Once called 2Part Resin...
The Upholsterers were a musical duo comprised of Jack White and Brian Muldoon. White was an upholstering apprentice of Brian Muldoon, who is a family friend. After a while, they decided to start a band, since Muldoon played drums. They were short-lived, and only had one single. Jack White was on vocals, guitar, and piano, while Brian Muldoon was on drums and created sounds with a worm gear saw. After the band, Jack went on to The White Stripes, and Brian went on to form family band The Muldoons with his two sons, Shane and Hunter.
Makers Of High Grade Suites (SFTRI 611) was their only single(*see below), a 7" record released on the Sympathy for the Record Industry label in 2000. The track listing is (with the composer):
Apple Of My Eye - (Jack White)
I Ain't Superstitious - (Willie Dixon)
Pain (Gimme Sympathy) - (Jack Starr)
The songs were recorded, produced, and mixed by Jim Diamond of Ghetto Recorders and The Upholsterers themselves. The record came with handouts inside the cover, such as advertisements for White's business Third Man Upholstery, his own business cards, and a sample of sandpaper. The single was pressed in a small amount, and it is highly collectable, going for at least $200 on eBay.
*Upholsterers 2nd 7'' was released on Cass Records
*100 copies only all test pressings destroyed
*7'' was on see-thru wax, with acetate covers
*Track on 7'' was called Riot in Cell Block C
*Tracks were recorded at various points in time
Even before finding success as a musician, White had a penchant for refurbishing other people's junk: he worked as an upholsterer, recovering people's worn-out furniture. But he wasn't an ordinary tradesman and would often write poems to leave hidden inside the bones of other's couches. In celebration of fellow upholsterer Brian Muldoon's 25 th year in the business in 2004, White even recorded a record that he secretly hid in reupholstered furniture.
"We put 100 records in 100 pieces that year, and maybe, one day, they'll be found," White reveals. "This is a record no one has ever heard and maybe will never hear, but it's a nice time capsule. I'm sure a lot of upholsterers would open up a chair, pull out that record and throw it away, so that's the funny part about it. But it's interesting to play with those ideas."
2004 interview:
JW(To Meg): I don't think I told you about this did I? It's for Brian's 25th anniversary, and it's gonna be only 100 copies, and they only can be found inside the next 100 pieces he does - the next 100 things he re-upholsters. Only in there - and there'll be no other copies for sale anywhere. Interesting, huh?
MW: How are you gonna get them in there so they don't break?
JW: Oh, there's plenty of places. Like the outside arm or the outside back, you can put it in between, it won't break. It'll be nice. Brian's excited that people will be breaking open the back of a couch so they can grab it or something.
Interview with Jack about upholstery:
http://www.believermag.com/issues/200305/?read=interview_whi
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