Women were one of Canada’s favourite indie bands until they broke up in 2010 (violently, in the middle of a gig, while wearing Halloween costumes). When the band’s ex-guitarist died suddenly in 2012, two of his old bandmates were spurred to start a new project (‘It was like, “Shit, we’re going to die… Let’s do something before it ends.”’) Viet Cong was born out of the Black Sabbath tribute band they were playing in at the time, and the new line-up soon started playing dark, driving, fiercely noisy post-punk.
Their brilliant racket (and song titles like ‘Death’) make them worthy successors to the best of the dark British ’80s: Bauhaus, Joy Divsion, Echo And The Bunnymen and the rest. And what do four weirdos based in Calgary – Canada’s ‘cowboy city’ – name their band after? The Vietnamese guerrillas who terrorised American troops in the ’60s, obviously.