Formed in 2012, the Calgary post-punk quartet Viet Cong has been making some pretty decent waves on the Canadian music scene. The band features two members of the now defunct band Women (vocalist/bassist Matt Flegel and drummer Mike Wallace), along with guitarists Daniel Christiansen and Scott Munro (who plays live with Calgary wunderkind Chad VanGaalen).
The band released a self-titled album earlier this year, and it was short-listed for the 2015 Polaris Prize which will be awarded in Toronto on Sept. 21. But the band’s encountered a bit of turbulence lately, with some people objecting to their name which references the guerilla army that was allied with North Vietnam and fought against the United States and its South Vietnamese allies in South Vietnam and Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
The band actually had one gig cancelled by a promoter of south Asian descent who was offended by their name, and after more concern was expressed in an Exclaim! article by fellow musician April Aliermo (Hooded Fang) about insensitivity toward Vietnamese Canadians and Vietnam’s troubled history the band has decided to change their name. You can read more in this follow-up Exclaim! report.
To give you a sense of what the band formerly know as Viet Cong sounds like here’s the video for “Bunker Buster” off their 2015 album
