Pale Blue Dot

Sound Choices: New faces, old places, and terra firma

Ruth Good

Haunt EP, Citrus City Records

Richmond/Brooklyn-based Citrus City Records has served as a platform for marginalized and lesser-heard voices from all corners of the scene since 2014. One of the tape label’s latest offerings comes from Ruth Good, the moniker for brothers Jonathan and Wes Parker. The duo teamed up with older brother Alan Parker (Spacebomb) for Haunt, which brims with grit and nuance. With the elder Parker on lead guitar and pedal steel, Jacob Ungerleider rounds out the arrangement on keys, while Dr. Dog’s Eric Slick takes the helm on drums. Each member recorded remotely from home in April, and the final product was mixed by Adrian Olsen at Montrose Recording and mastered by Ryan Schwabe. Recalling elements of surf rock, harmonies dance around guitar and piano lines across the EP’s four tracks—which all clock in under four minutes—making Haunt a breath of fresh air that packs a punch. What’s more, 100 percent of the album’s digital sales are donated to Richmond Mutual Aid in support of disaster relief and COVID-19 resources (released September 5).

Jana Horn

Optimism, Self-released

Jana Horn has been a stalwart on the Austin music scene for years, touring with bands like Knife in the Water and Reservations. This fall marks a period of seminal change for Horn: She’s now spending a good chunk of time in Charlottesville, pursuing her MFA in fiction at the University of Virginia. Concurrently, she’s released her debut solo album, Optimism, which has been in the works since 2015. Recorded at Hen House Recording in Texas, the disc features Ian Phillips (drums) and her fellow Knife in the Water bandmates Aaron Blount (guitar) and Vince Delgado (bass). A quiet, meditative listen, Optimism is a folk exaltation that makes room for Horn’s ruminations to breathe and unfurl (released September 18).

Rob Cheatham and Co.

Sons and Daughters, Self-released

Sons and Daughters is Rob Cheatham’s third record in four years—and perhaps his most ambitious offering to date. His legacy in the commonwealth can be traced back to his time growing up in Richmond. After a stint in Philadelphia, Cheatham settled in Charlottesville, where he’s played in numerous bands throughout the years (The Nice Jenkins, Gunchux, Borrowed Beams of Light). Chock-full of the alt-country gusto listeners have come to expect from Cheatham, Sons and Daughters goes a step further, drawing on the touchstones of rock ‘n’ roll for a more robust sound. Amy Bowden’s violin provides a stirring through-line, while a horn section complete with trumpet (Ben Pryse), saxophone (Noah Galbreath), and trombone (Evan Amoroso) offers a welcome warmth. Across the album’s eight tracks, Cheatham reflects on our current cultural and sociopolitical climate, begging the question: What world are we leaving behind for our sons and daughters? (released March 20).

Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Rockfish Music

Tapping into an array of musical influences from folk and prog-rock to jazz, Charlottesville-based Pale Blue Dot crafts music that’s smart and self-aware, prone to questioning the world and everything’s place within it. Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species is a steady continuation of the group’s affinity for the existential. Songs like “Evolution Blues” and “Waiting for Signs” find the band’s feet planted squarely on the ground while challenging our self-imposed belief systems (released September 4).

Pale Blue Dot makes the unknown beautiful

Ever since he was a kid, Tony LaRocco has been enamored with cosmos—both the Carl Sagan show and the concept powering it, seeing the universe as a “well-ordered whole.” It’s an obsession that permeates his musical life, from lyrics to sound choices to the name of his band, Pale Blue Dot, a reference to a 1990 photo of Earth taken by a space probe.

LaRocco and his mother bonded over their love of the final frontier. “She raised me on the old Carl Sagan videotapes,” he says. “We plowed through a big box set. When The Daily Progress ran the pale blue dot story, my mom cut out the picture and stuck it to our fridge. It’s something that’s always been very poignant to our family.”

Though LaRocco founded Pale Blue Dot, he calls it a “socialist” group in which every member has equal say. Drummer Darby Wootten and bassist Drew Pompano huddle with LaRocco around a tiny table at C’ville Coffee. Guitarist Peter Balogh is absent, but there wouldn’t have been room for him anyway. The tight setting feels even more intimate thanks to LaRocco’s sudden, infectious laugh, and his passion when talking about his music.

Just a few years ago, LaRocco thought he was done with writing and recording. In 2011 Charlottesville, he says there wasn’t an audience for his type of music. “Rock was dead, and I was still writing these rockish tunes.” But then, creative inspiration struck in the way it often does, without source, explanation or timing, and LaRocco got back to making music.

As is the case with many bands, the guys who make up Pale Blue Dot all have separate day jobs. LaRocco and Pompano are music teachers, while Wootten works at several local businesses. Balogh is a stem cell researcher.

This level of maturity is reflected in the band’s music. Its most recent album, Anatomy, released in May, is a tour de force with lyrics centering around turmoil and stress, both personal and political, and powered by a clean style of rock rarely heard in modern music. Cosmology is at its center, giving the LP a timeless, existential twist that’s both uncomfortable and somehow comforting.

As with many bands based in Charlottesville, PBD spends time contemplating August 11 and 12, and the group’s impressively uplifting single, “Only Love,” takes a direct look at the topic. LaRocco attributes the hopeful mood to Yolonda Jones, a local photographer, musician and activist (described by LaRocco as the “bee’s knees”), who provides some of the vocals and influenced the songwriting.

LaRocco says that a few of the original words were “get out of my town and don’t come back,” but Jones found the message too aggressive. “So I asked her what she would want to do and she said she would want to talk to them. I said, ‘Come on inside and let’s find a path?’ Boom. Perfect.”

Other tracks on Anatomy are political on a larger scale, with the moody, guitar-heavy “Stained Glass Window” referring to the 2016 election, and “Yesterday’s News” in direct response to the rise of fake news.

As for the sound of the album itself, Pompano explains that the songs were recorded in three different studios—in Nashville, Washington, D.C., and Nelson County—and that this resulted in a distinct sound for each set of songs, attributing “emotionally draining tunes,” “angsty” ones and “pensive, technically ambitious” songs to each respective studio.

Wootten emphasizes that songs can change from day to day, defining it as a strength. “In the recording studio, we just make a picture of that song at that moment,” he says. “The songs will warp down the road.”

While LaRocco stresses that Pale Blue Dot isn’t a political or protest band, he acknowledges that some of the songs on Anatomy skirt these themes—he even admits that the style of the band’s music is tailored to these ideas. “I don’t feel like you can get angry and scream at someone like Donald Trump without an overdriven guitar and drums,” he says. “I love Joan Baez and I love Bob Dylan, but I don’t think an acoustic guitar has the same effect. Sometimes, you just gotta yell.”

To the beat of his own drum

When he’s not drumming for Pale Blue Dot, Darby Wootten has an unusual side hustle—he manages the Putt-Putt Fun Center. Opened in 1966, it’s located on Rio Road and is the oldest of its kind in the country. The course features a safari theme with several wildlife statues, including its iconic giraffe, which is visible
from the street.

“My friend got me a job at the Putt-Putt place 12 years ago,” Wootten says. “I was 19 then, and now I’m manager. I thought putt-putt would probably suit my lifestyle well.”

Cosmology is at its center, giving the LP a timeless, existential twist that’s both uncomfortable and somehow comforting.