Getting screwed over by the algorithm is as much of a cliché as getting a surprise keeper from it. It has happened to me so many times, and I’m all for it. I’ll take 30 bad recs for one good band whose songs I’ll fall in love with. Strangely enough, Ace of Cups wasn’t recommended directly.

Instead, I was watching videos about San Francisco in the 60s, specially about Hunter S. Thompson’s time there. One video had a song in the background that felt just perfect. One quick tap of Shazam and voilá, Sam met Ace of Cups.

It’s bad for you but buy it was their only recording for the longest of time. A band unjustly lost to time, shuffled away because of life, all their recordings, of varying quality, in a hard to get record that I sadly had to get by unseemly methods. During the pandemic, I started catching up with some bands and thanks to some extra dosh from work, I went for their bandcamp, and found they had released an album in 2018. Bought it without listening to it, and yes, you can hear their age. And yes, it doesn’t fucking matter, it’s a beautiful psychedelic folk album. They’ve got two more and they are really worth your time if you’re into late 60s all women bands. And if you’re not, you still might be surprised of how good these albums are.

Afro Blue builds up as a live jazzy rocker. It’s solemn in its lyrical, almost tribal, with the drums keeping that trance like atmosphere you could buy for 2 bucks a pop on “Hashbury” (so said HST) . Glue and Music are two other highlights from that hard to get album.

I think I’m still playing a bit of street team (remember those?) for Ace of Cups and you can’t go wrong with any of their music, whether you’re feeling blue or ready to bask under the sun.

-Sam J. Valdés López