Pitchfork

Three cheers for the United States, keeping freedom-hating, free-health-care-receiving heathens like Handsome Furs out of our beautiful land.

The Furs had six shows scheduled in the States this month-- including one in Rhode Island tonight-- and all of those are now canceled after the duo was denied entry into the country (suspected of smuggling pelts, no doubt).

UPDATE: The Furs apologized to their fans and addressed the situation on a MySpace blog post here.

A May 28 show at Montreal's Club Lambi will go on as scheduled (being in Canada and all). Presuming they can get whatever mess they're in settled-- or sneak across the border (do it, guys!)-- June gigs in L.A. and July gigs in Chicago (with Besnard Lakes) will also still occur as planned.

Nothing like a good border patrol smackdown to put a damper on this otherwise momentous day, which marks the release of Handsome Furs' Sub Pop debut, Plague Park.

We can only hope Wolf Parade will get their act together in time for their U.S. shows.

This land is your land:

05-22 Providence, RI - Club Hell #
05-23 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge #
05-24 New York, NY - Mercury Lounge !
05-25 Philadelphia, PA - Khyber!
05-26 Hoboken, NJ - Maxwell's #
05-27 Boston, MA - TT the Bear's !
05-28 Montreal, Quebec - Club Lambi
06-17 Los Angeles, CA - Echo
06-18 Los Angeles, CA - Amoeba Records
07-23 Chicago, IL - Schubas ^
07-24 Chicago, IL - Schubas ^

# with TK Webb
! with Sam Jayne
^ with the Besnard Lakes