My recession-hit pockets can only afford to buy five albums right now — Revolver, The White Album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road. But let me tell you these are all worth the price.

The remastering of the albums are superb. The quality is top notch and there is a clarity to the new release that makes you appreciate the songs more. It also reveals new elements and details to the songs that, in most cases, makes you feel that you’re listening to the song for the first time. I won’t even try to rave about the packaging of the digipacks. The pictures are beautiful and the liner notes reveal new information and details that, for a Beatles fan like me, is just a joy to read.

My next project — The Beatles in Mono box set.

I’m on the constant lookout for fresh music. And when I mean fresh, I mean music that’s not played ad nauseum on MTV — besides I don’t consider majority of what’s played on that channel as music anyway, most of it just manufactured merchandising crap. One band I stumbled upon almost four years ago was Fujiya and Miyagi. Despite the very Japanese name and the obvious conclusion that it’s a duo, the band is actually a trio from Brighton, England (they have since added a fourth member on drums).

The band plays electronic music that immediately evokes seminal electronic outfits like Can, Neu! and Kraftwerk — a very Germanic flavor that really makes you crease your forehead because of the disparity and seeming contradictions of what the band represents — three English lads with a Japanese band name that evokes a duo who play German electronic music. It may sound strange on paper, but the initial blast of their music will bring that sudden realization — it actually works! And works well, indeed. Fujiya and Miyagi brings an almost indie rock/punk rock flavor to electronic music that is palpable. Like any good rock song, it has heft and attitude and swagger, but since it’s electronic music that’s the foundation of the songs, it is infectiously danceable — but not in a dance club kind of way. This is dance music for the mosh pit.

Fujiya and Miyagi have already released two excellent albums — 2005’s Transparent Things and 2008’s Lightbulbs. I love both of them and would recommend them both without question. One of my favorite tracks from Lightbulbs is the album opener Knickerbocker, a really catchy song with lyrics that are almost nonsensical. As the band explained,  it’s “a vibration of words that sound good.” And sound good it does.

Fujiya and Miyagi – Knickerbocker

The new album will be called / \ / \ / \ Y / \. Before you start thinking that M.I.A. has suddenly acquired Prince-like delusions, look at it closely. Those “glyphs” actually spell out her nickname MAYA. Clever, isn’t it. The stylized title actually reflects M.I.A.’s roots in visual art and graffiti. Stricty speaking, the new album is actually self-titled, only more creatively written and displayed.

Now that we know the title, the next bit of info to be revealed regarding the album is the new release date. The earlier announcement was that it will be released on June 29. But the new dat has been pushed back a couple of weeks to July 13. There’s no explanation as to why it was pushed back. But with just a two week delay, it’s something that fans can obviously live with. But if you think that is still too long a wait then you can head offer to the N.E.E.T. web site (M.I.A.’s custom imprint) and head over to the site’s blog, which streams the new single off the album entitled “XXXO”. Just to clarify, the single streaming from the N.E.E.T. blog is the “RIGINAL BLAQSTARR VERSION” of the song, and is markedly different from the single being sold on iTunes and what’s being played on the radio.

Nothing much came out from Robyn’s camp after that, but 2010 is going to be Robyn’s year. The Swedish pop darling is coming out with three, yes, three albums that will be released all throughout this year.

The new songs are reportedly going to be more dance oriented. She’s even going to collaborate with Snoop Dogg in one track called None of Dem, which will be produced by Royksopp (how’s that for indie cred!).

The first album will be released this spring, while the next two albums will come out in summer and winter, respectively.

Joe Chiccarelli will be producing the new album. Chiccarelli has previously worked with U2, Beck and Bjork.The engineer for the record will be Gus Oberg.

There’s still no news or even quotes from the band regarding where they would like to take the Strokes sound for this fourth album. I’m hoping for a new and redefined sound for the band. The lo-fi post-punk garage sound that they helped define is getting a little long in the tooth and a fourth release is the perfect time for a redirection for any band. Here’s hoping they do get on with it.

Now, The Flaming Lips will take their Pink Floyd tribute a step further as they are booked to appear at the Bonnaroo festival and play the Dark Side of The Moon in its entirety. This is not the first time they have done this. During their New Year’s Eve show in Oklahoma, they also played the whole album track by track.

If you can make it to Manchester, Tennessee for the festival from June 10 to 13, then check The Flaming Lips out.

Personally, my vote for best album of 2009 goes to The Antlers’ Hospice. 

The Antlers is a relatively little known band hailing from Brooklyn, New York. Hospice is the band’s third album and their first concept album. Hospice deals with the story of a man who meets a cancer patient in a cancer ward. He falls in love with her and eventually watches her as she dies from her disease.

If you think the concept is depressing — it really is. The album is filled with an overwhelming sense of despair, grief and loss. But these are emotions that the band has mined for all of its power. Hospice is devastatingly beautiful — unabashedly bathing in its pain. This is an album that doesn’t shirk away from baring its soul. Each song is a powerful testament to love lost that is expressed not just in Peter Silberman’s lyrics but in the sheer musicality of the band.

Hospice is that rarest of albums — one that is immersed in depression but leaves you with a feeling of triumph for exposing yourself to this flash of genius.

What did get a date is Strokes frontman Julian Casablancas‘ debut album. Phrazes for The Young will drop October 19 in the UK. The US release date will be a day after.

Casablancas’ solo effort will tide us over until the new Strokes album arrives.

Oh, but times have changed.

The once-indie darlings are now a huge success and has even signed on to a major label. I’m not one of those indie snobs who turn away from a band once they turn major. I’m a practical person. I know that all bands want their music to be heard by as many people as possible. But I think there are also certain limits to courting wider mass appeal.

The announcement that Death Cab for Cutie has contributed a song for the new Twilight sequel “New Moon” has, to be frank, puzzled me. I don’t know why the band would want to be attached to a movie  that,  based on the first movie, would most likely suck. And I’m not even going to talk about the book (disco ball vampires are just lame).

What’s even more disappointing is that the song, “Meet Me on the Equinox”,  will officially debut at the MTV VMA Awards. But then, they may know something I don’t. From what I’ve been hearing the New Moon soundtrack is peppered with really cool bands. Even Thom Yorke and Bon Iver are said to be contributing songs for the soundtrack as well.

The new album, with the unusual title Raditude will be produced by Jacknife Lee and Butch Walker.

The first single off the new album will be “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To”, which will be officially released on August 25. The more enterprising guys out there can already get it through other sources.

I don’t know when the word “rad” was fashionable to use, so it’s either Weezer is getting ironic with the “Raditude” title or they are hopelessly out of touch. We’ll see in October.