Writing that they are “not here to cause pain or remind people of atrocities of the past,” Calgary post-punk quartet Viet Cong have agreed to change their band name.
The group has generated a decent bit of controversy over their moniker since forming in 2012, and even had one university show earlier this year cancelled by the promoter over its perceived insensitivity towards the Vietnamese and community.
Viet Cong detailed the decision this afternoon via Facebook, and though no replacement name has been determined, it will be unveiled “as soon as we agree upon one.” They say a change in band name had been planned for their next record anyway, the follow-up to this year’s acclaimed self-titled LP, issued on Flemish Eye/Jagjaguwar. Their current tour continues tomorrow night in Kingston, Ontario.
“There are many individuals more eloquent than us who have recently had a lot to say about the topic of the name and our appropriation of the name Viet Cong,” they write, adding: “For more insights into the arguments we encourage you to read some of these. We are a band who want to make music and play our music for our fans.”
Read their full statement below, and check out our June interview with Viet Cong’s Scott Munro here.
Art and music are about creative expression. However, our band name is not our cause, and we are not going to fight for it. This is not what our band is about.
There are many individuals more eloquent than us who have recently had a lot to say about the topic of the name and our appropriation of the name Viet Cong. For more insights into the arguments we encourage you to read some of these. We are a band who want to make music and play our music for our fans. We are not here to cause pain or remind people of atrocities of the past.
The truth is, we’ve been planning to change the band name for the next record for months; it has not been an easy decision by any means. We are a band of four people with four individual voices; this debate has been long and difficult for us and it took time for everyone to settle on a plan of action.
We don’t know what the new name of our band will be, and we owe it to our fans to honour the concerts we have booked. We rushed into our last band name decision, we don’t plan to rush into this one, but know that will be rolling out a new name as soon as we agree upon one.
We realize this won’t satisfy everyone, but that’s certainly not the goal of this band. We never expected this kind of attention in the first place and just want to return to playing music, which is the only thing we (kinda) know how to do.
We’ve had an incredible amount of support from fans, and we have to thank everyone who has said supportive words to us as we struggle with this. As always, we welcome people talking to us in person.
– Matt, Mike, Monty & Danny.
Here are the remaining 2015 tour dates for Viet Cong — or whatever they will eventually be called:
VIET CONG LIVE DATES
Sun, Sep 20 : Kingston, ON : Mansion #
Wed, Sep 23 : Milwaukee, WI : Cactus Club #
Thu, Sep 24 : Minneapolis, MI : 7th Street Entry #
Sun, Sep 27 : Fargo ND : The Aquarium
October 10 :: Edmonton, AB, CANADA :: Up & Downtown Music Festival
Wed, Oct 14 : Vancouver, BC : Cobalt
Thur Oct 15 : Vancouver, BC : Cobalt
Fri, Oct 16 : Seattle, WA : Neumos %
Sun, Oct 18 : San Francisco, CA : Treasure Island Festival
Tue, Oct 20 : Portland, OR : Doug Fir Lounge %
Fri, Nov 6 – Sun, Nov 8 : Austin, TX : Fun Fun Fun Fest
Thu, Nov 19 : Groningen, NE : Vera
Fri, Nov 20 : Utrecht, NE : Le Guess Who
Sat, Nov 21 + Sun Nov 22 : Kortrijk, BE : Sonic City
Mon, Nov 23 : Caen FR : Le Cargo
Tue, Nov 24 : Rouen, FR : 106
Wed, Nov 25 : Ramsgate, UK : Ramsgate Music Hall
Fri, Nov 27 + Sat Nov 28 : Pontins, Wales : All Tomorrow’s Parties
Fri, Dec 4 :: Toronto, ON : Lee’s Palace #$
Sat, Dec 5 : Toronto, ON : Lee’s Palace ^
# with Greys
% with Grave Babies
$ with Mexican Slang
^ with Weaves, Mimico