the sad song.

I am an absolute whore. And, no. Unfortunately I'm not talking sexually. Well, that's a different post. I digress. I will utterly become a song's bitch so easily. Resulting in me playing said song over and over again - notching up the play count on my iTunes to an obnoxious amount.

Usually though, after listening to the song on repeat for a few weeks, I'll be able to tear myself away. Often this is after discovering my absolute, consuming love of another song. Extolling the awesomeness of said song to really whoever will listen.

A few months ago I discovered "The Sad Song" by Fredo Viola on my iPod. It was played in an episode of "The OC" and I always download the songs featured in an OC episode for the most part. (What? The show went to crap - that doesn't mean the music did! I've again lost street cred, haven't I?) I would download the songs even if I hadn't watched the episode. If you kept up with the OC you know how difficult it was to place it really high on your TV watching schedule. So I listened to "The Sad Song" briefly and moved on. Fast forward a few weeks and I was watching a show I refuse to admit to watching and heard the song again, and had the immediate reaction of "I know that song. I love that song. What is that song?" So imagine my joy upon figuring out what song it was, and to boot that I did indeed already have it on my iPod. Sweet!

"The Sad Song" has pretty much all the components that I like in a song that I will play on repeat. It has an achingly emotional melody with, well, I have to admit I'm not sure if I could really say their are lyrics. But you can hear the pain in Fredo's voice - it truly is a hauntingly beautiful song. I fucking LOVE it. So of course I went on a googling adventure of finding more Fredo Viola songs. iTunes? Nothing. My indie blog check? Nothing. Google? Well, there's his myspace page but you can't download or buy his few other songs. Seriously. Nothing more annoying when you're at the height of your obsession and willing to spend money to feed the addiction, and you just can't.

Anyway, this weekend as I was watching TV (shocking!!!) I finally watched The OC episode where the song was featured. My immediate reaction was, "truly great song for the scene," and "oooh, I haven't heard that song in fucking weeks. I love that song!" In summation: obsession totally relit.

So, of course I try again to figure out if I can perhaps now buy more of his music on iTunes. I mean I was just sent an email from Apple. They're worried. I have store credits that are unused. Why haven't I used them? Do I know how to log into my account? Am I having problems? Would I like to talk to somebody about them? If so, here's a number. Really? Why aren't you this attentive to my computer and iPod problems?

Clearly though, no dice. What the fuck Fredo? I've got money and I'm willing to spend. Granted it's currently the only kind of money I have to spend. Maybe I should learn from Winona Ryder in "Reality Bites" and I should buy people songs and they can give me cash. Poverty is a huge bitch, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, it seems his website is currently under construction (You best be hard at work on providing for the consumers Fredo!), but the page does show the fucking awesome music video he made for the song.

It seems that Fredo originally went to school (NYU) to become a film director, so you know he's not being completely self-indulgent by making the video himself. I truly enjoyed the video and thought it fit the song pretty well. What I still can't wrap around my head though is that he made the video completely with his Nikon Coolpix camera. So by filming 15 second videos with his camera. As a non-professional eye, I say you would never even guess that it was taken with a digital camera in 15 second jpegs. Fucking sweet!

I highly recommend you check it out! Plus, you get to hear the song.

I do have one request though: Fredo, please make some of your music available for the consuming public. You know. Something I can put on my iPod so I don't have to just listen to it on Myspace. I'll even pay for it. I know!

Thanks a bunch!

karen