Wud Records: September 2022 top ten tracks published at SoundCloud

How Did We Calculate The September 2022 Chart?

The top ten tracks for September 2022 from Wud Records have been published in a new playlist at SoundCloud.

Tracks are arranged from one to ten according to their popularity. 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. There may be a news spoiler in that last sentence…

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.

This latest chart could have looked very different. There was not very much gap between tracks five and twenty.

Only you, the listener, can influence our October 2022 playlist. So if there is a track you particularly like, keep playing it! Leave a comment, repost it and share it to your social media feeds! 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 September 2022 by listening to, commenting on and reposting our bands’ tracks on SoundCloud, Bandcamp and other platforms.

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 seem worthwhile.

Who’s In The September 2022 Top Ten?

The Bastard Sons of Dennis

Congratulations to The Bastard Sons of Dennis! They can claim dominance over the September 2022 chart, occupying the top three places, as well as three more, for a total of six of the top ten. All of their songs on the new chart come from their splendid Cosy Lube Turtle album.

Cosy Lube Turtle is an anagram. Can you solve it? It is a whole album of wonderful acoustic Blue Öyster Cult covers.

Cosy Lube Turtle has been available on Bandcamp for some time. We recently released the Cosy Lube Turtle album to SoundCloud as well, and sent it away to a distributor for global distribution. More news on this will follow soon.

Straight in at number one on the new chart is Astronomy. This is a beautiful and haunting song 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 a little more produced in the opening bars 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.

There is another new entry at number two this month. She’s as Beautiful as a Foot is another Blue Öyster Cult cover. This one 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 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.

Dropping down from number one last month to number three this month is Seven Screaming Diz-Busters. This is a highly esoteric and extraordinary piece of progressive rock composition, beautifully interpreted by The Bastard Sons of Dennis.

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.

Another new entry from the Cosy Lube Turtle album by The Bastard Sons of Dennis is at number six. This one 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 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.

Down to number eight from number five last month for The Bastard Sons of Dennis on this month’s chart is 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 distribued them to the audience. Both the stage and the band were covered in them.

The final song from the Cosy Lube Turtle album by The Bastard Sons of Dennis this month is a new entry at number ten. This is The Subhuman, another wonderful Blue Oyster Cult song. It was originally released on the 1974 Secret Treaties album and there is a sublime live version on On Your Feet Or On Your Knees. The Bastard Sons of Dennis drew inpiration from both versions.

The Subhuman is seven minutes long and filled with beautifully crafted definitive guitar melodies. Live performances would be very similar, despite the length and the apparent jamminess of the piece. This is another song where Chuck tunes his low string to a drop-D.

Dark Company

A very good month for Dark Company sees them occupy three of the remaining four chart positions. Two different albums are featured, both work-in-progress. There are two songs from Alien Heat and one from Noir.

Up from number nine to number four this month is Dark Company’s awesome alternative / hard / psychedelic rock and funk song Dancing In The Dark. The version you can hear is still work-in-progress.

Pete wrote the lyrics in 1989 and the song was originally performed by Alien Heat. Dancing In The Dark describes his memories of going nightclubbing in the West End of London after being revved up by his good friend Billy.

Pete was not actually terribly keen on the song and would always refer to it as “Farting in the Park”.

Back in the days of Alien Heat, Dancing In The Dark included Graham’s drum solo. This was when everyone in the band would roll a cigarette (or something a little more flavoursome) while he performed it, hopefully having the deed done and the object lit in time to carry on with the song at the drum solo’s conclusion.

Making a re-entry this month at number five is Ship to Shore. This is a wonderful progressive rock song with a lot of history. The work-in-progress version on the Alien Heat album was transformed into a hybrid electronic rock song by Jeff and George in the early days of Dark Company‘s second incarnation, when the band became a digital trio.

Originally an Alien Heat song, Ship to Shore has been a big favourite for many years. We hope to finish and release the Alien Heat album soon after the next control room upgrade, which will hopefully take place before the spring.

Into the chart at number seven is Mainstream Man from the Noir album. This is a fabulous deep cut from Dark Company with delightful and clever lyrics from the pen of Peter Greatorex.

Mainstream Man was inspired by the 1984 comedy scifi cult movie Repo Man. The lead guitar gives a little nod to the Spielberg classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, although it is easily missed. Completion of the Noir album is still some way off, although it will be a magnificent album once it is finished.

Flicker

Flicker achieved a single entry on the new Wud Records chart. It came from their wonderful 2002 album At Least 1000 Words.

Falling this month from number two to number nine comes Farsight by Flicker. Farsight is a wonderful 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.

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 September 2022 chart. *

Listening Options

If you would like to go to SoundCloud to hear the top ten songs from Wud Records in September 2022, 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.

Recently we have added a few more of the previous charts as pages to their section of this website. We are still more than a year behind in this work, but at least a little catching up has been done. If you’d like to see all our old charts, they can be accessed easily by clicking here. More pages will be added soon, when there is time.