Kevin Bronson on July 28th, 2014

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By Brian Cleary

In the press release for White Fence’s new LP, it states: “The gliss and glitter that sounds forth from ‘For the Recently Found Innocent’ has a shine all its own, and for reasons too.” On a separate note, I’m about 20-30 pages into a book of rantings by The Fall’s Mark E. Smith and so far, Tim Presley of White Fence and his former Darker My Love co-pilot, Rob Barbato, are about the only former band mates that Smith speaks of quite highly. This may be for similar reasons.

When it comes to writing, recording and performing, such reasons seem to emanate nearly effortlessly through an artist’s work. Or, they don’t. For the best purveyors, it’s not a learned or acquired craft; it’s something instinctual. Until Friday night at the Echo, I’d only witnessed Presley’s craft via recordings. While I anticipated that the lo-fi fragility and subtleties would give way to a more bombastic live character, it was hard to imagine the flights these songs would take in their new clothes – effectively blowing away the 300-plus teens and oldsters in the club.

White Fence’s new album – the sixth full-length from Presley since 2010, not counting his 2010 collaboration with Ty Segall, “Hair,” sounds bigger and more … band-like than the most of the consciously lo-fi previous material. Live, Presley and his band – Ty Segall on guitar and backing vocals, Nick Murray on drums and Josh Puklavetz on bass –
pulled in new and old material alike, with bass and drums building a comfortable but exciting crescendos with guitars orchestrating beautiful backgrounds to highlight Presley’s vocals, painting the air with his brain-twisting word play and surreal imagery.

The newer songs still recall early Television Personalities, Soft Boys and “Piper at the Gates of Dawn”-era Pink Floyd run through a ’90s-esque DIY punk irreverence. On stage, Presley’s mini-odysseys veer a little more into power pop terrain, as they do on the new Segall-produced record. At times, they conjured Big Star as much as early Love, never losing focus and winding up in epic-like jams to cement their point. Crowd-surfing at a White Fence show? Yes, and there was not a still body on the floor.

Beneath the surface of their stylings, White Fence has something it can call its own – something effortless, uncontrived and, if respectfully derivative, evolved. It flows naturally from Preseley’s mushroom pen. Perhaps his pacifier was a laced. Or maybe he’s just a natural. Live, his songs flowed just as effortlessly as in his bedroom, only with more energy. They indeed have a shine of their own. And for very good reasons.

Opening the night, San Francisco’s Cold Beat brought their garage-y/jangling power pop in full force, lighting the way for the evening. Their new album “Over Me” was recorded by Phil Manly (Trans Am, Lifecoach) at SF’s Lucky Cat Studios. The band offered a slightly frumpier-sounding, less-shoegazey Lush meets Salvation Army-style garage pop with fun and contagious hooks throughout.

Tomorrow’s Tulips, who have an album titled “When” coming in October from Burger Records, had a different sort of momentum. At times, they sounded like Luna on quaaludes and at others, like they just got out of bed. The songs built up to a slow but slightly fevered pitch at times but didn’t quite get off the ground until the end of their set.

Brian Cleary is a Silver Lake-based freelance writer and musician.

Photo by Michelle Shiers, courtesy of LA Record (see LA Record’s full gallery here)