The April 2024 Chart
The top ten tracks for April 2024 on Bandcamp and SoundCloud have been published in a new compilation.
SoundCloud ‘Insights’ Erratum
There is a certain proviso to all of this. In the last few months, SoundCloud have decided, in their seemingly infinite wisdom, to downgrade their excellent ‘Stats’ for premium users to something completely unbelievably dreadful they call ‘Insights’. You couldn’t make this stuff up. It beggars belief!
Somebody at the company thought it would be a good idea to take a system that worked spectacularly well, and in real time, and replace it with another that is so riddled with inconsistancies and errors that the data seems to be even more unreliable than a politican’s memoires.
We simply have no idea how accurate the information we get from SoundCloud is any more, and we are rather inclined to believe it is not very accurate at all. As such, we are using it as a very rough guide and trying to work with it as best we can.
Why on earth people have to do these things seems utterly bewildering, but there we are. It has been done, and there is nothing we can do, apart from write regular emails of complaint, pointing out specific errors and inconsistencies within their system, only to receive an AI generated response from a bot that has failed to understand our email and might indeed be answering somebody else’s.
This is the world we live in today. All social media has been tightened and downgraded and it’s becoming ever harder to use any of the platforms, with ever diminishing rewards for anyone bothering to fritter away their precious time doing so.
Shitify
We have previously considered using data from our distributors for streams on platforms such as spotify, YouTube, Deezer and so on when reckoning the monthly charts. Unfortunately the data arrives several days too late from the distributors and we are rather keen to have the new chart up at our website on the first day of each new month.
Truth be told, we dislike spotify rather intensely right now. Not only are they tardy regarding supplying their stats, they have also implemented their most hideously egregious policy so far from 1st January 2024.
Spotify have chosen to take all of the revenue generated by any track having under 1000 streams and redistribute that revenue to the people who have the most streams, such as drake, kanye, taylor and so on.
Read about it here: https://blog.discmakers.com/2023/11/spotify-royalty-theft/
This isn’t just theft, it’s an absolute disgrace. Whoever thought this up should be ashamed of themselves and publicly rogered with a wire brush. Size four.
As such, we are considering boycotting spotify entirely. More news on this to come at the end of 2024.
Should our music achieve more than 1000 streams per track, which is highly likely over the course of a whole year, that means we are in effect stealing somebody else’s royalties when we are paid.
Just because a creative person achieves under 1000 streams for a song doesn’t mean we have the right to take their royalties. They probably worked just as hard as we did to make and release their music. They are no less deserving of their royalties than anybody else.
The whole thing is mucky and bad and makes us feel dirty for being paid not just our own royalties, but those of people who were unable to make the cut. This is just so worng. It’s a proper mess.
Why Use Bandcamp?
Whilst several music platforms offer music downloads, they all charge a lot more and take a much bigger percentage of that higher price then Bandcamp does.
This means that you pay more, the band receives less, and a big greedy corporation takes a big old chunk of the money you paid to support the artist all for itself, just because it can. It’s a lose-lose situation, unless you happen to be a big greedy corporation who can rip people off however the fancy takes them.
Buying music from Bandcamp will cost you less and support the artist more. It’s always a good idea to download from Bandcamp whenever possible as they are the best site for supporting artists. You can even pay more than the asking price for music on Bandcamp if you wish to add a little extra support for the artist.
Consider also the danger that streaming services might remove music or artists from their platform (e.g. the recent dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok), or even cease to exist altogether. To avoid having the soundtracks to your life erased, we strongly recommend buying physical media and downloads so you can listen to your favourite songs whenever you wish.
How Did We Calculate The April 2024 Chart?
The algorithm we use gives greatest weight to downloads and reposts, then likes and comments (active engagement) over plays (passive engagement).
When somebody reposts a track, that gives it the opportunity to be heard by a potential new fan. This is always a tremendous help for creative souls!
We have combined the stats from both SoundCloud and Bandcamp for the new chart. This is because it will not be long until all our Bandcamp tracks are also published at SoundCloud, providing they do not mangle their stats too horribly in the conversion/downgrade to ‘insights’ as mentioned above.
Archive tracks and bonus tracks are also ignored, as are likes and comments from people who clearly didn’t listen to the music. We have ways of knowing these things.
Only you, the listener, can influence our May 2024 chart. So if there is a track you particularly like, keep playing it! Leave a comment, repost it, share it to your social media feeds! Download it from our Bandcamp! Add it to a playlist! It absolutely can make a difference.
Thanks For All Your Help!
Massive thanks go out to everybody who helped to support all of us during April 2024 by listening to, commenting on and reposting our bands’ tracks on SoundCloud, Bandcamp and elsewhere.
All the wonderful fans of our bands who supported us with downloads from Bandcamp are especially appreciated. You genuinely help us keep the fires burning and collectively we thank you for that most graciously. May you be blessed by the gods of rock n roll! :)
We would also like to say a special thank you to all the splendid people on Twitter who have been enjoying and reposting our tracks to their followers. All the support and positive feedback has been incredibly heartwarming for us all. It makes our endeavours here feel worthwhile.
