Well this is unassailably cool. In the early 2000s, before The White Stripes really exploded, Jack White earned his crust as an upholsterer, even forming his own upholstery business, Third Man Upholstery – a name familiar to all of you now, no doubt. Along with his business partner/fellow furniture coverer Brian Muldoon the duo earned their living putting yellow and black suede on beat up couches whilst plying their musical trade on the side in a band called, ironically, The Upholsterers.
Being the inventive so-and-so that he is, White got 100 copies of the band’s second single pressed and decided that instead of distributing them in the usual fashion – y’know, directly to people – they’d get creative and hide all of them inside furniture they were reupholstering.
The stunt went largely unnoticed, even despite White’s subsequent rising fame and success.
Ten years (A WHOLE DECADE) after hiding the discs, two of them have finally been found.
White’s label, Third Man Records (see! It’s the name!) confirmed the find thusly.
“Recently Third Man Records has been made aware of the discovery of two different copies found by two separate individuals of the 2nd single by the Upholsterers. This duo, comprising of actual upholsterers Jack White and Brian Muldoon, pressed 100 copies of this single and proceeded to hide them in furniture being reupholstered by Muldoon in 2004, in celebration of his 25th year in the business. In celebration of these discoveries, Third Man would like to share with everyone the cover art for this single, done by noted Detroit artist Gordon Newton.”
How cool is that!
The records now would more than likely fetch an extremely pretty penny. Meaning that someone could soon have the cash to buy a new couch to replace the one they ripped up in order to find the record in the first place.
But in the meantime, and thanks to the glory of the internet, you can listen to White’s suede covered band below.
Photo: Terry Wyatt via Getty Images.
via Uproxx.
