Sex, swearing, ukeleles.

I'm obsessed with Swearin'. (The band, not actual cussing.) They're a post-punk band with a dual singer thing going on—one male (Kyle Gilbride) who's part J Mascis and part Doug Martsch, and one female (Allison Crutchfield) who's got a Sleater-Kinney timbre to her voice.  It's grungey and scuzzy punk, but with a sweet, succinct pop sensibility. Their new album "Surfing Strange" comes out on November 5th and I can't wait. Favorite track on their eponymous album from last year: "Kenosha." I love their lyrics, too. They get right to the heart of 20-something uncertainty and second-guessiness.

If you're looking for good, clean, family-friendly rap, Danny Brown is not for you. If you are faint of heart, also skip this, because fainting. But if you're looking for rap that reveals the character of a city (Detroit, in this case), that gives you a glimpse into a lifestyle that's (most likely) completely foreign to your existence, and that's at times lewd and comedic but at others completely complex, give Mr. Brown a try. He's changed things up between his last album, "XXX" (more sex, more humor) and the just-released "Old"(more social commentary, still pretty dang dirty), but both are great for different reasons. His off-air antics are pretty scandalous, so if that matters to you, move along.

Eddie Vedder is someone I'd completely lost track of—I heard tell of the wonderful soundtrack work he'd done, but not of his amazing album of ukelele music. Then recently, my friend Carolina sent me this and I had to look up this song to see if there were other versions, and voila: Eddie and Cat Power? Seriously, Universe? What'd I do to deserve that? But even beyond that, the rest of the album showcases Eddie's voice (we're on a first name basis, see) in a way that Pearl Jam rarely does. Not like it's possible to bury this guy in the mix, but it's nice to hear him so clearly. His voice is more nuanced that I ever realized.

The first thing that got me about Metz were the drums. Those drums, man. They're BOOMING. Next thing that got me: all the note-bending guitars. It's noisy, y'all, but these guys have a way of making atonality and angularity sound pretty catchy. Many of their songs top out at two minutes and change, and though they get categorized as post-punk, saying that they're only post-punk doesn't give them enough credit. I'd be interested to see them perform live, both because I love the music but also to see how they pull off their carefully-produced sound (like those aforementioned drums) in a live setting.

Northampton, MA is a lovely, artsy town that has produced a lovely art rock band named Speedy Ortiz. Sadie Dupuis, the lead singer/guitarist, was once in a Pavement cover band, and it shows, the way each song on their latest album, "Major Arcana," meanders without conforming to any one-four-five progression or any sixteen-bar-anything. Sadie's voice has a vulnerability that makes it sound almost like it's about to break, yet she can stand out when things get loud, too. And the track "No Below" will hit you in right the gut if you had a difficult adolescence. (Did anyone not?)