Abkco Records has just released a killer accompanying CD to Showtime's Californication. Originally available through iTunes in three "track packs," the 20-track disc collects songs by Bob Dylan, Peeping Tom, Harvey Danger, and The Heavy, a Paul Oakenfold remix of The Doors' "L.A. Woman," and a healthy dose of covers. The show is known for slipping unusual cover versions into the background, and the album is highlighted by takes on the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by Tommy Stinson & Friends, Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" by Gus Black, Elton John's "Rocket Man" by My Morning Jacket, and Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed," Cheap Trick's "Surrender," and Warren Zevon's "Don't Let Us Get Sick" by co-star Madeleine Martin. A digital edition adds six more tracks, and the soundtrack CD will also be found inside the first-season DVD set, due next week.

For many musicians starting out, a day job is a means to support that which they love.

For Adam Shearer, the singer and songwriter for the Portland-based Weinland, his jobs in the mental-health field served that purpose, but they also held him back.

"When I was working as a mental-health counselor ... I could not write anything," Shearer said. "When you spend the day working with kids that have those experiences ... it would just take everything out of me." It was the type of job that provided a wealth of experiences and stories from which to draw songwriting material, but it was also draining.

The Daytrotter hive is in the middle of three heavy weeks of recording sessions and shows. We're welcoming to the studio Margot & the Nuclear So & Sos, Miles Benjamin, Centro-matic, The M's, Cryptacize, Ben Sollee, Nik Freitas, Weinland, Snowblink, and Dan Goodman this week. If anyone would like to purchase any wares from these bands - vinyl, T-shirts, etc. - let us know at (daytrotter@gmail.com) and we can try to coordinate this. Helping these bands out any way possible is always appreciated.

Martin Dosh, a frequent collaborator with Andrew Bird and a member of his live band, makes electronic music that doesn't sound the least bit electronic.

Yes, there are recognizable synthesized and loop elements and ambient textures, but with live drumming (instead of a drum machine) and breathing cohorts, it comes off as personal instead of mechanized. Its pulse is certainly stronger than most music of any genre composed to a formula.

"It's still at the base rock and roll," Dosh said last week in a phone interview. "It's not somebody with a laptop on stage ... ."