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It's summer concert season, which means more nonstop tours, festivals and basically more fun. But with artists leaving behind a massive carbon footprint at every site they visit, many are taking their fun more seriously, from running their tour buses on biodiesel to turning everything green, from cups to plates to food, and even their merchandise. And with over 80 percent of a concert's CO2 footprint coming from fans' commute, they're naturally calling on their fans to join in on the effort.

Reverbrock.org is the place where artists and fans can converge on this front. The Web site connects with artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dave Matthews, Andrew Bird, Norah Jones, Jose Gonzalez and many more to make their shows more eco-friendly. So far, they have "greened" 50 tours, with a total of 754 events. They've reduced 37,619 tons of CO2 and 264,453 gallons of biodiesel. They're involved with 1,396 enviro-groups and have reached more than 4.6 million fans.

So how can you hop on the biodiesel bandwagon? Say you're going to the Dave Matthews concert-- just visit PickupPal , and you can choose whether you'd like to drive or catch a ride with someone. You already know you have something in common, so you can argue about how Dave Matthew's first album was totally better than his third all the way to the show.

If you're really into it, you could go that extra mile and volunteer, giving you a chance to spread the word and catch your favorite show free of charge.

"Oh, so THAT'S what he said!"

Everyone has had the moment where, after hearing a song on the radio a million times, you finally realize what the real lyric is.

A word or phrase misheard in this way is called a mondegreen, and that word was recently added to the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. More than 100 words were added to the dictionary, including the ones listed on the front page of yesterday's Daily Breeze. Many of them are a mouthful, but this one is an earful. Merriam-Webster defines it as "a word or phrase that results from a mishearing of something said or sung."

According to Merriam-Webster, the word traces its origin to the mishearing of the line "laid him on the green" in a Scottish ballad as "Lady Mondegreen."

You've likely never heard that song, but you can find a collection of more than 100,000 misheard lyrics on the Web at http://www.kissthisguy.com/.

If that phrase sounds familiar to you, you're one of people who have misheard the line "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" in Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze," after which the site is named.

The site is searchable by both artist and song title. If that's not enough for you, there's even an RSS feed of the funniest additions of the week. Happy (mis)hearing!

With gasoline prices hitting $4 a gallon, it's probably a good year to plan short trips. Or just stay at home.

And if music is your thing, there are some free, inexpensive or moderately priced events within a two-hour drive.

Check out Redlands Bowl Summer Concert Series on Fridays and Saturdays. It's free and -- if traffic is with you -- just 90 minutes away. The concert has a small-town Americana feel to it although the music isn't just symphony pop. It's for the entire family and people stakeout sections of the park around the bowl for picnics before the concert begins.

Each week, there is different musical foray. Symphonies, string groups, Celtic and country bands, operas, dance groups and a performance of the Wizard of Oz.
The series starts June 29 with Lorna Luft -- Judy Garland's daughter will perform American music theater hits including some numbers from "Wicked." The season runs through Aug 22.

If Redlands is a little out of your gasoline budget, the South Bay as a host of concerts and fine art programs.

Get a taste of Torrance's Wild Wednesday concert series before the season starts on June 23. The noon concert series runs through Aug. 20, every other Wednesday, at the Torino Festival Plaza.

Redondo Beach's summer pier concerts begin July 4 with a performance by the Surfing Safari. After the Independence Day Friday concert there will be concerts on Thursdays and Saturdays through Aug. 30.

Manhattan Beach's Polliwog Park Concert series begins June 22. Starting with the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders and Thin Ice -- founded by former Manhattan Beach Mayor Russ Lender -- the summer line-up is a who's who of South Bay favorites. The season runs Sundays through Aug. 31. The schedule site also includes links to performers' Web sites.

It's a cocktail of pop culture, a one-two punch that provides a dose of one of the latest music videos and a primer on the greatest viral video characters of the last several years.

