Wud Records: December 2023 top ten published at SoundCloud

The December 2023 Chart

The top ten tracks for December 2023 on Bandcamp and SoundCloud have been published in a new compilation.

We almost included data from Spotify and the other streaming platforms, but unfortunately the 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 it up on the website from the first of the month.

If we were to start including streams from Spotify, and other platforms that our distribution companies reach, the only artists to chart would be the ones being distributed. There is a certain disparity between the amount of streams that come from our distributed albums compared to what we put on SoundCloud and Bandcamp, even though our figures there remain good. Perhaps things might change and in the future we might include more platforms. But for now, it remains as it is.

How Did We Calculate The December 2023 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 January 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 December 2023 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 oursevles 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 December 2023 Top Ten?

The Bastard Sons of Dennis

Congratulations to The Bastard Sons of Dennis! They continue to dominate the chart in December 2023, claiming seven of the top ten positions, including the top three. 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 remarkable ninth consecutive month. Can anything top it next time around?

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.

Climbing six places from number eight to number two 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.

Before the Kiss a Redcap is a re-entry at number three and the third Cosy Lube Turtle song on the new chart. It is the song that The Bastard Sons of Dennis performed live the most frequently. It would often pique the curiosity and lure unsuspecting bar patrons to where the live music was being performed so they could see for themselves what was going on. It was a very popular and fun live song, and quite often a set opener.

Before the Kiss a Redcap is the story of some events that took place at Conry’s Bar, on The Turnpike in New York. It is the fifth song on the eponymously titled Blue Öyster Cult album, released in 1972. Its lyrics were allegedly inspired by a real event witnessed by Sandy Pearlman, in which a biker offered him a barbiturate to be taken via a kiss.

Then Came the Last Days of May drops three 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.

At number seven is second re-entry for our gruesome twosome, which comes in the shape of Redeemed. This song is the final song on Blue Öyster Cult’s 1972 eponymous debut album. Donald Roeser‘s guitar tone at the very end is so incredibly beautiful. We highly recommend listening if you don’t know this song already.

Redeemed is the only recording on Cosy Lube Turtle where Derek and Chuck both played their guitar parts at the same time. They referred to it as their Christmas song, even in summer. The count-in was always improvised and somewhat unpredictable, due to the odd number of beats in the intro. “One, one,” was a popular version.

Down five from number four to number nine we see another song from the Cosy Lube Turtle album. This is the opening track, Dominance and Submission. Originally released by Blue Öyster Cult on their 1974 Secret Treaties album, The Bastard Sons of Dennis would indulge in various acts of tomfoolery during a live performance of this song. Derek would introduce the band and thank the venue and sound engineer. He would also encourage the crowd to join in with the cries of “Dominance!”, “Submission!”.

In the long pauses before “It will be time!”, Derek and Chuck would spin their guitars upside down. Stuck on the back of Chuck’s guitar was a large sign that read “Throw panties now!”, and on the back of Derek’s was a similar sign that read “If no panties, bras!” Very few undergarments were ever actually tossed onto the stage, apart from on one occasion when somebody had brought a big bag full of old knickers and distributed them to the audience. Both the stage and the band were covered in them.

The final re-entry to the new chart at number ten is Teen Archer by The Bastard Sons of Dennis. Chuck uses a drop-D tuning and the song always had a wonderful uptempo energy when the duo performed it live.

Teen Archer comes from Blue Öyster Cult‘s awesome 1973 album Tyranny and Mutation. It has a fun and infectious groove to it that The Bastard Sons of Dennis do a splendid job of recreating on two acoustic guitars. There’s even a comedy percussion section as a nod to Albert Bouchard‘s drum break.

Dark Company

Dark Company‘s only entry in the new chart is the beta mix of Alpha Omega, from the forthcoming Alien Heat album.

Alpha Omega is a truly incredible song, a progressive rock/bossa nova masterpiece in several parts. At just over eight minutes in length it takes us on a crazy journey. Perhaps the most surprising thing about it’s appearance in the charts is that it is a new entry at number four, as the song is already the third most streamed song overall in the December 2023 chart.

Pete, who possessed an actor’s Equity card, used his dramatic training to great effect in the talkover section. This is where the time signature changes every bar, from thirteen to ten to seven to four, all over eight, then back to the beginning again. The rich chocolatey languidity of his vocal throughout Alpha Omega is completely captivating and one of his best performances we ever managed to capture.

Alpha Omega also has a tremendous backstory as well as tremendous lyrics. You can enjoy both at the Explicit Music website by clicking here. We hope you will love this wonderful song as much as we do!

Alchemeon

A new 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 hyprnotic groove, reminiscent of bands such as Jade Warrior or Caravan perhaps.

There is an amusing out-take as well, where “faintly fishy fireman’s daughter” was accidentally sung instead of the correct lyrics, “faintly fiery fisher’s daughter”. The mind boggles.

Flicker

Flicker had a single entry on the new Wud Records chart. It comes from their incredible 2002 album At Least 1000 Words.

Down six places from last month‘s number eight is Farsight by Flicker. Farsight is a delightful and whimsical piece of music, progressive rock or indie jazz perhaps in style, highly melodic and decorated with samples from Captain Kirk’s USS Enterprise, Jonathan Agnew and Maharaj Ji, among others.

Farsight was originally an Ug Brothers creation that came about very late in that band’s existance, and didn’t make it to a live show before they folded in 1995. For the full backstory, we recommend the tune’s page at the Explicit Music website.

At Least 1000 Words was remastered and re-released recently. It has also been distributed worldwide to sites such as Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, iTunes, Deezer, Tidal, and so on.

If you wish to download the album At Least 1000 Words by Flicker, we absolutely 100% recommend doing so from Bandcamp.

Flicker‘s second album, HappySad, is under construction and you can listen to it as it stands right now by clicking here. Several more tracks are likely to be released in the coming weeks and months, so please keep an eye and an ear on our News service and Twitter.

* None of our other acts made it onto the December 2023 chart. *

Why use Bandcamp?

Whilst several of the other platforms offer music downloada, they charge a lot more and take a much bigger percentage of that higher price. This means that you pay more, the band recevies less and a big greedy corporation takes a big chunk for itself, just because it can. It’s a lose-lose situation, unless you happen to be a big corporation who can rip people off however they want.

Buying the album 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 are 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, 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.

Listening Options

If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in December 2023, 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 December 2023 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.