Week in Pop welcomes you to 2023; direct from our San Francisco headquarters.

With 2022 in the rearview, we look ahead to a handful of delights that some of our favorite luminaries have in store for us in 2023. While this is but a snapshot of hype in progress, this is in no way an exhaustive prospective showcase of arts arriving our way this year. Although we may add to this humble list, it is now our pleasure and privilege to proudly present from our Week in Pop offices:

Pop Preview: 2023

poolblood

Helping kick off 2023 is arguably one of this year’s most anticipated releases as poolblood readies the release of the debut album album mole on January 13 via Next Door Records. From the initial release of the Yummy EP back in 2019 and the steady release of singles from the aforementioned full-length; Toronto artist Maryam Said makes art that stems from the most privy and guarded places of heart and expressive trajectory streams of thought. Tracks like “twinkie”, “wfy”, “my little room”, “shabby” and more take the listener on journeys toward those inward chambers of the soul that allow for perspectives of spiritual reckonings and the dawning of personal realizations that only the most illuminated aesthetics can curate with their indelible rays of light. For those new to Maryam’s wonderstruck world of poolblood ⁠— welcome to the new dimension of poetic pop symphonies of universal spirit and limitless consciousness.

Still Ruins

Introducing the East Bay dream team trio Still Ruins. Comprised of Surf Club alum Frankie Soto, Jose Chema Medina (aka modern pop provocateur Devoter) and fellow Oakland neighbor Cyrus VandenBerghe of Welcome Strawberry ⁠— the power trifecta have been working diligently, fastidiously and tirelessly on an alchemy that promises to be some of the most shimmering sophisti-pop heard yet in the entire world. With all pending releases and singles TBD, the band’s leak of the “Permanence” demo has sent our senses reeling into the subterranean sects of underworlds, nether-realms and clandestine places where feelings and narratives are stored that have yet to be titled or adapted into novellas, short-stories, binge worthy serials, motion pictures or other conceits that revolve around the questions of style and genre.

Listen to “Permanence (demo” here.

Figure Eight

Emerging in the fourth quarter of 2022, Figure Eight from Oakland wowed us with the release of their melodic mountain of a debut EP — drown. The principle duo of Abby and Nash, the two have some big plans for 2022 that involves further atmospheric tapestries and a tour in the works. If their initial offering serves as any indication, prepare yourself for blizzards and cyclones of chords coupled with operatic arias for a whole new era and generation of pop aficionados.

Welcome Strawberry

From musical obsessions dating back to the earliest days of youth, enamored by the P2P pop pipelines, CD burning, recording with Audacity, Myspace networks, and more — Oakland’s Cyrus VandenBerghe of Welcome Strawberry received the epiphany and realized the title for his lifelong musical outfit during an outing in Tuolumne County, California five years back. “The name came from a camping trip at some site way past Pinecrest. As I was driving I saw a sign that said Welcome Strawberry. I'm pretty sure I misread it (there's a little town called Strawberry) but for whatever reason my mind kept going back to it so I wrote it down.” “It started out by picking a bunch of demos I had lying around that I could possibly see working well together in an album context,” Cyrus elaborated on the sound design, “I brought them to my friend's home studio and we tweaked the arrangements a bit. We were messing around with effects, synths, amps and spur of the moment writing,” Cyrus recalls, “Some of it was extremely fun and came naturally and other sounds took days, long nights of work to fall into place — or be scrapped entirely.” Welcome Strawberry welcomes you to the new inspired Bay Area sound of yesterday and tomorrow’s visions in the present tense of now. Stay tuned for the follow up last year’s beloved self-titled…

Softie

Back in 2021 we heralded the lauded release of the debut Softie EP Strong Hold (Cherub Dream Records) and the multidisciplinary arts of Oakland-based artist Nicholas Coleman and we are keeping those klaxons blaring into 2023. From dropping visuals for “Doser” this past year, Coleman has signaled further ruminations of works in progress that promise more mountains of blissed out dissonance beyond all degrees of calculation. An artist that bridges the divide between impressionistic visuals and aural paintings for the mind, body and soul; keep on the lookout for new sonic offerings from Softie to follow in a year full of unlimited promise and unbound proliferation.

Watch this post for further updates and catch up with our Year in Pop: 2022 feature here.

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