Thank you very much to everyone who bought items from our merch store. Anyone who shares a photo of themselves with their Wud item on social media will receive an extra goody from ourselves once we have seen it and shared the photo on to our community as well.
If you buy something cool from the Flicker merch store, or the Dark Company merch store, both of which opened recently, we shall also send you an extra goody if you show us a photo of yourself (or friend, or environment) on social media with the item you purchased.
Last and by no means least, we would like to say thank you very much to all of the splendid people who have been buying us coffees at BuyMeACoffee. It’s very kind of you to help us out. All of these things absolutely contribute to ourselves being able to keep going, and spend more time making beautiful music for you to enjoy. It is truly appreciated very much indeed.
Who’s In The April 2024 Top Ten?
Pok the Bard
Congratulations to Pok the Bard! We have started to release his Anthology album’s tracks to SoundCloud (as mentioned in this News post) and doing so has made an immediate impact. Pok has claimed three of the four top spots on our new chart.
Standing still at number one this month is the first of three entries from our PokStar. Young Light is a beautiful song that Pok composed after he left the sixth form of school in 1983. He wrote it for Mark Drower for all the inspiration he gave to the fledgling wudders.
Young Light is quite a short song at only 2:36 and is full of wistful wonder. There is also a banjo, that Pok happened to have with him when he came to visit the studios on the day the song was recorded. It seemed like a fun idea to include it.
The second appearance for Pok is down one at number three. This is our newest release. Wear a Feather in Your Hat tells a most extraordinary tale about a group of travellers in the USA in the 19th Century and a man with purple skin. This really truly is a delightful song and the tale has the most peculiar twist at the end.
Pok plays three guitar parts on his beautiful Gretsch acoustic – one left, one right and a lead part. The lead part was recorded all in one take, and it was the first take. The man’s skills are often under-rated. Maxx and Sven do a fabulous job with the bass and percussives, as always.
Wear a Feather in Your Hat first appears on the Indeed recording by Laughing Sun. The lyrics even say “You can be a man of Wud or you can go insane!” – which seems a relatively easy choice to make.
Back in 1985, when Pok wrote Wear a Feather in Your Hat and used the word ‘man’, it was widely understood to mean ‘woman’ as well, in an all-encompassing and friendly way, rather than today’s necessity for lengthy politically correct pronoun conjugations and configuarations.
Holding steady at number four this month is The Sidewalk Song. This was co-written with Mark Drower and is a very historic and classic old song. The Anthology version we made is based upon a Now recording that Pok and ourselves consider to be largely definitive. The Sidewalk Song is a gloriously bombastic hard rock piledriver in E major, full of youthful self confidence, swagger and braggadocio.
After Now ceased to exist, The Sidewalk Song was subsequently performed by Lemming Meringue and Wud, although Ken’s Robert Plant influenced vocal was never quite up to Mark‘s more wholesome humanistic version. The breakdown section with the added percussion was improvised. The vocal was never performed the same twice, neither by Mark nor by Ken. The chords are very simple and clearly defined, and the traditional shout of “G!!!” is left in, as it was used to warn band members of the upcoming change.
The Bastard Sons of Dennis
The Bastard Sons of Dennis enjoyed an excellent month on the chart in April 2024, claiming four of the ten possible positions.
Three of the songs are from their fabulous Cosy Lube Turtle album, with a fourth coming from their Cherry Smoke Empire album.
Cosy Lube Turtle has been available on Bandcamp for some time. Towards the end of 2022 we released the Cosy Lube Turtle album to SoundCloud as well. Recently it was sent for global distribution.
Since the studio upgrade early last year, we have been working on improving the sound quality of everything we released in the last few years. Another album by The Bastard Sons of Dennis, Cherry Smoke Empire, is currently on the slab.
A progtastic full-band mini-album by the dynamic duo is also in the early stages of finalisation. Sadly we tend to feel that further recordings of their many remaining Blue Oyster Cult covers seems an unlikely prospect. This is mostly due to “discommunication, disorganisation and general untogetherness”, as the legend who is Paul Bateman once said of them when they were in Rough Terrain.
We finished the remixing and remastering of Cosy Lube Turtle in the autumn just gone. The new and improved Cosy Lube Turtle album was re-released early in October. We are still considering holding a Cosy Lube Turtle listening party at Bandcamp at some point when everything can be arranged.
Then Came the Last Days of May climbs five places from number seven to number two, its highest ever position. This song tells a true story of how three university friends of Blue Öyster Cult’s guitarist, Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser, were brutally murdered in a drug deal that went horribly and tragically wrong. The version by our dynamic duo adds a twist to the versions heard on Blue Öyster Cult’s eponymous studio album and the live On Your Feet Or On Your Knees album from 1975.
