Vancouver’s 604 Records gives local bands of the past their present due with 604 Decades

604 Decades, the Juno-winning indie label co-owned by Nickelback’s Chad Kroeger, is releasing long-lost gems from Vancouver’s musical history.

Vancouver band Movieland is the first release on the new 604 Decades project from 604 Records that aims to draw attention to bands that didn’t get their due the first time around. This release includes both archival and new material. Photo by Movieland

Jonathan Simkin co-founded 604 Records with Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger in 2001.

In 2012, the label released Carly Rae Jepsen‘s EP Curiosity. That record included the single Call Me Maybe, which went on to become a multiplatinum smash and one of the best-selling digital singles of all time with 18 million-plus sales.

Long before that success, Simkin had worked with a budding Vancouver shoegaze group called Movieland in 1994 who didn’t achieve anywhere near that level of renown.

Fronted by singer-guitarist Alan D. Boyd, with drummer Justin Leigh and bassist John Ounpou, the group played gigs at underground venues flogging tapes from the stage, but its breakthrough never came. In fact, the night that an A&R rep did show up to check them out, he left having signed the opening band.