Der Process Starring Chris Walla

There are a lot of things we can see being seized at the border between Canada and the United States: handguns with the serial number filed off, bricks of heroin, briefcases with the radioactivity sign on the side. Hard drives we'd expect to make it through, but unfortunately we'd be wrong. The guy bringing the masters of the songs Chris Walla recorded in Vancouver back down to Seattle had the drive containing them yanked by Homeland Security.

Walla said he had been working on the extremely political album, called "Field Manual," in British Columbia, and that the songs had been mixed by producer Warne Livesey. Barsuk needed the music to meet its production schedule, and a Hipposonic Studios employee volunteered to drive the mixed songs, on tape, and the original master tracks, on a computer hard drive, to Seattle on Sept. 19.

The courier, Brendan Brown, was turned away at the Peace Arch border crossing in Blaine. Guards let him keep the tapes, but seized the hard drive for examination by computer forensics experts, according to Walla and Hipposonic President Rob Darch.

Walla said he believed the confiscation was random, but Barsuk and some music publications hinted it may have been more than a coincidence that such a political album - it includes songs criticizing the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war and the firings of U.S. attorneys by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - was seized.

Really, Barsuk? It was confiscated because of the political content of the songs? What, did it have "Fuck George Bush" written on it or something, because otherwise it's just an everyday piece of computer crap. A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection says commercial material can't come in via the Peace Arch crossing and has to use the Pacific Highway border check, which is even more bullshit. It's a hard drive! Give it back already!

From Walla's blog:

My solo record is coming along nicely, despite the fact that the master drive was confiscated by US Homeland Security at the border (much of the record was recorded between Vancouver and Victoria, BC). I'm told it's at 'computer forensics in Quantico' but I wouldn't be able to tell you what that means in any real way; you see, there's exactly no customer service element to our federal government. Like, if you subscribe to Qwest or Comcast or something for your Internet service, and that service goes out, you can call them and complain and something happens (discounted bill; resumed service; credit; sincere apology; insincere apology; et cetera). But I'm here to tell you that if the drive containing your solo record is confiscated at the border, the feds don't have to do shit for you. And, in fact, they don't.

It's not a Kafka novel, and I'm not a prisoner at Guantanamo. My life isn't so bad. But still, this situation is a concrete and real reminder of what fuels the world we live in: It's fear and mistrust and suspicion. And oil.

You know what would would be great? If all the items seized in border searches were divvied up among the Senators to investigate. In my wildest dreams, my drive ends up on Arlen Specter's desk in Washington, and he studies the files with surgical precision. And maybe my little songs tip him forever away from the fence, in either direction.

He's a fencesitter, Mr Specter: They're the most dangerous, you know.