don't tell sophie

Don't Tell Sophie

Sand to Glass
Posted: Aug 14, 2008 by Matt Driscoll

It’s, like, 97 degrees in my office this afternoon. Or at the very least it’s hot as fuck. I don’t have an exact temperature reading, but the sweat pouring down my back is all the proof I need.

This, my friends, isn’t prime weather for record reviewing. Slip and sliding, yes, but as I sit here in front of the computer digesting Don’t Tell Sophie’s latest EP, Sand to Glass, it’s taking restraint from every bone in my body not to run like a madman for the nearest margarita — or strip down do my underoos and head out into the yard to dance through the sprinkler.

But I’m a man who takes my responsibilities seriously, and thus I persist. Every Thursday you can expect a new record review to be posted on the Weekly Volcano’s Web site, and that doesn’t change when the weather turns warm.

Sand to Glass is relatively short — a mere four songs — but that’s not to say the record doesn’t pack a punch.

Actually, calling Don’t Tell Sophie’s newest EP a record is a bit deceiving. Of course, as a body of musical work it most certainly is a record, but it came to me in digital form — via the magic of the world wide interweb. A little paper card directed me to a Web site, and once I’d entered the super-secret code I was downloading and well on my way to having Don’t Tell Sophie’s Sand to Glass firmly secured on my hard drive. No manila envelope. No bubble wrap. No little shiny disc. No garbage.

Technology like this will some day be the death of the promotional crap pile that sits in my office.

First things first: While I usually try to avoid describing a band by using another, already established band as a reference point, Don’t Tell Sophie makes that difficult. These guys have definitely heard a few Built to Spill tunes in their time, and Don’t Tell Sophie’s likeness to the Idaho-based indie icons is uncanny. I’d be remiss not to mention it. Don’t Tell Sophie’s singer, Brandt Dettling, and his bearded, Muppet with a mouth full of marbles singing style would make Built to Spill frontman Doug Martsch blush — in a good way. There’s ripping a band off and then there’s simply sounding alike — in the case of Built to Spill and Don’t Tell Sophie it’s absolutely the latter.

Sand to Glass greets listeners with a repeated guitar lick, open ended drumbeat and the beckoning of Dettling. “Vonnegut don’t feed the bears/I think it’s safe to say/ you’ve lost you’re mind/ you’ve crossed my mind,” he sings on the record’s first track, appropriately titled “Vonnegut.” The track sets the stage of things to come, as — though it’s only four songs — Sand to Glass doesn’t deviate much. Swirling, big guitars, steady drum beats, upbeat bass work and the endearing, sweater-vest swoons of Dettling — the guys in Don’t Tell Sophie have mastered their art. It’s a sound the band perfects on Sand to Glass, but one that makes differentiating between tracks difficult if not pointless.

Between “Vonnegut,” track number two “Ordinary steps,” track three “I am a thief,” and the final number “”Metal detector,” there’s plenty of lush, indie texture and truly inspiring young local musicianship — there’s just not much difference. All of the songs are basically the same length, and if you’re not an extreme fan — or taxed with the task of reviewing this record — telling the songs on Sand to Glass apart is a lost cause. For the sake of this review I’ll say “I am a thief,” and it’s all around sonic hugeness is the record’s highpoint, but it’s not by much. For all its sameness, Don’t Tell Sophie’s Sand to Glass is also consistently impressive. All four of these songs deserve praise.

Diversity is overrated. While Sand to Glass isn’t eclectic, it is really fucking good. Whether you find a flesh and bones copy of it or just download it like I did, catching up with Don’t Tell Sophie is definitely in your best interest.

LINK: Don't Tell Sophie MySpace - The volcano