Yeasayer "Sunrise"

It all started with a stumble.

I saw an April Fools’ Day post yesterday where actor Jerry Ferrara shared a poster for a new season of Entourage. It was obviously fake, but man, it made me think about how fun that show was, and also how good the music was in it, too.

Props to famed music supervisor Scott Vener aka brokemogul for always coming correct. It looks like he’s back in action too on the upcoming Netflix show Nemesis.

So, I first heard the now-disbanded Brooklyn trio Yeasayer’s song “Sunrise” during the eighth episode of the sixth Entourage season. (Yes, I looked it up. I’m not some sort of psycho Entourage savant.) This was before I had an iPhone and Shazam, so I had to get a little craftier when it came to figuring out what the song was I had just heard. I had my techniques though (Google’s your friend, bruh.)

I interviewed one of the members of Yeasayer, Anand Wilder, for Pigeons & Planes back in the day, and here’s what he had to say about the Entourage placement:

Anand Wilder: Stupid TV show, but kind of a guilty pleasure. They played our song, I think it was as someone got kidnapped or something. It was well-placed. I think a couple dozen people found out about us that way.

Well, Anand. I was one of those couple dozen people. And it dropped right at the end of the episode when Vince’s security guard found his stalker’s driver’s license in the couch.

But yeah, “Sunrise” is an awesome song. Incredible energy, and an appropriate title, too—because this shit’ll get you going off the wake-up, for sure.

IP’S PICK OF THE DAY 4/2/26: Yeasayer “Sunrise”

During that same interview, Anand spoke about the time Jay-Z came to pay Yeasayer a visit at Coachella and gave them a shoutout on stage during his set.

Anand Wilder: Jay-Z’s amazing. We’ve met him before, and he gave us a shoutout at Coachella in 2010 on stage, which was pretty surreal. I think he called us “The Yeasayers,” but it was an honor nonetheless. I think when he performed he was like, “There’s a lot of great acts tonight. Grizzly Bear, The Yeasayers.” Something like that.

He actually came to our show to see us. I think his sister-in-law Solange is probably a bigger Yeasayer fan. She’s more into the indie world, and I think she brought Jay-Z and Beyonce to see us. I think we were strumming the final chords when they showed up. But we had some photo opps.

Props to Solange for her indie fandom. Here’s my absolute favorite song of hers, “Weary,” which was co-produced by the great Raphael Saadiq. After getting amped to “Sunrise,” you can mellow out to this one.

And to follow it up, I’ll give you one classic slow jam joint from Raphael Saadiq’s days with Tony! Toni! Toné!—“Me And You” from the Boyz n the Hood soundtrack.

As for Grizzly Bear, I always thought these two songs off their Shields album were ill. I’ve never watched these music videos, though! They look pretty, pretty interesting.

I’m gonna bring the energy back up to finish things off. Man, I haven’t heard this in a minute. All hail The Carters.

I gotta admit, this was quite the eclectic post. It’s fun to mix it up sometimes with some unexpected shit though, especially when it’s all connected.

I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully with some new music. We’ll see if anything fire drops at midnight.

Peace!