the Laneway lovers will be thus (in alphabetical order for your viewing pleasure):

ACTIVE CHILD
ANNA CALVI
AUSTRA
BULLION
CHAIRLIFT
CULTS
DZ DEATHRAYS
EMA
FEIST [except Adel**]
GEOFFREY O'CONNOR
GIRLS
GIVERS [Syd + Melb]
GLASSER – HUSKY [Bris, Syd, Melb]
JOHN TALABOT
JONTI
LAURA MARLING
M83
ONEMAN
PAJAMA CLUB (featuring Sharon and Neil Finn)
PORTUGAL THE MAN [Syd + Melb]
SBTRKT (Live)
TRIPLE J Unearthed Winners
THE VERY WEST
THE DRUMS
THE HORRORS
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART
THE PANICS
TORO Y MOI
TOTAL CONTROL
TWIN SHADOW
WASHED OUT
WU LYF
YUCK

What: St Gerome's Laneway Festival
When: Sunday 5 February 2012
Where: Sydney College of the Arts, Balmain Road, Rozelle (subject to Council approval)

Tickets go on sale at 9.00am (EDST) Wednesday 19th October 2011.
Available solely through Greentix for $140 per ticket (inclusive of $5 booking fee & GST).