For about a year of collecting Sean Nelson's solo work (pretty much everything he's done outside of Harvey Danger and The Long Winters), I believe I've cataloged pretty much everything he has to offer. This is the definitive list of all of his works.
Make Good Choices
![[Image: SN_Make_Good_Choices.png]]()
If you haven't heard of Make Good Choices, then what are you doing? Listen to it, then continue reading, because this is a lot of stuff to take in. Make Good Choices was released in 2013 by Really Records as Sean's debut studio album. However, most (if not all) tracks are older than the album itself, some dating back to before Harvey Danger's Little By Little. Certain tracks (even the title track "Make Good Choices") was property of short-lived side project The Vernacular, which is referenced many times in the album's final song "Kicking Me Out Of The Band", even though technically that song is about Sean's involvement in The Long Winters. It's also the most popular and noteworthy item on this list.
1. The World Owes Me A Living (And I Intend To Collect)
2. Born Without A Heart *
3. Creative Differences
4. Brooklyn Bridge ^
5. Make Good Choices *
6. Advance And Retreat %
7. Ski Lift Incident ^
8. More Good News From The Front *
9. I'll Be The One (Badfinger cover) ^
10. The Price Of Doing Business
11. Stupid & 25 (The Incredibly Sad Shuffle)
12. Hey, Millicent ^
13. Kicking Me Out Of The Band *
* denotes song was originally from The Vernacular
% denotes song was originally from Sounds Major
^ denotes song was featured on Ceci N'est Pas Une Tour EP
Ceci N'est Pas Une Tour EP
![[Image: SN_This_Is_Not_A_Tour_EP.jpg]]()
(Translates in French to: "This is not a tour EP")
To my knowledge, this extended play was sold at varying Sean Nelson and his Mortal Enemies shows during a 2007 tour. "Extended Play" is a bit of a stretch, seeing as it is feature length and has an appropriate amount of tracks to be a studio album.
1. Ski Lift Incident
2. Brooklyn Bridge
3. I'll Be The One
4. Jesus Kids (Gospel)
5. Daddy's Song (Piano Demo)
6. Stop Breathin' (Pavement cover)
7. This Wheel's On Fire (The Band cover)
8. Hey, Millicent!
9. Carlotta Valdes (Country-ish)
10. The Beat Goes On 2007 (Sonny & Cher cover)
Track #5, a piano cover of Harry Nilsson's "Daddy's Song" would be remastered into a studio mix for inclusion in Sean's cover album "Nelson Sings Nilsson".
Track #7, "This Wheel's On Fire" was another song from The Vernacular, but was covered by several different bands throughout the past 4 decades.
Track #9, "Carlotta Valdes (Country-ish)" is a parody(?) cover of Harvey Danger's song "Carlotta Valdez". I'm not sure if this was a joke or not.
Track #10, "The Beat Goes On 2007" is a cover of Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On". To my understanding, this song has been covered by Sean multiple times, from 2004 to 2008. All recordings of these covers are identical.
Society Of The Golden West
![[Image: SN_Society_of_the_Golden_West.jpg]]()
This is by far my favorite post-HD material. This is also probably my favorite material of anything ever.
![Heart]( "Heart")
Society Of The Golden West was
sort of a band, but it was sort of another extended play released around the same time as Nelson Sings Nilsson and Misanthropology. Unlike the classical nature of Make Good Choices (with pianos and cellos instead of electric guitars), SotGW uses electronic-y elements that seems far ahead of its level, even by Harvey Danger standards. During a concert, Sean mentioned to a fellow board member (I can't remember which one exactly. Innerturmoil, was that you?) that Society Of The Golden West had only produced an EP's worth of material, and this is, technically, an EP.
1. Old Boy
2. Exile On Baker Street
3. Powers Of Suggestion
4. The Beat Goes On 2005
5. Brooklyn Bridge (Society Of The Golden West Version)
6. Jesus Kids (Society Of The Golden West Version)
As you can see, The Beat Goes On reappears in this extended play. This track is identical to the one from Ceci N'est Pas Une Tour EP.
Tracks 5 and 6 are alternate mixes of previously released songs.
Sounds Major
![[Image: SN_Sounds_Major.jpg]]()
Sounds Major
was a different band entirely. This band saw Portugal, The Man's Kyle O'Quin in a duo with Sean Nelson. Sounds Major played mostly only in Seattle, although did make a noteworthy appearance in Los Angeles in 2012. The set list for the LA show was:
1. All Time Low
2. Copland
3. Space Between The Moon
4. Antagonist
5. Dumbshow
6. Saw You Naked
7. Protest Song
8. Bumper Sticker
9. Saratoga Springs
10. Shark
![[Image: SN_Sounds_Major_Live_at_the_Hotel_Cafe_1_17_2012.png]]()
Credit to Innerturmoil for making this cover.
During Sounds Major's recording sessions, all of these songs were either not uploaded to the band's Bandcamp page (which is now defunct anyway), or were not recorded at all. The ones that DID manage to see the light of day, at least for a little while, were:
1. All Time Low
2. Shark
3. Advance And Retreat
Advance and Retreat (which is the same from the album) was not included on the Bandcamp page until just before it was shut down indefinitely.
