“Somebody Else’s Parking Lot in Sebastopol” finds a frantic narrator wailing into the sky at a particular manic low point.

Track: “Somebody Else’s Parking Lot in Sebastopol”
Album: Martial Arts Weekend (2002)

In 1999, in Amsterdam, John Darnielle opened this show with a song that was then called “Somebody Else’s Parking Lot in Santa Cruz.” The show includes covers of Steely Dan’s “Doctor Wu” and Neutral Milk Hotel’s “Two-Headed Boy.” I encourage you to give it all a listen, but today we discuss the fact that he opened this show with a song that eventually became known as “Somebody Else’s Parking Lot in Sebastopol,” but the city in the title only changed a few years later. I’ve never been to Sebastopol, but I have seen Santa Cruz. It didn’t seem real to me, in the best way possible. I can’t speak for the city that occupies this song title now, much less why John Darnielle changed it, but someday I hope to see it to understand the comparison.

This song is decades old now and it probably wouldn’t work with the full band. Martial Arts Weekend was unique when it came out because it added a fuller sound, at least by way of electric guitar, to John Darnielle’s standard lyrical craft. This is not to diminish Franklin Bruno, an essential piece of The Extra Glenns/Lens and, honestly, the Mountain Goats overall, but people always focus on the guy singing. In this one, the narrator name drops two opera legends and calls for a swift end rather than having to face someone else. If you haven’t spent much time with John Darnielle’s side project, I think this is a good first one to try. The lyrics are top notch, both in unique description (calling to “the scale-tipper”) and typical Darnielle wordplay (“Of all the highs and lows and middle ends you brought me to // this is the worst place”).