The Upholsterers were an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

garage punk A garage is a covered structure built for the purpose of parking, storing, protecting, maintaining, and/or repairing vehicles. Specific applications include: *Garage (residential), a building or part of a building for storing one or more vehicle ...

band in 2000, from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. The two-piece band was composed of

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

and Brian Muldoon of The Muldoons. Muldoon provided drums, while White played on

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

and created sounds with a worm gear saw. They were originally called Two Part Resin.

Beginnings

White grew up and lived in

. He originally was a drummer, but decided to take up guitar at age nine. White was in various other bands in the mid to late 1990s such as Goober & the Peas,

The Go The Go is an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1996, the group released seven studio albums before their indefinite hiatus in 2013. History The Go was established in Detroit in 1996 by Bobby Harlow, John Krautner, and Ma ...

, Two-Star Tabernacle, a brief stint with The Hentchmen, and most prominently

The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wit ...

. White was an upholstering

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

of Muldoon, a family friend. Muldoon was a drummer and they formed a

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

. The band was short-lived however, and only released one

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

. It is often rumored that during Jack White's time as an Upholsterer he would occasionally place albums of his music inside the furniture that was being upholstered. In 2014,

Third Man Records Third Man Records is an eclectic, vinyl-focused independent record label founded and owned by Jack White, Ben Blackwell and Ben Swank. The company operates out of three locations—Nashville, Tennessee, Detroit, Michigan, and Soho, London—with ...

announced that two such copies of a second single have been found.

"Makers of High Grade Suites"

"Makers of High Grade Suites" (SFTRI 611) was their only single, a 7" record released on the

Sympathy for the Record Industry Sympathy for the Record Industry (also known as Sympathy Records or Sympathy 4 the R.I.) is a mainly independent garage rock and punk label formed in 1988 by Long Gone John. The first Sympathy release was the Lazy Cowgirls' ''Radio Cowgirl'' ...

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed ...

in 2000. The track listing (with the composer) is: # "Apple of My Eye" – Jack White # "

I Ain't Superstitious "I Ain't Superstitious" is a song written by bluesman Willie Dixon and first recorded by Howlin' Wolf in 1961. It recounts various superstitions, including that of a black cat crossing the pathway. The song has been recorded by a number of arti ...

" – Willie Dixon # "Pain (Gimme Sympathy)" – Jack Starr The songs were recorded at Third Man Studio and produced by White and Muldoon. Those tracks were then mixed at Ghetto Recorders in Detroit. The record itself came with a variety of inserts, such as a sticker for White's business Third Man Upholstery, his own business cards, a "fabric" sample of

sandpaper upright=1.35, Sheets of sandpaper with different grit sizes (40 (coarse), 80, 150, 240, 600 (fine)). Sandpaper and glasspaper are names used for a type of coated abrasive that consists of sheets of paper or cloth with abrasive material glued to ...

, a Muldoon Studio business card and a reproduction of an WE Klomp upholstery tag. The single was pressed in a limited quantity and is highly collectible, selling for around $400–900 on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...

After the band

White became famous with his other duo,

, and later the groups

The Raconteurs The Raconteurs (, also known as The Saboteurs in Australia) is an American rock band from Detroit, Michigan, formed in 2005. The band consists of Jack White (vocals, guitar), Brendan Benson (vocals, guitar), Jack Lawrence (bass guitar), and ...

and

The Dead Weather The Dead Weather is an American rock supergroup, formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009. Composed of Alison Mosshart (of The Kills and Discount), Jack White (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs), Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Ag ...

. White received multiple

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s for his

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

with

, and his collaboration with

Loretta Lynn Loretta Lynn (; April 14, 1932 – October 4, 2022) was an American country music singer and songwriter. In a career spanning six decades, Lynn released multiple gold albums. She had numerous hits such as "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Ma ...

. Muldoon still resides in Detroit. He has taken photographs for

' " The Denial Twist" single, which portray Jack White standing over a dead

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

and

Meg White Megan Martha White (born December 10, 1974) is an American former musician and singer who was the drummer of Detroit rock duo The White Stripes. Her music career began when, on a whim, she played on her future White Stripes bandmate Jack White' ...

playing music for a raccoon. Muldoon's photo is on the back of the single's sleeve. Muldoon went on to form the family band The Muldoons, with his two sons, Shane (age 9) and Hunter (age 13).

In film

The Upholsterers were discussed in the documentary film '' It Might Get Loud''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Upholsterers, The Punk rock groups from Michigan Sympathy for the Record Industry artists Garage punk groups Punk blues musical groups Musical groups from Detroit American musical duos 2000 establishments in Michigan Musical groups established in 2000