From the band that brought us the infamous "Sweater Song" and "Buddy Holly"in the 1990s comes "Pork and Beans," a catchy anthem to being true to thine own self, and a video filled with cameos of YouTube staples including the "dramatic chipmunk" and Miss South Carolina.

Watch the video and see how many you recognize. Then watch their videos.

Alas, the legendary composer Earle Hagen has died Monday at age 88. Surely you remember the folksy television theme song for "The Andy Griffith Show," which he co-wrote and whistled. The Emmy winner ("I Spy," 1968) and Oscar nominee ("Let's Make Love," 1961) also wrote memorable themes for the shows "The Mod Squad," "That Girl" and the "Dick Van Dyke Show."

Need to listen to the songs to jog your memory? Go to TelevisionTunes.com and enter the show name to listen to a clip of the theme song.

For more information about Hagen's life and accomplishments, you can check out the Hagen fan site, The Best of All Worlds.

In the meantime, let's whistle some bars of "The Andy Griffith Show" theme song as a salute to Hagen.

You probably know the sound of the theremin, or aetherphone, from horror and sci-fi movies like "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Mars Attacks!" That spooky oooEEEooooo.... that means something is about to leap out and take a bite of the hero? That's it.

Few instruments have the enduring pop-culture cachet of one of the world's first electronic instruments, developed by Russian inventor Léon Theremin and spread throughout the U.S. by sound pioneer Robert Moog. Musicians play the instrument by moving their hands near its antennae to change pitch and volume. Easy to learn but notoriously difficult to master, the theremin can imitate a variety of different sounds. For stories, news, information and more about this amazing instrument, visit thereminvox.com.

Plus, see it in action on YouTube:

• Gnarls Barkley tribute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW0B1sipLBI&NR=1
  
• Music from the film "Amelie": http://youtube.com/watch?v=d2tbdsblDFo
  
• Theme to "The Legend of Zelda": http://youtube.com/watch?v=nJYho56INKU
  
• Bonus — Cats love theremins: http://youtube.com/watch?v=hOL4sg4LPY0
  

Coldplay will make the first single from their new album available as a free download to fans who visit the British band's Web site, according to The Associated Press.

"Violet Hill," the first single from "Viva La Vida," will be available from 7:15 a.m. Eastern Time today, one week before it goes on sale at digital retailers.

It will be available as a free download from Coldplay's Web site for one week, a statement said.

The Web site will also give preliminary details about free shows at London's Brixton Academy on June 16 and at New York's Madison Square Garden on June 23.

Coldplay also announced Monday that the UK release of their new album has been moved up four days to June 12. That's the same day the album will be released in much of the world.

The 10-track album is produced by Brian Eno, who created ground-breaking music with David Bowie in the 1970s and has also worked with U2.

Coldplay's move follows the success of fellow British group Radiohead who invited fans to set their own price on its album "In Rainbows" when it was released online last October.

According to one survey, three in five people paid nothing at all. Unfortunately, the Radiohead album is no longer available for download, according to its "In Rainbows" Web site.

Thanks to the new PluggedIn Web site, you can say goodbye to waiting endlessly for music videos to load on your computer, only to end up with herky-jerky, out-of-synch images on a tiny playing screen for your trouble.
Universal, EMI and Sony BMG have collaborated on this new free state-of-the-art site that gives all those videos MTV used to show a new place to live. And they live on in style, with excellent sound and high-definition picture. Videos load fully when you select them -- no more frustrating buffering waits. (You will need to download the site's player, which doesn't take long.)
You can opt for a full-screen picture, skip to anywhere in the video, compile playlists and favorites, have the site recommend other artists for you based on your tastes, and bond with others online who are as smitten with Rhianna as you are.
Right now, PluggedIn leans heavily on major-label artists, but hopes to add more independent labels to its current roster of Sugar Hill, Vanguard and Doghouse. Each artist page contains background information, photos, links to purchase the music from Amazon.com or iTunes and even quick links to more videos by the artists on YouTube. Even with all the bells and whistles, the high-quality picture and sound are the site's most impressive features.

