"�VIVA LA COBRA!" was written in its entirety while the band was on a North American tour with labelmates Fall Out Boy. About the writing experience, frontman Gabe Saporta says, "We were always bored on tour because we played these enormo-domes outside the city. There was nothing around for miles, so we started writing songs on our laptops." Patrick Stump, a long-time friend of Saporta's, saw the tour as the perfect opportunity to collaborate with the band.

"We weren't planning on releasing a new album so quickly," Saporta says, "but by the end of the tour we had almost 15 songs written." The band made arrangements to record as much as they could in the twenty days they had before leaving on their world tour, and in that time managed to complete the entire record.