The Vernacular
![[Image: SN_The_Vernacular.png]]()
The Vernacular was Sean's first attempt at a solo career in 2004, just before Harvey Danger reunited with new drummer, Michael Welke. At the time, "The Vernacular" was just a working title for what would later become "Sean Nelson & His Mortal Enemies", which, similarly to The Vernacular, was a supergroup, consisting of Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla and Nathan Good.
Although most of their songs would later find their way onto Make Good Choices, the group disbanded after only a short while, but recorded:
1. Make Good Choices
2. Born Without A Heart
3. More Good News From The Front
4. Kicking Me Out Of The Band
5. This Wheel's On Fire
Misanthropology
![[Image: SN_Misanthropology.png]]()
Misanthropology was an album planned to be released in late 2005, but never fully came into fruition. Although about 90% of the songs ended up on Make Good Choices, some tracks were never even recorded in a studio and were played either live or as rough demos. These were:
1. The Price Of Doing Business *
2. What You Live By (Harvey Danger cover)
3. Jesus Kids (Gospel)
4. Brooklyn Bridge
5. Creative Differences
6. I'll Be The One
7. The World Owes Me A Living (And I Intend To Collect)
8. Hey, Millicent
9. Anyone/Anything *
10. Kicking Me Out Of The Band
11. Porpoise Song (The Monkees cover) *
* denotes that the song/track was either an early demo or is a live recording.
Nelson Sings Nilsson
![[Image: SN_Nelson_Sings_Nilsson.jpg]]()
Perhaps the second most famous musical endeavor of Sean's was his collection of covers of Harry Nilsson songs, "Nelson Sings Nilsson", which, of course, is a play on of Nilsson's album "Nilsson Sings Newman". These songs were:
1. Gotta Get Up
2. Think About Your Troubles
3. Daddy's Song
4. Together
5. Don't Forget Me
6. Miss Butter's Lament
7. Turn On Your Radio
8. Without her
9. I'll Never Leave You
10. Down
11. Something True
12. Maybe
13. Bath
For this album, Sean constructed a 27-piece orchestra (which couldn't have costed him much
![Wink]( "Wink")
), as well as a children's choir for Gotta Get Up and Daddy's Song, both of which were included on the Nelson Sings Nilsson piano demo EP (which technically doesn't exist).
Nelson Sings Nilsson Piano Demos
[picture not included]
I didn't include a picture for this one because there technically is no "Nelson Sings Nilsson: Piano Demos". However, there were piano demos for three songs in the album, as well as outtakes, which were good enough to be on the album, but I guess Sean wasn't pleased with them. These were:
1. Gotta Get Up (Piano Demo)
2. Gotta Get Up (Alternate Mix)
3. Daddy's Song (Piano Demo)
4. Daddy's Song (Alternate Mix)
5. Miss Butter's Lament (Piano Demo)
6. Miss Butter's Lament (Alternate Mix)
The alternate mixes of these songs were but in fact teasers of what the actual album had to offer. IMO, all of these are still better than Harry Nilsson's performances. Not that he isn't a great singer and pianist, but Sean really did outdo him.
The Fabulous Harvey Brothers
[picture not included]
The Fabulous Harvey Brothers, which, if it isn't obvious enough, is a parody of The Fabulous Downey Brothers. They only ever performed two songs: both live, and both covers of a band called Oingo Boingo. Not much else is known about them, sadly. Although it does portray Sean with red hair (which is a first!), as well as an uncredited female vocalist and a keyboardist.
1. Dead Man's Party
2. Weird Science
Sean Nelson & The Coastal Elite
[picture not included]
And for our final side-project, we have Sean Nelson & The Coastal Elite, which really didn't do much as a "band", but they were responsible for Sean's cover of Dead Man Walking, by David Bowie. It's also worth noting that Eric Howk from Portugal, The Man, and Michael Lerner from Telekinesis are also members of this band.
And, that's more or less a wrap.
![[Image: SN_Make_Good_Choices.png]](http://image.ibb.co/ftZCgT/SN_Make_Good_Choices.png)
![[Image: SN_This_Is_Not_A_Tour_EP.jpg]](http://image.ibb.co/cdjCgT/SN_This_Is_Not_A_Tour_EP.jpg)
![[Image: SN_Society_of_the_Golden_West.jpg]](http://image.ibb.co/jgGEvo/SN_Society_of_the_Golden_West.jpg)
![[Image: SN_Sounds_Major.jpg]](http://image.ibb.co/bRAk1T/SN_Sounds_Major.jpg)
![[Image: SN_Sounds_Major_Live_at_the_Hotel_Cafe_1_17_2012.png]](http://image.ibb.co/gojCgT/SN_Sounds_Major_Live_at_the_Hotel_Cafe_1_17_2012.png)
![[Image: SN_The_Vernacular.png]](http://image.ibb.co/kP3uvo/SN_The_Vernacular.png)
![[Image: SN_Misanthropology.png]](http://image.ibb.co/emf7Fo/SN_Misanthropology.png)
![[Image: SN_Nelson_Sings_Nilsson.jpg]](http://image.ibb.co/cKKZvo/SN_Nelson_Sings_Nilsson.jpg)
), as well as a children's choir for Gotta Get Up and Daddy's Song, both of which were included on the Nelson Sings Nilsson piano demo EP (which technically doesn't exist).