“Forest” by Number One Gun, Friday, March 25, 2022

Formed in Chico, CA, in 2002, Number One Gun released an EP and an album on Floodgate Records, a now defunct Christian record label, before signing to Tooth & Nail Records in 2005. The band split apart after recording their Tooth & Nail debut with lead singer Jeff Schneeweis forming the band The North Pole Project, and bandmates Christopher Keene and Jordan Mallory forming the band Surrogate. In 2007, Schneeweis changed Number One Gun's name to The North Pole Project as all the original bandmates had left the band; however, what would have been The North Pole Project's debut record was released as The North Pole Project by Number One Gun. 

I’VE DONE IT ALL, BUT NOT THIS. Schneeweis built a touring band to promote The North Pole Project, but when it came time to record the follow up, he decided to go at the recording alone. Number One Gun released To the Secrets and Knowledge in January of 2010, originally including a tenth closing track, a cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"; however, iTunes pulled the track due to "content issues." The album was rereleased containing only nine tracks: eight songs and one instrumental, less than 33 minutes in length. The album features a more refined production than the band's previous records.  Schneeweis blends his voice seamlessly with the guitars and other instruments on the record. The lyrics are abstract to the point of sounding almost randomly selected, but Schneeweis delivers these lines with such passion that the words almost take a meaning from the listener's own experience. Almost. 

I’VE GOTTA FIGURE OUT WHY THE WORLD IS SO BIG. Apart from not being a heavily promoted album, I used to take issue with albums that were less than ten track or an album that was ten tracks with one or more of them being instrumental. I only gave exception to bands who released music prior to the ubiquity of CDs, so classic rock was exempt. I think the reason for this pickiness was that music was expensive and I always wanted to get my money’s worth. So despite a sweet song about taking some time off in the forest, I needed several tracks that stood out before I forked over the money. Heaven forbid you had to skip a track on a short album! Nowadays that music is available on streaming services, I’m much more forgiving of short albums. But is still wish that those short albums—less than ten tracks or ten and an instrumental— would be called EPs!

Read the lyrics.
 


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