What is a live album, really? While some bands have denied editing or overdubbing their live albums (adding on top of, replacing, or “re-doing” parts) and some have even admitted to overdubbing while originally denying it, there are numerous examples of “Live” albums that contain some or even heavy overdubs. When it was released in 1991, I remember reading that Neil Young's live Weld album (which I love) had vocal overdubs to improve the harmonies/background vocals. For many years, Kiss denied that their massive hit of a live album Alive! was overdubbed, and then admitted in the early Aughts (I wish I heard this expression more often…) that there were a few overdubs, and then finally admitted that it was heavily overdubbed in a studio. The Rolling Stone Record Guide noted that the Eagles Live album is "perhaps the most heavily overdubbed (live) album in history."

So what about us? Well, for years I’d been thinking that it would be great to capture a live recording with all seven of the Monday Night Card members playing a “plugged in” show. I finally had the forethought to arrange for a friend and talented sound engineer, Eliot Walker, to bring a laptop to capture the individual tracks (meaning a separate recording of each individual microphone/input from the stage that could then be EQ’d and mixed) for our performance at the 2025 Germantown Festival. We put the setlist together based on songs that we loved playing live and, with the exception of the brand new song, Four Stick Drumstick Count In, they were songs we knew really well. We also hoped to capture songs that had a different energy, feel, or vibe in our live shows than the studio recordings. 

Then life got in the way. Amy let us know she was too sick to perform a couple of days before the show. Totally understandable, of course, and Natalie knows how to adjust her background vocals from a three-part to a two-part arrangement for the live show, but what would that mean for the live album we hoped to record? 

We decided if Neil can do it, we can too. Nearly everything you will hear on our new single and the live album, LIVE in MMXXV, that is coming in January was actually recorded live including all of the lead vocals. The background vocals were overdubbed with Chris Isaac at Studio ‘82 as it just wouldn’t be a Monday Night Card album without both Amy and Natalie doing their amazing vocal thing. Aside from that, with the exception of a couple of bad guitar chords we fixed and a peal of feedback we removed, it’s exactly what happened on the outdoor stage that beautiful afternoon in September. We hope you enjoy the first cut from that album, Four Click Drumstick Count In (Live, 9/6/25)  which will be available for streaming everywhere on Friday, November 21st.