Canadian post-punk outfit Viet Cong have announced they will change their band name.

Controversy has followed the band for some time due to their choice in name, and now, the quartet writes in a Facebook post they will change the moniker following “valuable conversations with the members of the Vietnamese community.”

“Our name is not our cause, and we are not going to fight for it,” the band writes. “This is not what our band is about.”

In the post, Viet Cong reveal they actually decided to change their name months ago prior to recording a follow-up to their self-titled debut, which arrived earlier this year. They add that they haven’t settled on a new name yet.

“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,” the band writes. “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.”

Read Viet Cong’s complete statement below:

Our band lives to play music. We don’t particularly like doing press, most of us are fairly private people and we have social media for the band only reluctantly. Most of us generally don’t follow online criticism. Over the last year we have essentially lived our lives in a tour van and in music venues, playing over 130 shows. In that time we’ve met many amazing people and had many great conversations with people in person.

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.

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.

Earlier this year, Oberlin College canceled an upcoming Viet Cong show due to the band’s name, which a promoter at the Ohio college said “deeply offends and hurts Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American communities.” In response, Viet Cong issued a statement, writing they were naïve to the name’s implications and meaning and they didn’t mean to “trivialize the atrocities or violence that occurred on both sides of the Vietnam War.”

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