Before the colossal fame of The White Stripes, Jack White worked as a furniture upholsterer in Detroit.
He was mentored by seasoned furniture worker Brian Muldoon (of The Muldoons), and through their working relationship the two formed a short-lived rock duo, aptly named: The Upholsterers. The group ultimately recorded two singles in 2000.
As legend has it, the second Upholsterers single “Your Furniture Was Always Dead.. I Was Just Afraid To Tell You” was pressed in 2004 (see Detroit-artist Gordon Newtons’s cover art above). In celebration of Muldoon’s 25th anniversary at the company, the only existing 100 copies of the fabled seven-inch were hidden inside pieces of furniture the duo had repaired – sitting in suburban-Detroit attics, living rooms and basements… until now.
Turning Detroit-music myth into reality, Third Man Records has announced that they have been contacted by two separate individuals claiming to have found two different copies of the single. No news yet as to where the singles were discovered, or by whom.
Listen to The Upholsterers’ first single, “Apple of My Eye,” below: