Gear Club Podcast

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Record of the Week: Red Eyes Sep 22, 2026

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John Agnello and Stewart Lerman kick off a new Record of the Week with The War on Drugs' Red Eyes, off 2014's Lost in the Dream. They trace the two-year process behind the track (six or seven studios, by their own count), break down the harmonic choices that give it its pull, and swap stories about how they each got hooked on Adam Granduciel's band in the first place.

#105: Elvis Costello: 49 Years of Records, Producers & Studio Secrets Sep 01, 2026

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Elvis Costello sits down with Gear Club for a career-spanning conversation, from the tiny London room where My Aim Is True was recorded to the unpublished Bob Dylan lyrics he helped finish decades later. John Agnello and special guest host Tony Agnello of Eventide join for a conversation that gets surprisingly candid about the studios, the producers, and the gear behind four decades of records, including the Eventide H910 Harmonizer that helped define the guitar sound on This Year's Model. Topics include the 49th anniversary box set of My Aim Is True, the making of Imperial Bedroom, working with Jeff Emerick, King of America with T-Bone Burnett, Wise Up Ghost with Questlove and The Roots, and the New Basement Tapes sessions built from Bob Dylan's unfinished lyrics.

Record of the Week: Surf's Up Aug 11, 2026

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This week, we take a look at the acclaimed Surf's Up by The Beach Boys. In 2004, the album was included in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and ranked 61 on Pitchfork Media's "The Top 100 Albums Of The 1970s".

#104: The History Of Eventide with Founder Richard Factor Jul 21, 2026

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In this episode we present the history of Eventide, makers of revolutionary audio products for over 50 years, as told by founder and owner Richard Factor. Eventide's history stretches back to 1971, but Richard was tinkering with audio electronics well before that, paving the way for some of the first Eventide products. Richard takes John and Stewart through the early history of Eventide, from its founding and naming to its first groundbreaking products, among them the first remote tape machine transport control and the first digital audio device, the 1745 Digital Delay Line.

From there it's on to the dynamics-defying Omnipressor, the psychedelic Instant Flanger and Phaser, and the arrival of the venerated Harmonizer line of pitch shifters. It's a fascinating and fun oral history of a company that continues to define innovation in audio. As always, we encourage you to like, subscribe, share, and leave a comment. When you do, it lets us reach a lot more listeners, and our biggest goal at Gear Club is to share these incredible stories with as many people as possible.

Record of the Week: Peaches en Regalia Jul 07, 2026

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In this Record of the Week, John and Stewart dig into "Peaches en Regalia" by Frank Zappa, the opening track from his 1969 masterpiece Hot Rats. They break down the recording techniques Zappa used across the album and how those techniques shaped one of the most celebrated instrumentals in rock history. Along the way, John shares his own story of accidentally reinventing the same trick decades later, and why Hot Rats still sounds like nothing else ever made.

Record of the Week: Fat Old Sun May 26, 2026

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Here's Record of the Week, where we listen to records that inspire us and made us wonder, how did they do that? This week: Fat Old Sun by Pink Floyd. John & Stewart hone in on production techniques used to create the piece, and dissect the wacky, experimental nature of this song in Atom Heart Mother in comparison to later Pink Floyd albums.

#103: Pearl Jam, Lollapalooza, and Life in the Studio with Tom Beaujour May 06, 2026

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In this episode we talk with author, producer, engineer and musician Tom Beaujour. Tom's career started as a writer for Guitar World Magazine, going on to found Revolver magazine and Guitar Aficionado, and most recently co-writing The books Lollapalooza and Nothin' But a good time, Oral histories of two pivotal moments in rock music. In tandem with his writing Tom has been recording and producing albums for the likes of Nada Surf, Juliana Hatfield Three, and Doug Gillard. We chat with Tom about writing his latest book, striking a balance between journalism and record making, and hear some great stories about the insanity of the Lollapalooza festivals.

Record of the Week: Out of the Blue Apr 09, 2026

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This week on Record of the Week, we dig into one of the most overlooked and mysterious songs connected to The Band: "Out of the Blue," tucked away on The Last Waltz Suite. Robbie Robertson's lead vocal, the unusual arrangement, and the lack of clear information about who actually played on the track all make this song a real puzzle.

John Agnello and Stewart Lerman sit down with David Mansfield - violinist and multi-instrumentalist for Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue - to dig into the mystery. We discuss Robbie Robertson's voice and his role in The Band's harmonies, the Garth Hudson keyboard signatures buried in the track, why the rhythm section doesn't sound like Levon Helm or Rick Danko, and what the song tells us about the final days of one of rock's greatest groups.

We also get into The Last Waltz recording sessions, John Simon's revelation that nearly every note in the film was replaced in post-production, the relationship between The Last Waltz and Bob Dylan's Renaldo and Clara, and the Rolling Thunder Revue's place in Dylan and The Band's shared history.

0:00 Intro: Record of the Week

0:12 Discovering "Out of the Blue" on The Last Waltz Soundtrack

1:26 The Mystery of Robbie Robertson's Solo Vocal

2:22 Who Is Actually Playing on This Track?

3:30 Why Are No Other Band Members Singing?

4:06 The No-Show Sessions at Shangri-La

4:49 Analyzing the Rhythm Section: Levon Helm and Rick Danko

6:43 Robbie Robertson or Richard Manuel? The Vocal Question

7:34 Rolling Thunder, Before the Flood, and the Band's Final Days

8:11 Bob Dylan's Contentious Rights Battle Over The Last Waltz

10:01 The Tension Between Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm

11:11 Identifying Garth Hudson's Musical Influence on the Track

13:03 The Post-Production Secret: Every Note Replaced in The Last Waltz

14:12 Outro: Final Thoughts

#102: Rick Chertoff: The Producer Behind Cyndi Lauper, Joan Osborne & Decades of Hit Records Mar 08, 2026

Show notes

In this episode John and Stewart sit down for a chat with friend and mentor Rick Chertoff. Rick is a Producer and songwriter whose career started in A&R for Clive Davis's newly minted Arista records in 1974. From there, he went on to be senior VP of A&R at Columbia records, started his own Blue Gorilla record Label at Polygram, and all the while produced songs and albums for Cyndi Lauper, The Band, Joan Osborne, Sophie B Hawkins, and many others. In this interview Rick discusses his path through the music industry, gets in depth about the writing and recording of Cyndi Lauper's smash first album She's So Unusual, and shares behind the scenes stories from a career filled with hit records.

#101: Tad Kubler: In the studio and on the road with The Hold Steady Jan 29, 2026

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In this episode John, Stewart, and myself sit down with Tad Kubler, best known as guitarist and songwriter for the best bar band in the world, The Hold Steady. John and I have both made records with the band and it was awesome to catch up with Tad about gear, guitars, and all things Hold Steady. We also got into Tad's production and engineering work, his burgeoning home studio, and his writing and demoing process.

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