Still Ruins live in San Francisco at The Knockout; press photo courtesy of Week in Pop.

Oakland pop art institution Still Ruins lavished us with one of the best releases of 2024 with their self-titled EP. The combined visions of Frankie Soto, Jose Medina and Cyrus VandenBerghe — they present an in-depth look and discussion of influences and inspirations that span from the obscure to the internationally observed and renowned.

A collaborative feature that has been in the works for well over a year, Still Ruins share an exclusive glimpse at the shadows that stretch from the New Romantic era that make up the mesmerizing mixes and molds of songs like “Silhouette”. The deep blue seas and oceanic dimensions that delve into the rapid waters that run from the past and into the modern day tributaries heard on “Perfect Blue”. Tracing back those radical retro radio waves and synth sequenced sensations that informed “Until Then”. The pursuit of perfection and commitment to mining the majesties and maestros of heavenly hymns that gave rise to the blissed out baths of “Of Devotion”. Scouring the scales and archives of nearly infinite ethereal underdogs as arbiters of underground pop knowledge and taste on “Left Against”.

Still Ruins offers a listen to the first volume of selections that showcases formative artists and works that range from the obvious to the wildly esoteric (with no gatekeeping involved whatsoever).

Cyrus, Frankie & Jose proudly present:

Still Ruins, Pulling Back the Curtain Vol. 1

Pop performances of pure inspiration as selected by Still Ruins; press photo courtesy of Week in Pop.

Tears for Fears, “The Working Hour”

Jose: You know, many people heard that “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” for the longest time, right? Like growing up as, like a kid and into, like, high school, and our old buddy, Marcos, from back in Surf Club, he's like, you gotta actually listen to the whole album, it's really good. And, I think I found it at Rasputin in 2010 or 2011 on tape. The whole album is so good but that song specifically though, I love how big it is, you know, I've always been a sucker for like big sounding mixes. It's very wide. And then the saxophone in the beginning, it’s not the typical sax you would hear on Huey Lewis type of music back in the 80s. But it was like a different saxophone. There's more character to it. I like Huey Lewis sax type of stuff also, but there's just something about that. And I think it's my favorite Tears song out of all of them, I like a lot of their songs, but that song specifically though, I never get sick of it.

Naked Eyes, "I Could Show You How'

Frankie: It was a couple of bands that my dad showed me growing up that he would play blasting through the house on Friday nights when he'd be drinking and stuff. But a couple of bands, one of them was Tears for Fears, another one was General Public, he would play A-ha, and Naked Eyes, especially that song, it's not the song that I picked, but he was always singing “Promises, Promises” all the time, walking through the house. But it was one of those things where it's like Jose said, a band gets so popular with one song that it completely almost foreshadows the rest of the album, even when it didn't have to. “Promises, Promises” was such a big song but then almost all the songs on that record are, like, really good. Kind of the same thing with with A-ha too, “Take on Me”, that's a super huge song, but there's so many other good songs on it.

Jose: It's insane how the whole album sounds so good but “Take on Me” I feel is the only song that sounds like that.

Prefab Sprout, “Appetite”

Jose: It was the first song I heard from them. In 2012 I had just finished school, and Frankie and Marcos were actually just talking about this and that we're at my old duplex I used to live at in Oakland, and I think Frankie was putting on the live versions of these songs, and this was one of them. And, you know, just like the beginning, with the synths it just kind of was like, Oh, damn. What is this? So good! And, you know, the whole album too is just mostly bangers in there. But I think because this was the first song that I had heard from Prefab. Also I think this just stuck in my head, it’s my favorite song from them.

A-ha, "Living a Boy's Adventure Tale"

Frankie: Yeah it’s on the album Hunting High and Low that’s get one huge single on there, but then the rest of the record is so solid. I think “Living a Boy's Adventure” is probably my favorite song from that band. Another band my dad my dad showed me and stuff when I was a kid.

