From their official website -

The Decemberists began modestly enough in the fall of 2000 when erstwhile Missoulian Colin Meloy began assembling a cast of characters to inhabit and perform around his ponderous song catalogue. A chance meeting led him to Msr. Ezra Holbrook, who, while carrying on a respectable solo singer songwriter career of his own, had had the chance over the years to learn a thing or two on the drumkit in a number of local outfits and thereby afforded himself that dilletante lifestyle of which so many of us can only dream: life without a day job. Serendipity would have it that they both enjoyed a good Elvis Costello record-listen from time to time and a musical kinship was born. Owing again to chance, this unlikely pair fell into the company of a certain Msr. Nate Query, who played the upright bass, and a Mam'selle Jenny Conlee, who happened to be a classically trained pianist with a penchant for an accordion trill or two. Adopting the moniker of the Decemberists, the quintet quickly endeared themselves to critics and fans alike with their sweet melodic pop sensibilities and Meloy's bookish plangent lyrical pennings. ......[Read Less]