A Rendez-Vous with Party Battleship

As this story gets posted, there’s been quite a bit of war chatter, especially scary to those of us on the West Coast. Garagerocktopia is a music site, and we’ll leave the war and politics talk for other blogs. In keeping with the mood of the week, though, we are going to talk about a battleship. Party Battleship, that is.

And while nobody here is a general or an admiral, perhaps we could recommend carpet-bombing North Korea – but with Beatle records. 

Don’t laugh too hard – the Fab Four helped bring down the Iron Curtain. Fact-check us on that.

But we digress. After an intensive assault with the Yardbirds, we should lob a megaton of the Kinks and fire a volley of the Pretty Things his way. No human being can stand up to that, and Kim Jong-Un will have no choice but to tap out. Then maybe this operation could prove useful with other unstable world leaders, too.

And then we should send Party Battleship to finish the job. No, Party Battleship is not the Pentagon’s newest super-weapon, but a band made up of power pop whose main objective is to make cool music.

And we say “Mission Accomplished.” The group’s debut album is Cake+Flames, an excellent collection which packs a power-pop wallop thanks to its hermetically-sealed melodies and the restrained but rockin’ guitars, coming courtesy of band founder Shalini Morris.

That balance, so well achieved on the album, is one for which Morris says she’s always had a strong affinity. Yet, it’s also one for which she declined to accept credit, instead redirecting the props to producer Mark Williams.

“It’s the style I have always liked best,” explained Morris, talking to Garagerocktopia by telephone

from her home office in Charlotte, NC. “That it sounds that way is unintentional on our part. For that, I would have to give credit to Mark, who’s such a great producer. He has great sensibility so he knows exactly what to do, and the guys we recorded with also knew exactly what I wanted.”

Morris also pointed to the importance of engineer Chris Garges, whose credentials include working with artists from Frank Kimbrough to Don Dixon. All this combines to make, in true power pop fashion, the songs are mostly short, almost always upbeat and which burrow stubbornly into all the music-appreciating parts of the brain.

The album is solid through and through, but some cuts, at least by our reckoning, do rise to the top. “Girl, Behold” with it’s mid-tempo beat and an excellent melding of the two Morris’ vocals, is our prohibitive favorite here. Shalini has one of her best moments stepping out front for “Exit Sideways,” as she does on “Theme Song.”

Writing songs for someone else to sing is not something Morris said she has done often, but some of the best songs written by Morris and sung by bandmate – and husband – John Morris, including “Never Be.”

And while Morris’ guitars are one part of what makes the songs so enjoyable, other band members prove just as indispensable. John Morris – a veteran of bands like Snagglepuss and Come On Thunderchild -- proves just as essential as both guitar player and especially as arranger, songwriter and singer.

Rounding out Party Battleship are Donnie Merritt on drums and percussion, and bassist Adam Roth. Having such a skilled group to work with enabled Morris to step back just a bit, something to which, she said, she was not accustomed.

“I was never so much into collaborating. I always did my own thing,” said Morris. “This is a more democratic process now, and I’m finding that dropping out to just play guitar is actually fun. I don’t tell the guys what to play – not that I was trying to be controlling in the first place – but they can play what they want, pretty much.”

Though Party Battleship is a new band, Morris is far from a rookie in the music biz. Growing up Shalini Chatterjee, her family moved place to place, living in places as far apart as Edinburgh and Los Angeles.

As an adult, the roving didn’t stop. While a student at the University of Wisconsin, she would form her first band of note, Kissyfish, which would see airplay across the nation on college radio. Morris said the roaming life has affected how she’s made music.

“My parents were international and our family went back and forth between places,” recalled Morris. “Then, as an adult I also went back and forth a lot. Traveling does influence your perspective on life, and not having stability also gives you a looser perspective of life. You have more people in more places to deal with, so you have to be flexible.”

By the early ‘90s, Morris would settle in San Francisco and assemble another well-regarded band, Vinyl Devotion, which would record through to the middle of the decade.

Her music has often been described as jangly, not the adjective Morris said she would choose to describe her music, but one we in the music press pinned on a lot of bands, particularly southern-based bands like REM. What always has been ever-present, in whatever band she has played, is a driving knack for melody.

After Vinyl Devotion called it a day, Morris made her way to the Winston-Salem area, one of the premiere hotspots in the country, especially for bands popular on college and so-called “alternative” stations.

Later, Morris would become involved, both professionally and personally, with Let’s Active founder, Mitch Easter. The musician and producer is one of the most recognizable names coming out of the Triangle’s fertile power pop territory. Morris had worked with him previously and said she was happy -- but unfazed -- by her association with him.

“He had a real career, which, though I had already played shows and made records, I didn’t have one yet,” said Morris. “I certainly wasn’t a groupie – it was just a case of having similar musical tastes.”

This doesn’t mean Morris wasn’t star-struck. It just wasn’t with Easter, but rather with the band’s founding bassist, Faye Hunter. As part of a brief Let’s Active revival, Hunter was visible enough, but Morris said that Hunter may have been just as important as an inspiration to girls and young women all over, helping them see what a musical path of their own might look like.

Sadly, Hunter took her own life in 2013. More than one person who knew Hunter said the bassist never seemed to appreciate her talents as much as so many others have. Morris didn’t conceal her

own appreciation of Hunter’s influence.

“Once in a while, I would just say ‘wow,’” admitted Morris, effusive in her praise of Hunter. “But it  was also strange. I was sheepish about playing her parts because she was such a great musician. I told her ‘you don’t understand what a role model you were’ and she never understood that.”

Morris and Easter would later form a group named, appropriately enough, Shalini. The band would certainly have its following and fair share of critical kudos, but unfortunately lack the commercial force for which band members may have hoped.

The demise of Shalini, and later a divorce from Easter, brought some disillusionment for Morris. She left North Carolina and anchored in Chicago. After more than two decades of front and center, Morris turned the dial on “low” for a while.

“I always had my own band and wrote my own songs,” recounted Morris. “I had a long period of not writing very good songs, and at one point I didn’t put out a record for seven years. I just had to wait until I was writing better songs.”

Over time, mutual admiration and friendship with John grew into something even closer. Morris moved to Charlotte and the two married in 2013. They founded Party Battleship last year.

While there has been a lot going on musically in North Carolina for some time, the state gets less press than, say, Los Angeles or Nashville. But for power pop, it’s one of America’s epicenters, contributing a vast array of great bands from the Spongetones to Southern Culture on the Skids to a whole horde of great bands we should probably be taken to the woodshed to for neglecting to mention.

Morris grew to appreciate the state’s musician-friendly environment, one that has eroded a tad but that still remains. It’s still a better place than many to get Party Battleship launched.

“In North Carolina, it’s easier geographically,” said Morris “A place like California is so big and the cities are so spread out, but in North Carolina you can be more mobile. You can also get to other places, like Ohio, easily.

“We could always get onto a festival or in a club somewhere, though these days, so much funding is cut.  Some opportunities have shrunk and economic downturns forced a lot of clubs to close, though breweries are starting to fill that gap a little bit.”

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