A Review of Pacific Palisades by Thomas Nola and The Cedar Groves

Earlier this week I received a notification from Bandcamp that the new David E. Williams album is now available for pre-order, so I went to Mr. Williams' Bandcamp site, listened to the three songs that have been released from the album and made my pre-order. While I was logged in, I also looked up some of the other artists that I follow and "low and behold" I saw that Thomas Nola had released yet another album in September 2019. I was late to the game.

The album is entitled Thomas Nola & The Cedar Groves- Pacific Palisades. The thing about Thomas Nola is that he changes his backing band pretty often. I already had something like 13 albums or more by Thomas Nola and a number of compilation albums on which he appears. He has previously released albums that are just by Thomas Nola, and albums by Thomas Nola et Son Orchestra, and albums by Thomas Nola and the Black Hole. This is the first with The Cedar Groves as a backing band.

So who is Thomas Nola? Well, I've been a fan for years ever since I saw him perform live in a show that included the above-mentioned David E. Williams in the line-up. I suppose Williams was my neighbor in a way. He lived in Fishtown at the time and operated a small bookstore there. I lived in a small sliver of land called East Kensington about five blocks away. You can read a 2013 interview I had with Williams.

Anyway...that bookstore also had an art gallery and there were occasional events like music shows, and somehow Williams became acquainted with Thomas Nola and released an album on Nola's label called Disque de Lapin. So because of this association, Thomas would come down and play in Philadelphia. That is how I first saw him, in a small book store. I learned that in addition to running his own record label he is also and independent filmmaker. I believe that he was initially based out of Boston, although I can't say for certain.

After seeing him at Germ Books, I saw him many times and in many locations. He looks like Nigel Terry from Excalibur without the goatee, but most times he performed in formal attire, most memorably a brown pin-striped suit. For me, the best shows I ever saw him play were when I went outside of Philadelphia, my favorite being in Manhattan at a tiki bar called Otto's Shrunken Head, and second when I went up to Brattleboro, Vermont for the ten year celebration festival of Disque de Lapin, where many artists played in some old theater Nola had rented for the day.

Nigel Terry

Despite my frequent contact with Mr. Nola, I can't say we are friends. I always remained in orbiter fan status and at some point I became persona non grata with him, which I discovered when I noticed that our Facebook friendship was terminated. I don't know for certain why, but I suspect that it was due to some political disagreements we had on Facebook. I try to avoid that sort of thing but occasionally it gets the better of me.

Let's talk about Pacific Palisades! I think it is Thomas Nola's greatest album to date. It is amazingly cohesive and creative. It induces a trance-like state of mind and is incredibly cohesive throughout in terms of audio fidelity, yet each song is unique. In this day and age when the entire concept of a musical album has gone by the wayside, when most artists simply issue one song at a time, and most people simply listen to their favorite songs and nothing more, Nola has constructed an experience that needs to be listened to entirely, and it's a joyful experience!

Pacific Palisades album cover

Pacific Palisades opens with a brief instrumental prelude entitled "Pacific Coast Theme." It harkens back to old surf rock days. This ends and immediately we are introduced to a different more sophisticated sound in a song called "Back to the Sky" which elevates the listeners mood but isn't exactly high-energy music. It's more of a mindfulness meditation. You are here. You are observing your environment. You are rising above the thoughts and emotions that hold you back from pursuing your full potential. You are going back to the sky.

"Back to the Sky" sets the mood for the coming songs. As I said before, they are all a little different, creatively, but they stay in this steady flow that has you nodding along. I'm not really an expert on audio mechanics, but each song utilizes this echo-type reverb effect, which is used very well. I've heard other cases where it was used badly but this isn't one of them.

One of the stand-out songs is "The Sun Reaches Out" which is about how our existence sort of blends together with all of reality. Take for instance, this lyric:

"You saw yourself in the face of the sun, you never knew you were a phase of the sun."

The song ends with the sounds of a child, reminiscent of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" (but far less cringe) and I can't help but think that it is the sound of Thomas' own son, and that he is sort of interchangeably using the homonyms "sun" and "son" to discuss how life is a continuum in which we transfer what we can to the next generation and then we are lost and gone to history, or memory, or legacy, or what? Like waves lapping upon a beach.

Another song I want to highlight is "Chasing a Feeling Down" about deconstructing one's self to the essential components of one's identity. Nola literally and poetically identifies every piece of our identity in this song and then seems to ask the question, are we any of these things or are we a feeling that transcends all of them? I have to say, this is how I personally think every time I visit the ocean and observe the tide going in and out, and this is why I think the title of the album is so astute.

There is another instrumental track on the album called "Undertow," which continues with this steady beautiful theme. It's slow and mostly monotonous, with little chimes of life. It is not painful to listen to, like other monotonous music I've come across. I always appreciate a random instrumental track that is well-executed.

The final song, "Free Seals of Big Sur" begins with a combination of surf rock guitar and tribalistic drumming that has been with us for ages, probably the first type of music ever written. "Where is your dream?" asks the lyrics. "We've been here all along." is the answer. And this completes this work of genius that extrapolates from the lived experience a mood and tempo symbolic of what really matters and gives us purpose in life. I have not focused much on the poetry of Thomas Nola, but the guy can definitely write a verse.

If you've never heard of Thomas Nola, this is the place to start. You can listen to the album online here: https://lapin.bandcamp.com/album/pacific-palisades, but why not buy it and download it onto all of your devices? He is only charging five dollars!!! That's like the same price as a double mocha chocolate latte at Starbucks, but you can own these songs forever. It's a refreshing and energizing drink you can keep going back to instead of sucking up and exstruding in a 24 hour period. I'd say it's the best album of 2019.

Sorry. I'm not a sales rep for Mr. Nola. We're not even on speaking terms! I will say that because I'm a weirdo, I like his earlier albums as well, but not all of them are as accessible as this one. I once played my vinyl version of the "The Rose-Tinted Monocle" for some friends and their faces twisted as they said, "Ewwww, it's like a really off-key imitation of Nick Cave!" But I swear to you. This time it's different. Pacific Palisades is different and you can listen to it before you buy it. But you should buy it if you like it. He's a hard-working and prolific artist and he deserves your support.


(Oh, and I plan to review that new David E. Williams album that I pre-ordered when it comes out in June. Probably the best album of 2020...we'll see!)