A British digital radio station that only broadcasts bird sounds from a country garden as a placeholder until it can get a commercial station to fill the spot on the dial has become an unlikely hit with listeners. But despite the fact that the recording was designed to be soothing, the station's devotees are staging a battle to keep the chirps on the air, the according to the Telegraph.

The recording was made by Quentin Howard, chairman of DigitalOne, who taped birds in his Wiltshire garden in 1991 for the sound effects of an amateur dramatics play.

"At the time I thought it was just the sound of an ordinary garden on the edge of Salisbury Plain but now it has become famous and part of radio folklore," he said.

"It has become the soundscape to people's lives. I am very proud of that." Birdsong was first heard as a filler on Classic FM's frequency in the run-up to its launch 15 years ago and was a huge hit.

But despite its popularity, Mr Howard warned the station could not work as a commercial venture. "It is not designed to make money as it has to run uninterrupted," he said.

However, the listeners who love Birdsong are not about to give up without a fight. Two campaign groups have been set up on Facebook, the social networking website, with one group trying to raise £1 million from an "eccentric millionaire" to keep the station going.

You can hear what all the flap is about on the station's Web site.

On the off chance that you get hooked on the birdsong and the station pulls the plug, we've compiled some backups.

The Sound Sculptures Web site broadens your choices with variety of calming background sounds for your computer, including falling rain, waterfalls, ocean waves and wind chimes:

iSerenity takes soundscapes a step further. Its ambient loops come with slide shows, and, in addition to the expected babbling brooks and nature sounds, you can select vacuum cleaner noise, a ticking clock, and even old-school typewriter typing -- with and without carriage returns!

Indie folk-rocker Devendra Banhart has been spotted frequently over the past two days with actress and Harvard student Natalie Portman, stirring rumors. Music blogger Brooklyn Vegan offers proof that where there's twin double-breasted pea coats, there's love. The pair already appeared together in Banhart's new music video, Carmensita, shot last weekend in Los Angeles, and Portman helped the musician get his single "There's Always Something Happening" on iTunes.

Kite fliers take to the skies — well, at least the kites do, anyway — at the Redondo Beach pier Sunday. The pier hosts the 34th annual Festival of the Kite, a free event taking place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Kite-flying experts show off their stuff for prizes and audience delight. Kites are also on sale at Sunday’s event. Non-kite activities include a hot-dog-eating competition and music provided by a band from Bishop Montgomery High in Torrance.

Redondo Beach’s Sunshine Kite Company sponsors the festival.

Looking for a new or unfamiliar music without paying for the download? Try this site, where you can type in a favorite artist or song. It then makes the next selection based on the previous ones played and your feedback - thumbs up or down.
According to the Web site, a bunch of music-loving tekkies created this gem back in 2000. "Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. ... It's not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records - it's about what each individual song sounds like."
Inputting Bruce Springsteen got us to Tom Waits and then to Nick Drake, Counting Crows, Bob Dylan, John Mayer and back to the Boss. You get the picture.

A revamped online file-sharing service that debuted Sunday offers free, unlimited song downloads, with the blessing of major recording companies, The Associated Press reports.
New York-based Qtrax lets users tap into file-sharing networks, but downloads come with copy-protection technology that prevents burning copies to a CD. The music can, however, be stored indefinitely on PCs and transferred onto portable music players.

In addition, the service promises its selection of up to 30 million tracks will be playable on iPods as early as March. As of now, iPods only play tracks that use Apple's proprietary copy-protection technology.

UPDATE: Qtrax has postponed its launch while it finalizes some licensing deals. However, you can still visit the site to find out more about the service.

Every year around this time, the online indie-music magazine Pitchfork publishes its picks of the 50 best albums of the year. Test your indie pedigree by seeing how many of the albums you own -- or just how many artists you've heard of. A twist for 2007 is that you can vote for your favorite album as well.
Pitchfork is well-known for its thoughtfully written reviews. It's also a great place to check up on news about musicians who don't usually show up on mainstream radars.