Interview The full-throttle charm of Viet Cong, a band on a mission

Photo: David Waldman

“One of my favourite records of all time is ‘Heavier Than a Death in the Family ‘by Les Rallizes Dénudés,” says Viet Cong frontman Matt Flegel, a few hours before his band are due to support fellow Canadians Ought at London’s Scala. “They’re this Japanese band - I think the album was recorded in the ‘70s - and they were crazy. There’s a myth that their bassist hijacked a plane apparently? They’re badass. Uncompromising, relentless… the record is just squalls of feedback and the songs are twenty minutes long. Can you say we hijacked a plane in this interview?”

He’s joking of course, but you can tell the idea still excites him in a full-throttle, action movie kinda way. That’s Viet Cong though: a ferocious, bitterly bleak band who get so into the moment sometimes that their five minute tracks turn into eleven minute freakouts.

Their debut ‘Cassette’ EP was the result of a year that Flegel and guitarist Scott “Monty” Munro spent recording in the latter’s basement, after Flegel had tried to shape some songs on his own for a while in Chad VanGaalen’s studio. “One of the first things I recorded was ‘March of Progress’, which is on the new album, in its very early form. Then somewhere in Germany, where me and Monty were playing in Chad’s band, we drunk talked about doing something together and then when we got home we just did it. That’s basically what the ‘Cassette’ EP is. It was just us figuring out what we wanted to sound like.”