White fence band biography

White Fence is the solo music project of Tim Presley, an American singer-songwriter and guitarist from California, initiated as an outlet for his lo-fi, home-recorded songwriting following the dissolution of his band Darker My Love.^[1][2]Emerging in the late 2000s, White Fence debuted with a self-titled album in 2010, released initially on Make a Mess Records and reissued by Woodsist, featuring raw, four-track recordings that blend psychedelic rock, garage influences, and 1960s Baroque pop elements into trippy, hook-driven compositions.^[2][3] Subsequent releases, including Is Growing Faith (2011) and For the Recently Found Innocent (2014), expanded Presley's catalog on labels like Woodsist and Drag City, emphasizing intimate, effects-laden psychedelia often compared to Syd Barrett's solo work for its eccentric, sun-drenched California vibe.^[4][2]Presley has collaborated extensively under the White Fence banner, notably with Ty Segall on joint albums such as Hair (2012) and Joy (2018), which fused their styles into fuller, more produced garage-psych outings, while solo efforts like I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk (2019) shifted toward piano-driven introspection.^[2][3] The project remains active with live performances and occasional singles, maintaining a cult following for its unpolished fidelity and Presley’s prolific output across indie rock scenes in Los Angeles and San Francisco.^[5][6]

Origins and Early History

Formation in Boyle Heights

White Fence originated in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of East Los Angeles during the early 20th century, emerging in the 1910s as an all-male sports team composed primarily of Mexican-American youth.^[7][8] Initially known as the La Purísima Crowd, the group formed amid a period of rapid demographic shifts in Boyle Heights, where Mexican immigration surged following the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), drawing families fleeing violence and economic instability.^[9][10]The team's name later evolved to White Fence, derived from the white picket fence enclosing the grounds of the La Purísima Catholic Church, which served as a central hub for the group's early activities and symbolized their territorial affiliation within the neighborhood.^[8][11] This church-sponsored sports club fostered initial cohesion through organized athletics and social gatherings, reflecting common patterns among immigrant youth groups in urban enclaves like Boyle Heights during the 1910s and 1920s.^[12]Documented group identity predated any criminal associations, rooted instead in community-based recreation and local pride, with the white fence motif marking boundaries in a era when Boyle Heights transitioned from an elite suburb to a multi-ethnic immigrant hub accommodating thousands of Mexican arrivals.^[13][9] These formative years established White Fence as one of the earliest neighborhood collectives in the area, emphasizing solidarity among youth navigating urban growth and cultural adaptation without evidence of illicit operations at inception.^[12]

Transition from Sports Club to Gang

The White Fence group initially formed in the early 1920s in Boyle Heights as a youthassociation tied to the local Catholic Church, particularly around La Purísima Church, functioning primarily as a social and sports club for Mexican-American teens engaging in activities like baseball and boxing.^[12] This benign structure emphasized camaraderie and neighborhood recreation, with members initially known as the "La Purísima Crowd," reflecting voluntary gatherings rather than coercive organization.^[14]By the late 1930s, amid the economic strains of the Great Depression—which disrupted family stability through widespread unemployment and migration—the group began exhibiting early signs of delinquency, including minor territorial skirmishes and the adoption of gang-like identifiers such as "WF" monikers and the Spanish "Cerca Blanca" (White Fence), drawn from the white picket fences bordering church grounds.^[15] These markers, appearing in informal graffiti and verbal claims, signified a solidification of group identity beyond sports, driven by peer reinforcementdynamics where adolescent males sought status through defiance of rivals, as evidenced by documented assaults on Whittier Boulevard in 1940 and participation in the Happy Valley rumbles of 1939.^[15] While poverty provided a backdrop, empirical patterns of youth affiliation indicate internal causal factors, such as the allure of brotherhood and protection in unstable environments, prevailed over deterministic external forces, with members actively choosing escalation despite alternative paths like continued church involvement.^[16]This shift marked a departure from recreational focus to varrio-based territorialism, with early infractions like petty vandalism and group confrontations reinforcing internal hierarchies based on loyalty and bravado, setting precedents for organized defiance without yet involving large-scale criminality.^[12] Historical accounts from former members highlight how successive cliques perpetuated these behaviors through rites of passage, prioritizing in-group validation over broader societal integration during the pre-World War II era.^[17]

Organizational Structure and Territory

Internal Hierarchy and Cliques

White Fence operates under a loose, decentralized hierarchy characteristic of Sureño-affiliated street gangs, eschewing formal ranks in favor of influence wielded by veteranos—seasoned members with longstanding tenure—and shot-callers who coordinate operations through personal respect and reputation rather than institutionalized authority.^[18] These figures, often emerging from prison experience or prolonged street involvement, guide decisions on recruitment, disputes, and resource allocation, with their directives enforced via peer pressure and intra-gang violence.^[18] Full members, referred to as homeboys, form the core operational body, while younger affiliates known as peewees or ches handle lower-level tasks and undergo initiation to prove loyalty, ensuring a pipeline of continuity across generations.^[19]The gang's structure incorporates distinct cliques, functioning as semi-autonomous subgroups tied to specific locales such as Boyle Heights in East Los Angeles and extensions into the San Gabriel Valley, which facilitate localized crime coordination while upholding allegiance to the broader White Fence identity under Sureño alignment.^[18] This clique-based model allows flexibility in territorial management but can lead to internal frictions resolved by higher-status veteranos, as evidenced in law enforcement assessments of Sureño networks.^[18]Loyalty and identification within the hierarchy are maintained through visible markers including tattoos—such as "WF" paired with "XIII" to denote White Fence and Sureño ties—and hand signs or verbal codes that signal membership during interactions, aiding in the enforcement of rules against defection or collaboration with rivals.

www.itsnicethat.com. I am moving. No Wave magazine.

Web site: We talk to Tim Presley of White Fence about his new artwork and what makes a great record sleeve. 2020-09-09. AllMusic. 2022-11-30. Since 2010, Presley has released music under the name White Fence.^[1] As of January 2019, he has released seven studio albums, two live albums, and two collaborative albums with Ty Segall under that name,^[2] as well as two albums with Cate Le Bon under the name DRINKS,^[3] an experimental solo album under the name W-X,^[4] and a solo album, THE WiNK, under his own name.^[5]

White Fence

Presley began recording music in his apartment using primitive and low cost equipment, while still a member of Darker My Love.

White Fence announces new album, I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk, shares "Lorelei": Stream. This is the eye. www.itsnicethat.com. This aint your regular mutton chop rock. Stereogum. White Fence's Tim Presley Records His Music the "Crappy" Way .

Tim. Sendra.