Thanks to stricter border security after 9/11, the United States government is making it very hard for a group of foreign workers close to our hearts to enter this country: Canadian indie rockers. It doesn’t help that when it comes to indie music, it’s not who you know, but who you don’t know. And it seems the freshest acts, the ones you discovered on gorilla vs. bear a year before they’ll be at SXSW, can’t prove “sustained international renown, which means at least a year of noticeable fame” to the American government with mere music blog write-ups. Says Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs, who recently had to cancel a U.S. tour for the latter band after visa difficulties :

When you apply for your P-1 visa, if you don’t have hard press, you can spend a shit-ton of money and still get denied. They don’t take Internet press seriously—you have to send them a magazine they’ve heard of, like Spin or Rolling Stone.

Actually Rolling Stone is a perfect metaphor for what this country has become: A glossy, caricature of everything that used to be cool about freedom and youth now turned into a stuffy, White, bloated, corporate machine only interested in the bottom line. Party!

Blame Canada [Village Voice]