Derek would sing “Now and then a duck” instead of “truck”, which caused fans of the duo to bring toy ducks with them along to live performances. Chuck’s solo is largely based on the live On Your Feet Or On Your Knees version, and his little whistle at the end (which didn’t always come out quite right in a live show) came from the character Tom Good in the uk tv sitcom The Good Life.
A re-entry at number five is the next Cosy Lube Turtle song. It is a cover of Blue Öyster Cult‘s Wings Wetted Down, from the 1973 Tyranny and Mutation album.
Wings Wetted Down is a masterfully crafted piece of songwriting, with its clever key changes and all its vocal and instrumental melodic hooks. It is considered a deep cut among BÖC fans. The version performed by The Bastard Sons of Dennis is largely true to the original, with the addition of a riff section that Derek solos over.
The third entry from The Bastard Sons of Dennis is from their wonderful epic song The Furniture / Los Muebles. This is an extraordinary tale, which threads its way through the entirety of the duo’s Cherry Smoke Empire album. It tells the story of a dysfunctional family of fisherfolk from the Asturias region of northern Spain, who lost and then found some of their furniture following a flood. The Furniture (part one: overture) has charted many times and re-enters at number seven.
The Furniture / Los Muebles was released as a single in January 2017. At twelve minutes and seven seconds in length, most record labels would consider it too long to be a single. It didn’t stop us though! For the Cherry Smoke Empire album, the song was split into nine separate parts and a different song can be heard between each part.
The fourth song from The Bastard Sons of Dennis is up from number nine to number eight. This is the penultimate song from the Cosy Lube Turtle album by The Bastard Sons of Dennis. She’s as Beautiful as a Foot is another Blue Öyster Cult cover, which originates from the Long Island quintet’s 1972 eponymous album, Blue Öyster Cult. The original version is highly psychedelic.
When covered by The Bastard Sons of Dennis, Chuck tunes his guitar to DADGAD. The twinkly noises at the beginning are created using an old computer fan and its assorted janglesome danglesome appendages. She’s as Beautiful as a Foot was often performed first in a set of Bastard Sons of Dennis songs, due largely to the tuning.
Alchemeon
A re-entry at number five from Alchemeon is Born, from their Live in Session Spring 2009 recording. This album is a collection of bootlegs from various Alchemeon sessions. Born was their set opener, so is the first track on the album.
Born is a fabulous piece of cosmic progressive rock, composed by Pok the Bard in 1985 and first performed by Laughing Sun. Another version of Born by Alchemeon, from their earlier Winter 2008-09 collection, has already charted.
Born has a gradually building spacerock intro and the verse is breathtakingly beautiful when it arrives. “Back so far you’re out in front again” is such a wonderful lyric. Born ends in a sparklesome shower of latin fireworks, a compelling hypnotic groove, reminiscent of bands such as Jade Warrior or Caravan perhaps.
The Addled Eggs
The 223rd new entry in the Wud Records monthly charts is Heaven and Hell by The Addled Eggs. The Addled Eggs are one of our more obscure acts, having had a fairly short life and not much music recorded for posterity, and much of that not very polished. The band’s last chart appearance was in February 2019 when their cover of Mountain’s delightful Silver Paper, also covered subsequently by The Subterraineans and Rough Terrain, was a re-entry.
The Addled Eggs featured the late Dean Trotter on rhythm guitar and vocals, Martin on lead guitar, George on bass and Ben on drums. Dean sadly took his own life in 1994, and we wrote a little about that already here, and here. Martin had a curious and rather splendid style of guitaring which involved soloing very loudly from two or three seconds after a song started to two or three seconds after it ended. He went on to read a degree in jazz and the last we heard was the head of music at a prestigious music college. Ben has also not been idle musically. We discovered him recently quite by chance on SoundCloud in a fabulously eccentric band called Trio of Men.
Laughing Sun
It’s A Blue Sky Don’t Hold No Rain is a song that Pok composed when he was still a teenager and a re-entry at number ten, having last charted in July 2023. It was inspired by Neil Young‘s Cortez the Killer and talks of the brutal genocide inflicted upon peaceful ethnic societies by the bloodthirsty conquerors of Europe. It is a remarkable song and a sublime progressive rock composition. The song has extraordinary lyrics, especially so considering Pok was only 17 or 18 at the time he composed them.
This song was also performed by Alchemeon. You can hear it on both their Winter and Spring collections. There is also a studio version of it in the works that will be added to Pok‘s Anthology album when there is time.
* None of our other acts made it onto the April 2024 chart. *
Listening Options
If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in April 2024, as played, liked, commented upon and reposted by listeners, please click here.
If you prefer to listen right here at the Wud Records website, you will find that it is the new default music player. You will find it on all non band-specific pages at the site, including our Links collection and homepage.
The April 2024 chart has its very own dedicated page among the charts pages of this website. You can listen to the new compilation on its page by clicking here.
Each of the previous charts also has its own page in the charts section of this website. If you would like to see all our old charts, or for any previous month you are especially interested in, all of them can be accessed easily by clicking here.
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