Tim Presley's White Fence I Have to Feed Larry's Hawk (Drag City) Review

Tim Presley’s White Fence

Have to Feed Larry’s Hawk

Drag City

Jan 22, 2019 Web Exclusive By Jordan J. Michael

Ten years ago, Tim Presley was playing guitar on a stage in Brooklyn as a member of Darker My Love; their set was sandwiched between All the Saints and headliner These Arms Are Snakes. All three of those rock bands bit the dust a long time ago, but Presley is alive and well. The Bay-area rocker has come a long way since being the uninvited guitar player of hardcore punk band The Nerve Agents in the late 1990s. Presley’s exact age is unknown, but he’s classic by nature. Beginning in 2010, his White Fence output is solid: psychedelic vibes drenched in fuzzy love.

Listening to Emerson, Lake & Palmer was probably proper preparation for I Have to Feed Larry’s Hawk, the seventh White Fence album. However, who is Larry and why does Tim Presley have to feed his hawk? Presley is too busy experimenting with a synth, guitar, and piano to have time for that. It sounds like Presley walked into a room, set up a few microphones, pressed record, and made Feed Larry’s Hawk happen however he pleased. Maybe he played the tape back later, made the appropriate edits and mixes; that was it. The challenge is a success. Presley is an organic guy, his own time capsule. No current rock musician compares. Possibly his buddy, Ty Segall (they have two complementary albums together), but Presley’s solo stuff is way more lo-fi.

I Have to Feed Larry’s Hawk presents reminders of SLC Punk (“Neighborhood Light”) and The Velvet Underground. There are drunken piano keys that start dancing (“I Can Dream You”), a trippy switch (“Until You Walk”), perfect imagery (“I Saw Snow Today”), and a piano rave up that can put lips on your brain (“Forever Chained”). Before White Fence drops into his long, concluding two-part noise suite equipped with electronic xylophone, chirps, fluttering synth, and field recordings, he sings “always a danger in leaving the past.” Sometimes, you gotta bring it back. (www.dragcity.com/artists/white-fence

Author rating: 7/10

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Average reader rating: 8/10

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Howlin Wolf
April 22nd 2019
5:03pm

It’s “painting vulnerability” that Presley offers up on ‘Larry’s Hawk’. Sure enough, combined, these fourteen songs feel like an unguarded monologue, flipping between abstracted ballads and heartfelt pop experimentalism. The specter of early solo Robert Wyatt hangs over the twinkling keys and vocals of the album’s opening title track. ‘I Can Dream You’ is just one throwback to the recent fencing columbus ohio past. ‘Lorelei’, meanwhile, makes for a logical lead single. Over three minutes, Presley’s spidery arpeggios, organ, synth and drum machine beats forge something special.

Jason Thompson
October 4th 2019
3:53pm

This album is great: An interesting element is the double personality of Presley, which is divided between White Fence and Tim. Fence company wichita ks The feeling is in the record, perfectly able to have a functional mix of the two declinations of the personality of the artist.

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