Sean Nelson

There's a reason that the diagram of the "$5 Cover: Seattle" world places Sean Nelson smack in the center of everything. Nelson and his amazing curly hair pervade the Seattle music scene. The rest of the world knows him as the gifted wordsmith and frontman for Harvey Danger. In the Emerald City, we love him dearly for that, but have also crossed paths with Sean in his roles as a music writer for The Stranger alt-weekly newspaper, a host of KEXP's "Audioasis" local music show, an editor for Microsoft. His bottomless rock history appreciation seeps into "You're Right," a conversational song about two people embracing their widely diverging views: "You're probably right about the Rolling Stones," Nelson sings, "how they were never the same after Brian Jones." (He then asks for the concession that the post-Jones Sticky Fingers is the Stones' best album.) That ability to take the longer view is apt for veteran of Seattle's grunge years, a musician whose played over the past decade with Death Cab for Cutie, the Long Winters, the Decemberists, Nada Surf and the Minus 5. He may not always be comfortable with the role, but Sean Nelson is indeed an elder statesman of the modern Seattle scene.