by Stewart Mason Parlour Steps frontman Caleb Stull dubs his band's music "thought rock," a rather cringe-inducing term that suggests considerably more ponderousness and pretension than the Vancouver, British Columbia, quartet shows in its music. Like fellow Canadian indie rockers ranging from Destroyer to the Arcade Fire, Parlour Steps are unafraid of an epic, expansive sound, but the folk, country, and jazz influences in their music make them sound a bit like a north-of-the-border version of the Decemberists. Parlour Steps formed in 2000, when Victoria, British Columbia, native Stull moved to the nearby larger city of Vancouver and formed an early five-piece lineup featuring a full-time violinist. After two self-released and little-promoted albums, 2000's The Myth of Summer and 2003's Hours of Tremor, Stull finally forged a stable lineup of the Parlour Steps with guitarist Rees Haynes, bassist and harmony vocalist Julie Bavalis, and drummer Rob Linton, who had first played together in a jazz band while attending music school. The completed Parlour Steps debuted with the 2005 single "Libertine Takes a Lover," which later became a key track on the band's breakthrough album, The Great Perhaps. Signing to the Massachusetts-based indie label Nine Mile Records and touring extensively across Canada and the United States for the first time, the Parlour Steps released their fourth album, Ambiguoso, in early 2008. Following the album's release, keyboardist Allyson Mara joined the band, relieving Stull of his on-stage multi-instrumentalist duties.