SOUND BITES

As much fun as it is watching a band grow and evolve over the years and through their assorted projects, sometimes it's nice to see them take a step back, shrug their shoulders and try walking in someone else's shoes for four minutes. Whether it's a faithful reconstruction or a sonically shapeshifted alternate vision, it's always fun to hear what an artist can do with a song that's not theirs. Here are ten artists whose interpretations of familiar songs got the biggest smiles from me in 2013:

As hard as it may be to believe considering what usually gets covered here, I'm actually a pretty big MSI fan. Call it my guilty pleasure; my favourite band might be Pearl Jam and I may gravitate toward more organic rock and metal, but sometimes it's necessary to step outside the comfort zone, so to speak. Back in 1999, while working in radio, I discovered MSI via "Bitches", which was an absurd attempt by Warner Music to earn the crass, far from mainstream band radio play. Nevertheless, I listened to the track and wasn't all that impressed... until a few days later, when I couldn't get that song out of my head with a crowbar. After picking up the 30 track rapid-fire masterpiece "Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy", I found myself oddly enamored with the spastic techno-metal stylings and utter lunacy of Little Jimmy Urine's lyrics and vocal delivery. At the time, I didn't even understand what the hell I was listening to; I just li...