I'm not sure how I missed this amazingly beautiful koto version of Tool's "Lateralus" until my buddy Steve recently hipped me to it.

There doesn't seem to be much information about the artist available beyond what's in the YouTube comments (where the arranger also gets into the math of the song). Unfortunately, one of those bits of information is that there isn't a version of this available beyond this video. Yet.

Thanks, Steve. I'm glad to know this exists.

This may be the most important thing ever. It's a Hindi version of The Buggles' "Video Killed The Radio Star." And it's disco. It's from the 1982 musical Disco Dancer.

So there's that.

Booker T. Jones doing a much too suave version of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy."

Mashrou' Leila are an alt-rock band out of Lebanon known for their social and political satire. This is their version of Gorillaz' Clint Eastwood, retitled "This Is Our Revolution." At the 3:57 mark, it is clear that though they sing in Arabic, English is useful for swearing.

You can download "This Is Our Revolution" from the band's website.

The band's big breakout hit, "Raksit Leila," has a video that is too adorable to ignore.

It's from their self-titled debut album.

It strikes me as a bit odd that I have yet to post anything from Dolapdere Big Gang. Their whole deal is doing western pop music, but with traditional Turkish influences and instrumentation (including the law) - fairly appropriate considering what a cultural keystone the region is.

Here they are doing the "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," which was written by Bennie Benjamin, Gloria Caldwell and Sol Marcus for Nina Simone but you are probably more familiar with The Animals version.

This almost never happens when I ride the bus.

You can find it on Just Feel; the songs on it were chosen by their fans, through their website.

Since I've kept Dolapdere Big Gang to myself for so long, I'll make up for it by including a second song. Here's their version of Deep Purple's "Smoke On The Water."

It's on their first album, Local Strangers, the songs for which were chosen by their label.

The songs on their third album, Art-İst, were chosen by the band. I'm looking forward to their next release, since word is that it will be at least primarily original compositions.