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tHE fOLLOWING qUOTE iS fROM fORWARD oBSERVER hIMSELF

lEFT iN nOTE fROM tHE dAY hE wENT aWAY

“Speaking as a musician and veteran both, I can relate to the feeling of becoming attached to a piece of equipment; when one is in the military, a rifle is often one’s companion. Off-duty however, my mic stand and acoustic guitar took its place; they were always waiting for me back at my room/makeshift traveling “studio” (a mic, guitar cables… a portable BOSS recording machine) in the barracks, and were definitely always a huge part of my living situation post-discharge, where Pro Tools and an eternally full coffee cup were always perpetually ready to be put to good use as my wood-grain Ibanez refracted window piercing sunlight like a pair of spit-shined boots!

My spirit had always felt naked when there was no music in my life, so I’ve always made it my life’s mission to bring the gift of music to others, hopefully clothe them and breathe into them good spirits with goodcultured vibes, and if I’m lucky, maybe even impart some wisdom from experience, strength, hope, and pull advice or truisms and Benjamin Franklin-worthy maxims from my Army surplus rucksack of societal “forward” observations.

The music is free; I hope the songs come together like rungs on a ladder for you all so that you can climb them and elevate yourselves, I really do. Some are cryptic, but squeezing your brain and wrenching its peel on the metal pit of a musical juicer is a good way to get to the truth. The world is a complicated place, and I believe we all have a calling: a purely human, holy, set apart civic duty as social animals created with innate dignity by our Creator, to use whatever influence we have in our individual lives to make the whole world a bit of a better place for everybody here on it.

So, if I’ve been gifted with the charisms to write and produce, that’s naturally how I’ll communicate the message I’ve been handed to pass along to you. Metaphysically and spiritually, there’s a WHOLE LOT more to everything I’ve absorbed through my adventures, deeds, and travels than that, and I’d love to get into with you all, but we’ll have to kick back on that conversational grass and have that particular humanities class outside under that cruciform tree later. I’m getting all set and packed up to retreat to the Appalachian Trail this month. I did my work, and now I think I deserve a break.

For now, just know that in this battle of life, we fight not for the small/petty-grandiose schemes of would-be worldly emperors, but for truth, justice, family, our countrymen/neighbors, and our comrades in the foxholes next to us. Why not share a clip, I figured? In the firefight of Western Civilization’s cultural grind, some .mp3 bullets certainly wouldn’t cost me too much. I’m not losing anything by letting you all benefit from my voice if sharing my musical ammunition with you, my battle buddies, makes for a better world. If I’m improving shit, even in a minute way, then this is EXACTLY what I was supposed to be doing with my life. TK, I hope the completed musical works (.mp3’s) I left you in the external hard drive I left you on your nightstand last night before sneaking out speak with integrity. I’d also hope all who’ve known me would vouch for my sincerity and that I only want to make this world a better place. The only CA$H I’ve ever been concerned with has “In God We Trust” on it. HE’s got my back, and I can only knob up the gain on my amp by improving HIS world with music! Holy feedback, Batman! All to the glory of what is righteous and good!

So, yes. I’m done with the project. I’m going camping while the world is burning like a forest fire. Release the stuff, TK, I know you’re far better at web design than I am. Let’s see if we can all cool off a little bit and love each other a bit more than we did each and every yesterday for the last several millennia of human existence? I expect things to be better when I get back. I know you (all) can do it.

The peoples’ stairwell towards cosmic universal betterment is a never ending nautilus spiral, but if we can improve and level up a few times within each generation (if we pay attention to history and actually LEARN from and not repeat our mistakes), I believe that the Western World (and even spaceship Earth perhaps?) could very well now be on the cusp of a potential Golden Age.

In my music, you’ll hear me often referencing the Founding Fathers’ great American experiment, and calling for a Neo-Techno-Renaissance to be embraced. I’d love to see the arts, cinema, and music to once again flourish prolifically. I foresee a futuristic world where our best actors/writers/musicians/etc., can be assisted but not shackled or disadvantaged by AI, where artists will be once again be employed, commissioned, or somehow otherwise supported by the donations of either beneficent and generous crowds (made possible through PayPal and the Internet, etc.), or individual patrons who have the means. I expect that at some time immediately ahead, there will be a drastic cutoff and reduction of the currently ubiquitous and unacceptable type of self-servicing greed that snarls our society (fogs up our classes) like a briar patch and only stunts/limits growth of shared cultural development like an underachieving second grader held back in class, repeating a grade. However, all the best of human works will be able to be made accessible; shared, visible, and audible to all in this vision that I believe we all (at least secretly in our hearts, — c’mon, I know you’ve you’ve felt for it) long for. Evident to everyone; from all walks of life, all streaming on the Web! What a world we live in that allows for such wonders! We should make the best of it! Fuck excessive paywalls and unnecessary hurdles! Allow the masses into the reception of our true “divinity-mirroring humanity” through the arts and culture.