Bill Nelson, "Acceleration"

Cyrus: Just an 80s deep cut and more people need to hear it.

China Crisis, "Blue Sea"

Frankie: Ooh, that was I think that was actually the first China Crisis song that I heard. I think I was 18 or 19 I remember starting to get into sophisti-pop stuff and going to one of our friends, Kenny, and asked him, I really like Prefab Sprout but what other bands can you show me that are along the lines of that kind of pop? And the band that he sent me was China Crisis. I remember seeing the name, but I never really listened to him and stuff, but that was the first song that I had heard from them. And that was the first album that I heard and bought from them, Flaunt the Imperfection. And it wasn't until, kind of a lot later that I started to getting into all their lore and how the Steely Dan dudes helped work on their early albums.

Everything But the Girl, "Driving"

Jose: Favorite song! Also the first song I heard from them. It was, I think also right around when I had just started getting into Prefab and like Frankie I was trying to find more stuff like that. And I think the first time I heard that song was on, I think they played it live on Letterman back in either the super late 80s or early 90s, which is cool. You know, the song with a really cool saxophone solo, but I guess my favorite song from them. I like, so much of their, honestly, their whole trajectory of what they did in the 80s, until doing all that house into the 90s. I think that's such a cool progression as a as a band, like they did it so well, transitioning from all that super sophisti-pop 80s stuff, until what the 90s was, right? Like so many bands in the 80s didn't really adapt or change, you know, in that way.

Cyrus: They set the trend for the 90s too.

Jose: Yeah! True.

Frankie: They set the direction where music genres could really head.

Jose: And Temperamental, I love that album. But yeah, this is probably my favorite album, and the song, again I think a lot of times when it's like the first thing that I hear of someone that I really like, that's kind of what becomes my favorite song.

Trash Can Sinatras, "Obscurity Knocks"

Cyrus: I feel like when me and Frankie first started hanging out we put the YouTube video on, and were like, damn, this is catchy. and then Frankie's like, that guy'‘s got a sick haircut.

Frankie: I try to get it, every time I go to see the barber.

Cyrus: Yeah, that band rules, their new stuff's good too.

Depeche Mode, "A Question of Lust"

Frankie: This is one of two hot takes for this playlist, but I think that Black Celebration is better than Violator. I feel like this record was where, and I mean this probably is not even a hot take, but this is where I feel like they're really starting to catch their stride and figure out where the band is gonna head and everything. David Gahn deosn’t even sing this song, Martin Gore sings this song.

Change, "Warm"

Jose: This is going back to the whole YouTube thing, I was actually listening to this in I think in 2017. I got into a huge 80s r&b kick and I remember I was listening to some Luther Vandross playing on YouTube, and I was reading through the comments, and some guy was like, Oh, you guys gotta look at the other stuff he did before he like blew up. He used to do studio work as a background singer, he sang onYoung Americans for David Bowie and this other band called Change. That band is so good, like heavy hitters, they started their own 80s r&b group and they have a couple albums. I don't actually think Luther Vandross sang in this one, and that song too, if you're into super synth-y 80s r&b, that whole album and that song are the way to go. It's not like Roger & Zap type of electro funky stuff. It's more of the spatial kind of S.O.S. Band sound and I love that, all that, that type of stuff. All like the drum machines that they use, like the like Crystal Rhodes synthesizers that they use, and all that. Its one of the best albums I would recommend someone to hit up.

The unlimited pop passions of Still Ruins; press photo courtesy of Week in Pop.

The Innocence Mission, "Black Sheep Wall"

Cyrus: I got into this documentarian, Director Caveh Zahedi, and he made this movie in 2001 where he's living in San Francisco, and he just records a minute of himself every day for a year. And it can be like boring bullshit, like him making breakfast, or like him tripping on shrooms, or him getting into a fight with his girlfriend, and crying on film. And it's fucking insane. But he goes to Amoeba, and he buys an album by this band, and it's like this weird, like twee folk record that's really cool, but then I did the deep dive and then this shit sounds like Kate Bush, and it's from the late 80s. So I did the hard work for you guys, so you can listen to it.

