Viet Cong (the band) finally decide to change their name

By: Emily O'Rourke

With the release of their self-titled, debut album this year, Calgary’s post-punk prodigy, Viet Cong, garnered a lot of praise. The band played over 130 shows across North America and Europe this year alone, and even stole a spot alongside Canadian Indie music luminaries on the Polaris Music Prize Short List for Album of the Year. But the quartet’s recognition has stirred some dark controversy regarding the historical burden that their moniker carries.

The Viet Cong was a Vietnamese communist guerrilla force that fought against South Vietnam and the United States during the Vietnam War, and the name still comes with strong associations of death and suffering for the Vietnamese community. For a group of four Canadian white men to derive their aesthetic from such a complex historical event is offensive in its own right. Several open letters have been written to the band explaining how their appropriation of a group that inflicted terror onto so many is distasteful, even going so far as to protest to have the band removed from lineups. In March, a promoter pulled the name from a bill and profusely apologized to “anyone made hurt or uncomfortable by the name and its connotations.”

Although the band has been facing criticism over their name for years, the scrutiny reached its peak in the past few months. In an eloquent and semi-apologetic statement issued to their Facebook page on Sept. 19, the band announced their plans to rebrand on their upcoming album. The statement goes on to say that throughout the course of their growing popularity they’ve “been listening, talking and having lots of valuable conversations with the members of the Vietnamese community about the name,” which ultimately convinced them on the change of heart. “We are a band who want to make music and play our music for our fans,” they wrote. “We are not here to cause pain or remind people of atrocities of the past.”

The four-piece’s new name has yet to be announced. In their statement, the band noted that the replacement will take time. In the meantime, they say that they “owe it to their fans” to honour the shows that have already been booked under the problematic title.

Photo Credit: The Windish Agency