With the toothy bicuspids of AI technologies taking big bites of investments into our human future, entire economies are being bet on like races, and the meaning of human purpose, job security, and artforms are in flux. War rages and confusion reigns. No one seems to have their shit together. I think I picked a pretty good time to conclude my Forward Observation mission and finally drop this “CULTURE BOMB!” that I’ve been holding back like a hot potato, dressing it up with my perfectionist savory bacon bits of words that hit taste bud receptors like umami triggers, reflexing in action, causing societal change! So, let’s take these ideas, run with them, REMEMBER WHERE WE CAME FROM, and go and get out ahead of the curve and see where Western Civ. be headed to next! I know I’m certainly excited! I hope to find myself toasting a marshmallow and manufacturing a s’more over a camp stove during my incursion into America’s interior wilderness whilst the world outside these beautiful spacious skies, mountains, forests, and amber waves of grain go about proactively ending wars and resolving conflicts and upheavals in my sabbatical absence. This task, I leave this entirely in your hands, TK.

When I was released from the hospital in my twenties, I believed that creating the songs you’ll be hearing soon (or are listening to now) was literally a new mission for me. I was medically retired and had left active service, but providence would guide me through the next two decades in ways I could not imagine. I felt it then, and now, that I had to do whatever I could to look ahead and plan for weather changes in the changing forecast of our cultural zeitgeist, writing and recording perpetually, author’s finger tasting the proverbial wind, so that I could gauge and be ready for when my time was called to release these songs to their greatest effect. It was supposed to be that these .mp3’s and their accompanying words might become a viral pile of digital kindling to some kind of stylistic or cultural moment. I had to time it right between the raindrops. Precision. My flint would need to hit a spark just right into the tinder and twigs stacked in our country (and world’s) heat-needy socio-political campfire and seedy-secular pop cultural firepit. For once you’ll hear a spiel that’s about people, truly honest and nondeceptive; unlike the violent and unpalatable flailings of both extremes that we’ve witnessed in our own recent days here at home or abroad. “IT” is not all about money or power, but what we should value, what we all share as citizens of Earth.

As a side note, if any of you viewers/listeners really do like my message, purpose, or even my perhaps somewhat naive, doggedly optimistic attitude towards humanity, Forward Observer WILL be gratefully accepting contributions — I will be coming back from my camping trip at some point. They are entirely voluntary, and never required. Like tipping an Uber driver, if one of my songs drops you off at just the right spot between certainty and confidence, or takes you home up familiar driveways of familial pride, honor, patriotism, spirituality or even simple relatable human veritas, perhaps you would give up a few bucks by spending a few minutes of your time to punch in a credit code, and I promise that my sidekick TK will continually strive to improve the quality, quantity, and active impact on the community by organizing and releasing more musical missions as needed, making sure you hear what I believe y’all were supposed to hear in the first place. Expect to hear a lot more if you give us a positive response. The CULTUREBOMB website is designed not to be immediately picked up on search engines/browsers, so direct message your friends the actual ip address (www.fobband.com) if you think this reality is a worthy message to disseminate! Hit the web-waves like it’s California surf in the ‘60’s! Hang ten beaches! Raise your voices up. I can’t wait to see the look on y’all’s face when I get back from vacation.

Aside from a handful of rogue low quality .mp3’s from the first few underground indie “Forward Observer” physically pressed CD “ultra-rare” limited releases that I still haven’t been able to sponge or scrub from streaming sites like YouTube, I’ve deliberately decided not to utilize Spotify or any other pay-to-play subscription streaming services for the release of this website the atomic impact of “CULTURE BOMB”; and I’m also not gonna collect mandatory remuneration or ad revenue. Remember, this ain’t about money, it’s about seeing the light.

Instead, I’m relying on the quality of my creativity and collaborative efforts with you, TK; the social resonance of my message, and I’m also testing how far and fast a viral grassroots wildfire can actually spread in what seems to be becoming a postcapitalist wasteland. I’d like to think my project is more comprehensive or intrinsically morally and creatively valuable than one’s average standard, generic, cat reel or dad joke meme. (Though I do love a good dad joke).

I know I’ve left you some tasty grooves and wild ideas for y’all’s minds to thrive on. I’ve been actively having TK pull punches with intermittent posting hints, and patiently stomaching the overwhelming dreck of much of our shallow pop culture for years now, simply because it wasn’t time to drop the mic yet and double-click the activation button on my whiz-bang fantastic website making app.

