Chris Walla didn’t expect his solo album to get some free publicity thanks to the Department of Homeland Security, but then, who would?
Walla, the guitarist for Death Cab for Cutie, had been working on the album for years. He kept getting sidetracked by other projects, producing albums for the Decemberists and Nada Surf, earning a reputation for cozy sounds and a busy schedule.
With the record nearly complete, an intern was asked to take a computer hard drive containing the songs, some with a political slant, back to Washington state from a Vancouver, B.C., studio. The hard drive was confiscated at the border.
Walla, who grew up in Bothell, was irritated. Not knowing the drive’s fate, he fired off some pithy remarks about it getting waterboarded at Guantanamo. He complained the government had “exactly no” customer service. The Associated Press ran a story.
It smelled like a conspiracy. It was a comedy of errors.
As Walla tells the story now, the intern with the hard drive messed up: He went to the wrong border station, had paperwork that was a bit off and acted “nervous and weird.” Then, after the drive was confiscated, the intern failed to pass along a tracking number for the drive and, yes, a way to call customer service.
“There definitely was a misunderstanding,” Walla said.
It was an odd way to hear about “Field Manual,” a fairly unassuming and easy-to-digest indie pop album coming out Tuesday.
Sure, the record has some political content, but it’s hardly the type of thing the government would bother suppressing. There’s a track that makes veiled mention of the abortion debate. Another was inspired by — geek alert — a dream Walla had about Sen. Arlen Specter, the moderate Republican.
Walla, an affable 32-year-old now living in Portland, Ore., said he doesn’t expect the disc to sway political views. In general, he thinks of the record as one part of a larger conversation. That’s all.
“Please, I don’t care what you believe, just believe it, and say it, and be proud of it,” he said. “Stand for something. Understand that the flag on the bumper sticker on the back of you car means more than ‘I’m an American.’ “
Granted, he also wants people to enjoy the album. And they just might, thanks to tracks such as the bouncing “Sing Again” and the more guitar-heavy “Geometry &c.” The album sounds a bit like Death Cab Lite: Thoughtful pop rock delivered by Walla’s aerated vocals.
While Walla wants to tour behind the record, he won’t get a chance quite yet. His day job in Death Cab, working with that band’s lead vocalist, Ben Gibbard, will keep him too busy.
In May, Death Cab plans to release its new album. Walla said the group went rock for the record, departing from the somewhat slicker sounds of 2005’s “Plans.”
“I think it’s a little grittier, a little fuzzier on the edges, and some of it is just downright scary,” he said.
While he finishes his work on that untitled album, Walla will have a chance to see how his own album fares — not that he’s nervous.
Saleswise, he’s got nothing to worry about. Death Cab has sold more than 1 million records. And critically, he feels “bulletproof” — even a bad review won’t draw blood.
“If I didn’t really actually like it, I think I’d be terrified,” he said. “… That would be really difficult, but that, thankfully, has not been the case.”
Also of note
If director Wes Anderson met up with Peter Gabriel in a posh dorm to make a pop rock album, it might sound a bit like Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut, out Tuesday.
This thing bubbles over with ideas, lyrically taking people from the Kyber Pass to a college campus. Its sound skillfully melds American pop with global accents, including African guitar and European orchestrations.
Songs like “A-Punk,” with its giddy drums, and “Walcott,” heaping with piano and strings, have a feverish pulse, while “Oxford Comma” and “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” show off singer Ezra Koenig’s blown-glass vocals.
There’s so much to enjoy here.
Andy Rathbun: 425-339-3455 or e-mail arathbun@heraldnet.com.
Listen
Chris Walla, “Field Manual” (Barsuk Records) on Tuesday.
Vampire Weekend, “Vampire Weekend” (XL Recordings) on Tuesday.
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