Among the Trees- Part Four

All right, here are the last three instrumentals from Among the Trees. So if you weren't lucky enough to have the deluxe version, well, now you've got it!

Nighttime Demons

Tings Distracting

A Lotta Things To do (Remix)

Among the Trees Instrumentals - Part Three

Happy Halloween to everyone! No tricks here, and it's your call on whether or not these are treats, but I do like instrumentals and Among the Trees has some good ones. So here is the third part of the instrumental series on this album. One more installment after this one and they'll all be out there.

Baba Oje

I'm Ignoring You

Pain Thangs

Among the Trees Instrumentals Part 2

All right, I kind of fell off track with posting the instrumentals from the deluxe version of Among the Trees- so here are four more.

Wag Your Tail

Calling All Ghetto Children

In The Sun

Among The Trees

Among the Trees Deluxe Edition

I love CD stores- at least, the ones that are left. There's just something about going in and having no idea about what you are going to find- especially if they sell used CDs. Granted, a lot of the fun has been taken out of going to CD stores because there really aren't many surprises in these days of the internet- in terms of new releases. It used to be that you'd get caught off guard by some albums if you somehow missed the single or the video. Now, we generally know months and months in advance when something is coming out and when it finally does, we're almost sick of hearing about it and the thrill is gone.

But I digress. Back to the point, you never know when a surprise can be waiting for you. Which brings me to Among the Trees. As mentioned before, it is one of my favorite AD albums and probably second only to the debut. Number one, it hit me at exactly the right time when I was really getting fed up with the rap music that was out there in the current scene and I thought Arrested Development was a group that made two great albums and split up. So anyway, I already had the album and played it to the point where my original copy is SUBARed. Yes, scratched up beyond all recognition. Still not sure what happened there as I'm pretty careful about those sorts of things, but I was in need of a new copy at some point.

Which brings me to Drastic Plastic, a little record store here in Omaha in an area called the Old Market. Kind of a trendy, Bohemian area of town. One of two record stores in that area and by far my least favorite of the two, but we were down there one day so I stopped in and took a look at the very small hip hop section and found this.

A two-disc set of Among the Trees- two remixes (Honeymoon Day, shared already here) not on my copy along with a disc of the instrumentals from the album. Say what? I had never even heard of this. Now for those of you in Germany and maybe elsewhere (the packaging claims it was made in Germany in 2004), you're probably well aware of this, but to me, it was a surprise. The price was kind of high so I did waver a bit, but my wife, correctly, pointed out that I would just come back if I didn't buy it then, so yep, I bought it. Among the Trees really has some great and diverse instrumentals, so it was definitely worth the purchase.

So let's take a look at a few of those instrumentals for those interested. We'll start with the first few and see if anyone wants more:

A Lotta Things To Do
Esmeralda
Luxury
Honeymoon Day

Esmeralda Remixes

Here's a little project from Speech that I kind of forgot about. As I recall, there was a contest to have someone produce a remix for "Esmeralda," a song that debuted on Among the Trees and was later remixed a little bit for The Vagabond album. It was then made available on itunes, and still is. The remixes are pretty good- the first one (the "Play it Safe" remix) is the one from The Vagabond and the others ("The Ill Factor" remix and the "Z-Bonics and 4-Track Mind" Remix) are the "fan" mixes. The "Ill Factor" remix kind of has a Q-Tip vibe to it.

And while we're at it, here's the video (which happens to be the "Play It Safe" remix). Again, another creative Speech video that's funny and gives visuals to some of the lyrics in the background- check out the ducks! Brings back bad memories of watching that awful Howard the Duck movie, only this is actually funny....

Honeymoon Day- Remixes

Here are a couple of remixes of "Honeymoon Day" that can be found on one of the international editions of Among the Trees (more on this later) as well as the single. Good versions of a great song! With kind of funny names to boot. Some day I will have to compile a list of the different remix titles on AD songs....

Jiggy Joint Radio Mix

Jiggy Joint Club Mix

Honeymoon Day

Today is the third anniversary of my marriage to my wife, so I'd like to post a couple of videos to acknowledge that. She's put up with me for nearly ten years altogether now, so it's the least I can do... Obviously, we have to go with "Honeymoon Day" from Among the Trees, and I also love "So Me, So You" from Grown Folks Table. Love you, Abby, in case you read this!