Having a nice trail of quality songs from their previous albums, Dashboard Confessional easily slipped to the Top 20 position on Billboard Hot 200 chart. The band that deliver their music in certain easiness sold 48,000 copies of 'The Shade of Poison Trees' in the first week of its release, a showdown from their previous two releases, but an applaud for an indie band. For one thing, the band is all but commercial when it comes to releasing the album. "When we made the record, we didn't want to think in terms of keeping all the pop fans we gained over the summer interested," manager Rich Egan said. In fact, before 'The Shade of Poison Trees' was dropped in stores, frontman Chris Carrabba has even announced a sixth album that already has more than 30 pieces waiting to be cut. Consistency and integrity are probably the right words to describe the band.

Dashboard Confessional could be easily categorized as a one-man project where only vocalist Chris Carrabba is constantly in the line-up, but it all came to one solid team to produce all the eventual gold-certified records in the few years they roam music industry. It all began in 1999, when the 22-year-old Carrabba felt he had to switch from his emo/punk-pop band Further Seems Forever to a softer one. It was intended to be a solo project but eventually Carrabba performed with back-up musicians and preferred to go by Dashboard Confessional as the stage name. An album called 'The Swiss Army Romance' was released in 2000 under the then small recording house, Fiddler Records. News on the band's credibility were still limited, but it all came down to publicity. Upon the release of their second album 'The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most' (2001), fan base became larger and copies of the album flew off the shelves in faster rate. The sophomore album peaked at #108 at Billboard Hot 100 and #1 at Top Heatseekers chart. Song 'Screaming Infidelities' quickly gained popularity and earned the band their first award winning, MTV2 Award at 2002 Video Music Awards.

Since then, the band that originated from Boca Raton, Florida, U.S., have become MTV's favorite artist to feature. They recorded the music station's Unplugged series that went Platinum few moments after its release in 2002. Carrabba often used his stage persona in delivering their music, be it in the way he interacts with the audience or letting them to sing many parts of their songs. With the success came a fixation. Carrabba decided to christen the supporting musicians at that time to permanent line-up. John Lefler (guitar), Scott Schoenbeck (bass), and Mike Marsh (drums) were eventually recruited to support Carrabba. Together they recorded the third studio album 'A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar' that was out in 2003 and debuted at #2 at Billboard 200. The album brought an even better reception on the band when the single 'Hands Down' grabbed the attention by peaking at #8 at Modern Rock Tracks. Not letting a year pass without a release, the band then recorded a soundtrack to 'Spider-Man 2' called 'Vindicated'.

It was 2006's 'Dusk and Summer' that confirmed their existence. Like the last one, the fourth studio album also entered at #2, boasting the single 'Stolen' that reached #44 at the singles chart. Through this song, they were nominated at 2007 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Music: Love Song only to lose to Hilary Duff's 'With Love'. They also began touring with the likes such as Ben Lee, Maroon 5 and Say Anything throughout the year.