Death Cab says U.S. border agents took hard drive with master tracks

[BuyingThyme]

Death Cab says U.S. border agents took hard drive with master tracks

By Gene Johnson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SEATTLE - The guitarist for indie pop rockers Death Cab for Cutie still expects to release his solo album in January even though federal border agents seized a computer hard drive containing the master tracks.

A courier was headed to Seattle-based Barsuk Records from a studio in Vancouver when U.S. Border Patrol agents seized the hard drive Sept. 19, Chris Walla said Wednesday.

"I don't know what red flag could possibly have gone up at the border," Walla said in a telephone interview from Portland, Ore. "It's so baffling to me."

...

"Interestingly, a strong political thread runs through the record's lyrics; Walla takes more than a few shots at U.S. policy, both at home and abroad, and challenges at least one senator to find the exit door," said a statement on Barsuk's website. "For whatever reason, the drive has still not been returned."

...

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2007/10/17/4584761-ap.html

[aquart]

1. This fool didn't back up the tracks?

He will now.

[BuyingThyme]

2. Sounds like they did, but, man, if I were to release a politically charged album,

I'd look for ways to have the masters confiscated by border agents.

[Trajan]

4. Wow .....

One of the best bands of this era has a fool of a guitarist ....

And I thought right wingers were the name callers ....

The choice of words is unfortunate .....

[RainDog]

3. oh please

transatlanticism was too scary?

sounds like he has copies. I feel so much safer knowing the border patrol is making America safe from guitar-playing.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. it took us MONTHS to get a computer back from customs,

one of our tax guys was flying back to the US from Europe when he was randomly selected for a porn fishing expedition, our laptops are really locked down and because he couldn't login to the laptop as an administrator they confiscated it for further investigation.

When he demanded to either be returned the laptop or arrested, he was thrown out of the airport.

The computer was worthless and worth maybe $1000 in 2003 - but we made a point of being real assholes about it.