No pomp, no ceremony, no skydiving Richard Branson. Just a simple emailed press release with the first salvo of acts for this year’s Virgin Festival Toronto lineup (thankfully not the Virgin Mobile Festival, as they’ve renamed the US edition to).

The dates are September 6 and 7, the venue is once again the Toronto Islands and the theme, apparently, is the rock. Day one will be closed out by Foo Fighters and also feature Bloc Party, Spiritualized, Wintersleep and The Constantines. Day two brings Oasis, Paul Weller, Sterophonics, The Weakerthans and The Pigeon Detectives. Many many more to be announced, obviously, but there’s your big names. A lot of Englishness, a lot of veterans, a lot of dudes, a lot of guitars.

The Foos are no surprise, they’ve been mentioned in the context of the US V Fest plenty. Oasis did catch me off guard but, considering that I’ve been reevaluating my general disdain for them thanks to their eminently listenable best-of Stop The Clocks, I can definitely get behind them. Obviously still a big enough name and when I saw them over a decade ago opening for Neil Young, demonstrated an astonishing amount of live charisma considering they just stood there the whole time. And yay Andy Bell. Spiritualized is always welcome and I hope someone good is scheduled on the other stage opposite Stereophonics. I had sorta hoped there’d be some My Bloody Valentine action but am not really surprised there isn’t – their appeal is probably pointed in a slightly different direction from the festival’s target and, no matter what time they played, would probably be loud enough that the fest would never be welcome back on the islands again… Anyway – your thoughts on the lineup so far? I can’t say I’m displeased at all – a good start, at the very least.

And it’s interesting that we got our lineup announced before either Calgary or Vancouver, even though their festivals go off sooner than ours (June and TBA, respectively), but I’m not complaining. Between them, they’ve got that Pemberton Festival to parse/bitch about. Tickets for V Fest Toronto go on sale this Saturday, $159 for a two-day pass and $87 for a single. Yes, finally a price break for weekenders.

MP3: Bloc Party – “I Still Remember” (acoustic)
MP3: Wintersleep – “Jaws Of Life”
MP3: The Constantines – “Hard Feelings”
MP3: The Weakerthans – “Sun In An Empty Room”
MP3: The Pigeon Detectives – “I’m Not Sorry”
Video: Oasis – “Acquiesce”
Video: Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
Video: Spiritualized – “Stop Your Crying”
Video: Paul Weller – “Sunflower”
Video: Stereophonics – “Dakota”

Crawdaddy considers the influence of ABBA on the works of Jens Lekman, while The San Francisco Bay Guardian caught a quick Q&A with him at SxSW in which he extols the virtues of Wikipedia. Lekman has two shows in Toronto on April 7 and 8 at the Music Gallery. Advance tickets for the second show are already gone, so if you were dithering… quit it.

Those of you who like single-monikered Euro dance divas will be interested to know that Yelle, from France, will be at the Great Hall on April 30 (tickets $17.50 available here) and Robyn, from Sweden, is at the Phoenix on May 5.

Video: Yelle – “Je Veux Te Voir”
Video: Robyn – “Konichiwa Bitches”

The Long Blondes will release Couples on April 8. This is the first MP3 from the record. They are at Lee’s Palace on May 22. I am missing that show.

MP3: The Long Blondes – “Here Comes The Serious Bit”

And I’m also missing this show. The Submarines, fresh off releasing their new record Honeysuckle Weeks on May 13, will be at the Drake Underground on May 24. I liked their first record Declare A New State, and from the sounds of it I’ll like the new one too.

MP3: The Submarines – “You, Me and the Bourgeoisie”

And while I will be back in town by June 4, I won’t be heading to the Phoenix to see Be Your Own Pet, She Wants Revenge, Switches and The Virgins. But you totally can if you want. I won’t judge you. Much.

Mark Kozelek’s June 10 show at Lee’s has been canceled. The new Sun Kil Moon record April is still presumably coming out April 1.