So while tonight’s Flaming Lips show at the Phoenix is obviously the hot ticket of the early Spring (mandatory media coverage courtesy of The Toronto Star and The Toronto Sun and AP), one of the hot shows of last Summer (which I didn’t attend but was told was great), the Broken Social Scene fete at Olympic Island, is getting a second go-around.

This year’s edition, which will take place on June 24, will again feature some BSS family acts, in this case Feist and Raising The Fawn, and some impressive imported talent – Bloc Party and J Mascis – with more to be announced. Interesting to note that J is being billed simply as J, not Dinosaur Jr or Witch. Will he be doing Fog material? Or maybe he hasn’t decided exactly who he’s going to anger the Toronto Islands residents with.

Tickets for the to-do will go on sale on Thursday for the CFNY presale price of $38.50, plus $6 for the ferry to and from the islands. After that the price goes up, though I don’t know by how much. BSS also made some news backstage at the Juno awards after taking home a Best Alternative Album paperweight for Broken Social Scene, slagging off the Canadian Idol machine. JAM! and Chart dish dirt. Damn you, Kevin Drew. Damn you for making Kalan Porter cry.

Some other just-announced shows meriting varying degrees of excitedness: The Guillemots return to Toronto for a show at the Mod Club on May 4, SF shoegazers Film School have a date at the ‘Shoe on May 19, Greg Dulli brings his Twilight Singers to Lee’s Palace on May 27, the same night Imogen Heap returns to the Mod Club. Snow Patrol are at the Kool Haus June 7 and Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops, who were such a hit that SxSW that I had to stand on the street for two hours to get into the venue, are at the Horseshoe June 11.

After being delayed for, uh, 7 years, the Big Star tribute album Big Star Small World will finally be seeing a release on May 23. More than a quarter of the contributing artists are now defunct, one broke up for an extended period of time only to actually become half the band they’re saluting (who also themselves appear), several are a decade or so removed from their heyday and one is Wilco. I’ve already posted three of these tracks in the past, but this should still be worth possessing since I don’t actually have any more of them.

Chart and NOW stir some interest for Centro-Matic’s show at the Horseshoe tomorrow night.

The CBC has named me one of Canada’s best arts and entertainment blogs. Well thank you, Ceeb. You’re my second favourite crown corporation. Canada Post still wins because they bring me things.

np – Neko Case / Fox Confessor Brings The Flood