By Wren Culp
Staff Writer

A lot of bands take different approaches to getting their music heard. Some turn to the radio and others turn to the web. But the San Diego rock band Switchfoot has a whole new tactic.

For months now, Switchfoot has been hinting at what the album sounds like with small clips of some new songs in their “Daily Foot” videos, which are made after every show and uploaded to YouTube.

Finally, after weeks and weeks of being promised the single to the new album, we finally received it. But it is not on radio or available for download on iTunes. So how do we get it?

According to Switchfoot’s  “Twitter” page, “We’re hiding copies of our new single ‘Mess of Me’ worldwide. The rules: If you get the song, pass it on one at a time.”

That’s right, Switchfoot fans’. You have to find the single. CDs have been hidden all across the world, which contain the new song entitled “Mess of Me”. But you want to know what makes it really fun and interesting?

The rules state that once you find a copy, you must burn a copy and hide it somewhere. Once you have hidden it, you have to “tweet” the location of the copy on the Switchfoot’s twitter page, so other fans can go and find it.  You may also e-mail a copy to one person and then the rules apply from there.

I have personally never seen this method used before when it has come to releasing music, and I think this is a very innovative idea from a very innovative band. I actually was e-mailed a copy by a good buddy.

Over the Labor Day weekend, the song hit hard in Italy, Malaysia and even Singapore. On Sept. 8, a video was made by the band that had the studio version of the song, along with footage from live performances that line up with the song.

Switchfoot’s new album entitled “Hello Hurricane” will drop in stores on Nov. 10th. You can view the song on Youtube here.