Lansing-Dreiden, "A Line You Can Cross"

Frankie: We’re all stans of this guy, Jorge Albrecht, and this is one of his earlier projects. Yeah, I didn't know about this band until Cyrus. He's like, Dude, did you ever hear his earlier band? I was like, I thought it was just Violens, and he showed me this band and I was like, Yo, this is like, crazy, because it's a lot of the guitars are very of the time, like, fast, like, I don't know really how to explain it, yeah, but it sounds, it sounds very 2000 right?

Cyrus: Early 2000 Yeah, early 2000.

Frankie: I don't know if that's the tone or his playing style at the time, both of the records that I've heard from this band are really fucking good. And this is gonna sound hella like dick riding, but it kind of just shows Jorge's genius, you know, just how he's how he can write songs through the span of what, like almost 30 years now, you know what I mean? Like through every era of indie rock, he's kind of always been there, which is kind of wild too, you know, sort of, sort of think about.

Cyrus: He's got lasting power. Longevity.

Frankie: Yeah, he definitely does.

Mr. Mister, "Kyrie"

Jose: One of my guilty pleasures in music is 80s AOR, corporate, arena stuff. Like Toto, Starship, like Peter Cetera and Richard Marx like, I love those big vocal harmonies that are super prevalent in this song, specifically in the choruses. But I know a lot of people think some of the stuff could get kind of corny, a little cheesy, but it has a special place in my heart. I love the way it sounds. The harmony is just freaking fat. And also, a lot of those albums, it's just stereoscopically, they're so big and why I love stuff like that. Specifically this vocalist too, I forget his name, I think it's Richard Page, but he plays right now with one of the guys from Toto, I think Steve Lukather and Ringo Starr and considering his age, he still sings so well. He sings exactly as he sounds on the albums, who knows how many years later, this guy is so good. That whole band if you look them up playing live back in the 80s, they used to get really criticized for being one of the first bands that was using backing tracks, like they had a full band. It was like five or six of them on stage and the drum sets with triggers and they were doing the whole thing. And even though they still had backing tracks for hits and like other, auxiliary, synthesizer stuff, and I guess people kind of would get like, oh they’re doing too much. But when you listen to them and you see those videos of them playing live, you’re just like, holy smokes. They put the work ethic in, and it's so good, I would go look it up. Look at this song live you'll be like whoa yeah, it's so good.

Cocteau Twins, "Evangeline"

Frankie: This might be another hot take, but I think Four-Calendar Café is my favorite record by them. I think part of it, which is kind of a bummer is because Elizabeth Fraser is starting to go through the breakup [with Robin Guthrie], or had already gone through it, or is like starting to figure out that I don't want to be with this person anymore. So you can just really hear like…

Cyrus: Are you the right one for me?

Frankie: Yeah, like all those those memes where it's like, what the fuck is she saying? On this album you can feel what the fuck she is saying. The whole entire time, I think it's like, what you're talking about, how the songs invoke a certain emotion and I can feel everything that she’s going through…not that I'm going through it or anything…but I can feel everything that she's talking about and going through it, but you know what I mean, through that whole entire record, she's like just speaking as true as she can.

Cyrus: It might be my favorite record by them too. Like that song “Squeeze Wax” where she’s singing about Lucy and I pretend it’s about my cat.

Frankie: Ah, that’s so sweet!

Still Ruins’ self-titled is available now via Smoking Room.

Live on stage with Still Ruins; press photo courtesy of Week in Pop.

Bonus tracks:

Experience the latest stunning singles/remixes from Welcome Strawberry (Cyrus) with “Stargel” and Devoter’s (Jose) remix of Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”:

Still Ruins, 'Pulling Back the Curtain Vol. 1'