Now, as I wander off on my extended mossy and well-deserved timbered peregrination, I breathe a great cool sigh of relief/ satisfaction, and with humble pride once again thank God that He put me exactly where I was supposed to be when I felt tugged to this endeavor. It’s what I was supposed to be doing; it’s all I’ve ever tried or known how to do successfully anyway in my entire life.

I’ve been making due with a modest disability pension in humble rooms at group facilities for disabled vets, living monitored on psych meds and combatting schizoaffective “voices” for years, and for all of you wonderful people, I want the hearing of what I produced, my music, to be free! A gift to you, my love, America! This is because it is a way (and one of the BEST and ONLY ways) I can still CONTINUE to serve! I rightly wasn’t allowed to carry a rifle anymore in the military once they found out I had the mental/verbal smoke trails of hallucinated angels’ instructions whispering in my ears 24/7.

But yeah, please DO feel free to tip your waiter. TK and I deliver and serve you up this http://entree gratis, ha, but I know he would absolutely LOVE a donation to the cause. Maybe get a few more people involved. Maybe stir it into something significant. Maybe build some bridges or tear down some obstacles. I know some of you won’t, but since we’re expecting “break-the-internet” level traffic, I feel that something’s gotta trickle through and maybe we’ll be able to finally stop eating canned commissary green beans and institutional baloney sandwiches when I get back to the vet’s home and disembark on phase two of this mission’s journey. It might be nice to finally upgrade to a new studio at some point too. The equipment used to make this project was literally daisy-chained from frayed wires and uncircumcised guitar strings. A computer, headphones, a brain full of words, a mic and some guitars. If only you Americans would be so generous and we would be so lucky as to woo you! I know I’m approaching this angle from outside the standard system. I’m trying to break the lockstep pattern of the current industry.

Let’s follow the experiment to it’s conclusion. See where it goes. I think we’ll enjoy the future.

Mainly, I only hope that my unique experience of being a shut-in for so long and being kept at arms-length from general society as an online learning practitioner, continually active musician, and societal observer during my own nearly 20-year stretch of personal and introspective mentally unwell Brian Wilson-level “Pet Sounds”-deep multiple-hours-long bedroom recording studio sessions — seeking perfection — and thorough/(Thoreau! Ha!) “Walden Pond” philosophical scribblings about existence, along with my personal emphasis on American patriotism, the value of saving Western Civ., and my faith in God, is encapsulated like a Tylenol geltab in these multiple .mp3s. I hope that the long collected/collated fruit of my recording labors from Army barracks in the late 2000’s, to VA psych ward acoustic guitar reverb stairwells with hot mic’s and BOSS BR-900 recording machines in the 2010’s, to living in the VA CRC system in the 2020’s with streamlined-efficient portable recording gear and a RokBox computer souped up like a drag racer all NO2’s out with Pro Tools and plug-ins all makes for interesting listening! Me words are intended as multichromatic Easter eggs; let’s see what hatches!

I have evolved morally and grown deeper over the last two decades, tested like gold in a furnace by reading the appropriate books, by observing others, by constant conversations in my mind propelling me. It’s been a consistent regimen of moral push-ups and spiritual muscle building. The agile dance of step work and recovery. My experience of answering the call to serve our nation, my philanthropically-guided examination of the state of our fragilated society and the study of our national U.S. identity and shared values, as well as my own mystic Catholic spiritual growth and an epic sobriety journey of comic/tragical ups and downs, healing/rebuilding relationships that took me away from alcohol and unloosed the shackles of slavery to this world, has all taught me a lot about being simply a good human being and how to relate to others and have compassion for my fellow man. If after reading this bio blurb and listening in to mp3’s, you still don’t understand my message or “get it,” well, I hope you feel better soon and recover, lol — ‘cause we only have one go at this life (so why not strive to make it best for all of us on the planet at the same time).

Finally, wearing a creative’s artistic hat as opposed to a philosopher’s chapeau here, I hope that with this mission, I can create a new threshold or template for the appropriate and ethical regulated/balanced use of AI in music, and with it, a slamming rock and roll hip hop fusion electronic narrative style that I hope can really bridge genres and ring out important messages/narratives that Americans are in desperate thirst of hearing in these tragically violent, unacceptably smarmy, and morally dry times! That being said, I’ve got my rucksack about, a bag of trail mix, some jerky and a down sleeping roll packed in the back of my red Ford pickup. My coffee thermos is as full as my stomach and my gas tank are gonna get. I suppose I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I am minutes away from mounting up and starting my drive down south a ways to start the Appalachian trail. So, TK, I’ll see you in the other end of this journey — I hope all of us here in America end up at the same place when the trek is over.”

“We all share our human dignity, so I’m indifferent to the fact that we may be otherwise so different.”

yOUR fRIEND,

-Forward Observer-