Taking cues from the confessional and personal vein of '90s indie punk,
Dashboard Confessional has given emo fans something to cheer about in the new millennium. The band, which formed in Boca Raton, Florida in 2000 is led by singer/songwriter Christopher Carrabba and currently consists of Carrabba (vocals, guitar), John Lefler (guitar),
Scott Shoenbeck (bass) and Mike Marsh (drums). The name Dashboard Confessional comes from one of Chris' songs, "The Sharp Hint of New Tears". The line "On the way home, this car hears my confessions." made the phrase Dashboard Conf
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essional pop into his head. The band had a breakthrough with 2001’s The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most. The latter release featured a full band on several tracks -- a vast departure from Carrabba's previously unaccompanied material, according to critics, but the heartrending single "Screaming Infidelities" nonetheless found an immediate home on modern rock radio. The tune’s video also garnered the band an MTV2 award at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2002. Later that year, Carrabba recorded an installment for the popular MTV Unplugged series; the performance was released as the CD/DVD package MTV Unplugged 2.0 and quickly went platinum. Among the hits the album spawned was “Vindicated," a tune which appeared on 2004's Spider-Man 2 soundtrack and earned the band an even larger following.
In May of 2005, Dashboard Confessional entered the studio to record their fourth album with Daniel Lanois. Lanois had also co-produced the albums So (
Peter Gabriel) and The Joshua Tree (
U2), and produced Bob Dylan’s Grammy award winning album Time Out of Mind (Album of the Year, 1997). The resultant album, Dusk and Summer had several popular Dashboard Confessional songs, including "
Don't Wait" and "
Stolen". The album entered the Billboard charts at #2 and was supported by a summer tour of the U.S. with special guests
Say Anything and
Ben Lee. Dashboard Confessional then returned to the studio to record the band's fifth album, The Shade of Poison Trees, in March 2007. Known for giving intimate performances in which fans are often invited to jump in and sing the lyrics to Carabba’s sensitive acoustic guitar stylings, Dashboard Confessional has a dedicated fan base that will only grow in the years to come.
