At What Point Did You Stop Believing In Me - Bound Stems - Appreciation Night - 2006

As I was hanging out with my friends the other night, I off-handedly mentioned that I have had 3 different people break their hand while punching me in the face. Like most of the details of ones own life it didn't occur to me that this was odd until after I thought about it (For instance I have a friend who has been shot 5 times and probably doesn't think about it much). In telling what I thought were just the routine stories from my youth (all 3 incidents happened to me in my teens...the last one occurring when i was 20) I realized that it probably was a bit unusual.

The first time was easily the least interesting...when I was 13 I reached a point where I began walking the 2.5 miles home from school rather than taking the bus. This actually started a trend that would carry over through most of my life...I'd far rather just walk than wait on inefficient public transportation to ferry me home. Anyway, I was walking along when several slightly older kids from a neighboring rougher school jumped me for my pocket money. I was in my catholic school uniform, so I'm sure I was clearly an easy mark. A kid on my left started yelling stuff at me to distract me...when I turned back around, my right cheek was met with a fist punching me three times in quick succession.

At the time I was wearing braces, so the punches tore up the inside of my cheek and caused me to have a mouth full of blood which I spit at my assailant...but amusingly enough he was in a lot more trouble than me. He lay on the ground clutching his hand and crying. Despite my opponents prone state, I quickly ran away and got myself home. My mother of course freaked the fuck out and called the police, but other than a sore jaw, I was relatively fine...and I had learned a valueable lesson. Never hit anyone with a closed fist...you'll break your hand.

Bound Stems is something of a hybrid between Pavement and Modest Mouse, combining the latters vocal style with the more lackadasical musical approach of the former. The album never really grabs me, but I generally enjoy it while it's on. The waving synths and the lady background singer both make this song a little more interesting than it would be otherwise.