The January 2024 Chart
The top ten tracks for January 2024 on Bandcamp and SoundCloud have been published in a new compilation.
We almost included data from spotify and the other streaming platforms, but unfortunately their data arrives too late from the distributors. We may delay the creation of these playlists for three or four days in the future, although this will be a team decision as we do like to have our recent hot tracks up on the website right from the first day of the month.
Truth be told, we dislike spotify rather intensely. 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.
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 current 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 January 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’.
Radio play and songs published at other platforms are omitted from the statistics. There may be further developments when our music is added to more platforms.
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 February 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 January 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 January 2024 Top Ten?
The Bastard Sons of Dennis
Congratulations to The Bastard Sons of Dennis! They dominated the chart in January 2024, claiming five of the top ten positions. All of the songs are from their fabulous Cosy Lube Turtle album, with their cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s Astronomy holding on to the top position for a record tenth consecutive month. Can anything top it next time around? It was close this time!
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.
This month‘s number one song, Astronomy, is a profoundly beautiful and haunting song. It was composed by the Bouchard brothers, Joe and Albert, and Sandy Pearlman. It is the final track of Blue Öyster Cult’s 1974 Secret Treaties album, and an absolute masterpiece of progressive rock composition.
The version of Astronomy by The Bastard Sons of Dennis is more produced than their live performances. They would often end a show with Astronomy, introducing it as a song that was famously covered by Metallica. “We wrote it, of course; ahem, cough…” Chuck would quip.
Falling four places from number two to number six is the next 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.
A re-entry at number seven 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.
Then Came the Last Days of May drops two places to number six. 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.
Returning to our charts at number nine is a second re-entry for The Bastard Sons of Dennis. Seven Screaming Diz-Busters is a highly esoteric and extraordinary piece of progressive rock composition, beautifully interpreted by The Bastard Sons of Dennis. It is a song for which they were well known.
Originally it was released by Blue Öyster Cult on their 1973 Tyranny and Mutation album. It was big crowd favourite at a live performance by The Bastard Sons of Dennis and you can enjoy watching a video of them playing it live by clicking here.
Mark Drower and the Everyones
What a month it’s been for Mark Drower and the Everyones! All four of their songs from their seminal Blaze Tape recording re-entered the chart this month, and all of them in the top five.
A re-entry at number two, its highest ever position, is I Know I Know You by Mark Drower and the Everyones. This is a beautiful song with a lot of history.
I Know I Know You was composed by Mark Drower for the King’s School Ottery St Mary Project Week of 1982. As such, I Know I Know You is one of the oldest recordings in the Wud Records pantheon of fantastic songs.
I Know I Know You features a teenage Pok on lead guitar. It was performed live during the performance of the play Everyone by Frederick Franck, as well as by other bands that came later, such as Wud. It came in Act One, directly after the scene where Everyone talks with his Friends. The drop-D tuning Mark often used on his acoustic is still known as Drower Tuning by many of the wider Wud posse.
Treasure by Mark Drower and the Everyones is a re-entry at number three. The last time that this song was on the charts was back in February 2018, almost six years ago! Treasure has a redoubtable history and was often jammed and made into other songs entirely, songs which never saw the light of day beyond the rooms they were jammed in.
Treasure is another fabulous song that Mark created. Its wonderful lyrics were often quoted, and those obscure chords in drop-D tuning that Mark taught us never appeared in any chord dictionary.
Treasure features the fabulous lead guitarings of a teenage Pok the Bard. Lisa Williams, who played the part of Treasure during the play, read the talkover at the beginning.
The third song to re-enter our charts from Mark Drower and the Everyones is The Mirror. This is another beautiful creation in a drop-D tuning with a long, long history. There is a delightfully communal singalong section where the backing singers can rouse the crowd and Mark sings the lead vocal over the top of it.
The Mirror was the first song to be recorded at Blaze Studios in Torquay and the final live song performed during Everyone. It was performed after Everyone met Insight and came to a state of understanding, acceptance and self-belief.
One time George performed this song at a friend’s 21st birthday celebration to a large hall full of relatives and friends. During the performance he had a moment of mispronunciation and accidentally sang “From the past to pilchard they will sing the same old rhymes” instead of “From the past to future”, which caused much hilarity and laughter among the backing singers. The error went completely unnoticed by the relatives.
This Time Tomorrow by Mark Drower and the Everyones is perhaps our longest ever chart absentee. It re-renters at number five, having last been seen back in August 2017, the month we left the uk. It feels like a lifetime ago by now.
This Time Tomorrow was the second live song in the play Everyone. It came when Everyone is let down by his Family. It is in standard tuning, the only song on The Blaze Tape EP that is. The opening chord of the song is a D major with a G in the bass, which seems to pose a question immediately.
This Time Tomorrow is a beautiful and poignant song that looks ahead to the future and asks how will we remember the present when it has become the past. Will there be regrets, and will there be anything left to remind us of how we were and how we felt today? “All we ever needed was to see each other’s way” is such a beautiful way to express the feelings within. We hope you love this song as much as we do.
The Subterraineans
Short and Sweet is an amazing, beautiful, wonderful, epic classic rock song. It re-enters the new chart at number ten.
A massive favourite for many years, Short and Sweet used to profoundly affect people listening to it whenever The Subterraineans played this song live. Like many of Dean’s songs, it is a rather poignant prophetic prediction of Dean’s ultimate fate and how he felt about his struggles.
Short and Sweet is well over eight minutes long and feels much shorter somehow. Jerry’s bass sounds a bit uncertain at the start, but he always played it that way so he must have had some idea what he was doing!
Dean tragically committed suicide in 1994 by jumping from the Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol. He was just 29 years old. He received absolutely no professional help from the uk medical or social professions. With a little professional help he would surely still be here with us today. He was a unique and charming character and his passing was a great loss to the world.
As such, we have decided to donate all proceeds of the sale of this EP and its individual tracks, beyond the first euro, to The Samaritans. They do amazing and difficult work, trying to prevent more people jumping to their deaths from that notorious bridge.
* None of our other acts made it onto the January 2024 chart. *
Listening Options
If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in January 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 January 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.
Explicit Music 1982 - 2024. All rights reserved. Unauthorised copying, lending, hiring, public performance, public broadcasting and sampling prohibited.