Dashboard Confessions of a once emo teenage kid

There are 2 songwriters in the english speaking world that I completely take my hats off to. If I were to ever meet them on the streets, I’d kowtow to them and tell them that I’m in love with their words. And I say this even when I’m no where close to being a fan of poetry.

1 is Ben Gibbard of Death Cab fame. The 2nd (in no particular order) is Chris Carrabba of Dashboard Confessional.

Now, I know Dashboard is world fuckin famous. Who doesn’t know his electrifying song, Vindicated from the Spiderman soundtrack that took the radio airwaves by storm? The thing is, he came from humble beginnings and not many people actually know the birth of Dashboard unless you’re American or you’re an emo teenage girl looking for sweet words to sweep you off your feet.

Legend has it that Chris grew up as a skateboarding kid and on one rainy day, he stayed indoors only to find an old guitar belonging to his grandfather. He started fiddling with it and soon enough, Hands Down was borned. Hands Down went on to become the anthem of every high school teen and that, propelled him to be the dream of every blue eyed girl. Guys envied him and girls fell in love with him.

He goes, ” Hands down this is the best day I can ever remember, I’ll always remember the sound of the stereo, the dim of the soft lights, the scent of your hair that you twirled in your fingers and the time on the clock when we realized it’s so late and this walk that we shared together“

Malaysian radio did not completely ignore Dashboard but I am inclined to talk about them all the same because I am a huge, huge fan of his songwriting mastery. In this post, I’m going to feature Dusk and Summer – the title track from the album of the same name.

Featuring just an acoustic guitar and Chris’s deep mellow voice, it is perhaps my fav track from their 4th studio album, Dusk and Summer. I highly recommend this album first to any new fans that would like to eventually own their entire discovery, spanning 5 studio albums.

Download the song HERE