Let Em' Talk: Dan Lurie talks us through Dan Lurie & the Quarter System's new E.P 'Syndicated Sitcoms'
September heralds the arrival of Autumn (Fall for our American friends) and the slow, prolonged death of summer. I guess that means it's time to jump on board the NNWNF express as we get on the final stretch of track of 2026. I've been quiet, I'm aware of that. Basically, I've been making my own music again and getting obsessed by that. There will be more on that in future months, if I don't decide to delete it all first. Seriously, how the hell do you guys do this without cringing all the Goddamn time? It's exhausting. Anyway, enough of that nonsense, let's talk about music by some real musicians.
1) Slice of Life
'Slice of Life' opens the EP and shows off a lot of what we like to do as a band — a warm acoustic intro, a steady climb toward an unhinged close, and a mix of melancholy and playfulness throughout.
Lyrically it’s about my time living in Seattle in the early 2000s, commuting by ferry, meeting friends at diners and figuring things out as young semi-adults in the city. Our drummer Chris took the “rhubarb pie” line to heart and made mini pies to hand out to the crowd at a recent show. He’s a chef so this was a delicious public service.
2) Zoupette
Several years ago my wife Vanessa (also our sweet-singing synth player) celebrated a landmark birthday with a trip to the south of France with friends. We rented a house and naturally I decided to mark the occasion by writing a song about the owner, Zoupette.
Some old black and white photos were all we really had to piece together Zoupette’s backstory, but she quickly gained mythical status in the minds of the group. For the somewhat doo-woppy sound of the song, our original mood board was The Archies meets Wilco. Kudos to our bassist Nathan for the bouncy groove.
3) Bowling Shoes
'Bowling Shoes' is a song I wrote for the PDX Songwriting Challenge here in Portland, Oregon. The prompt was “write a song you can dance to.” At the time, all I came up with was a voice memo with the main refrain, “put on your bowling shoes and dance, slip slide and move your pants,” followed by uncontrollable laughter.
Flash forward several years and the band transformed that silly hook into a serious romp that had us dancing in the studio and later racing to the nearest bowling alley to shoot the video. It also includes our guitarist Wayne reluctantly taking center stage with a soaring solo he couldn’t undo after we all loved it.
4) 7 Camps
'7 Camps' is one of our more boisterous numbers, which made it fun to record fully live in the studio the same way we’d play it in our basement. Chris, Nathan and Wayne go wild on this one while I sing about a Boy Scout camp I went to as a kid in Minnesota. Honestly, I loved the camp but I couldn’t last two weeks in the woods so I left early.
5) Moving Pictures
'Moving Pictures' closes out the EP and we had a lot of fun using all the toys in the studio for it. Shoutout to Trash Treasury and our amazing producer Cameron Spies.
Besides drumming, Chris twiddles knobs on this one to create the synthy rising tide. I croon softly about overthinking things. Vanessa provides lovely backing vocals, and Nathan and Wayne cross their bass and guitar streams for the big crescendo and cooldown.
I really love how it turned out.
You can follow and find out more about Dan Lurie & The Quarter System on Instagram, Facebook and DanLuriemusic.com
If you like what you hear on the usual, evil, streaming services buy Syndicated Sitcoms on their Bandcamp HERE
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