Viet Cong are changing their name

Viet Cong are changing their name. The Calgary-based indie rock outfit, who released their debut album earlier this year via Jagjaguwar, have received criticism for using a name deemed offensive, and one of their shows was even canceled as a result. Their name was also the subject of a recent op-ed written by Canadian musician April Aliermo, of Hooded Fang.

Today, however, Viet Cong have announced via Facebook that they will no longer be using the name, and though they haven’t selected a new name as of yet, they’re moving on to the next phase:

Over this time we’ve been listening, talking and having lots of valuable conversations with the members of the Vietnamese community about the name. Through this dialogue and hearing about what the name means to so many people, we have decided we will be changing the name of our band.

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.