Homeland Security confiscates Death Cab guitarist's album

October 17th, 2007
The four-year wait for Death Cab For Cutie guitarist/producer Chris Walla's solo record just got an unexpected extension: Walla reports that a hard drive containing all of the song files has been confiscated at the Canadian border and turned over to "the computer-forensics division of our Homeland Security-type people." Fortunately, Walla still has the original tapes, so the album isn't lost for good--just interminably delayed in what he terms the "black hole" of mysterious government bureacracy. Walla says: "Luckily, the tapes are Plan B, so while I'm bummed about the whole thing, it could be a whole lot worse. I still get to play music. I mean, I'm not at Guantánamo or anything like that. I mean, my drive might be. They could be water-boarding my drive for all I know." Yeah, maybe. Or perhaps someone in Homeland Security is just looking to up their Oink share ratio.