| The Mansion / The Houdini Estate | |
| Location: | Laurel Canyon, California |
The Mansion is a four-bedroom mansion owned by music producer Rick Rubin located in the Laurel Canyon neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Originally built in 1918, the house is famous for the successful bands who have recorded music there. Although many say[1] that Harry Houdini lived at the mansion,[2] no one has ever lived in the Mansion under the name "Houdini". There is confusion between The Mansion, at 2451 Laurel Canyon Blvd., and The Houdini Estate, at 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd.
After recording Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik with considerable ease and comfort, Rubin decided to use the mansion to record many of the albums he has produced, including the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium, Audioslave's Out of Exile, The Mars Volta's De-Loused in the Comatorium, Slipknot's , and Linkin Park's Minutes to Midnight.
Since 1991, Red Hot Chili Peppers have returned to the mansion on numerous occasions; the tracks "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population" on 2003's Greatest Hits compilation, and more recently the group's 2006 album Stadium Arcadium were recorded there. The mansion can also be seen on the Chili Peppers' 1991 documentary Funky Monks, Linkin Park's DVD The Making of Minutes to Midnight, and in a series of eight clips uploaded to LCD Soundsystem's official YouTube channel documenting the creation of This Is Happening.
In 1919, Houdini rented the cottage[3] at 2435 Laurel Canyon Boulevard in Los Angeles, while making movies for Lasky Pictures. His wife occupied it for a time after his death. It is said that Houdini did practice his tricks in the pool at 2400 Laurel Canyon Boulevard.[4] [5]
As of 2011 the site of the cottage was a vacant lot and up for sale. The main mansion building itself was rebuilt after it was destroyed in the 1959 Laurel Canyon fire, and is now a historic venue called The Mansion.[6] While Houdini did not likely live at the "mansion," there is some probability that his widow did.[7]
| Band or artist | Album(s) and/or song(s) | Year(s) of recording | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | Blood Sugar Sex Magik | 1991 | |
| Guns N' Roses | November Rain | 1991 | |
| Marilyn Manson | Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) | 1999 – 2000 | |
| American Head Charge | The War of Art | 2000 – 2001 | |
| The Mars Volta | De-Loused in the Comatorium | 2002 – 2003 | |
| Jay-Z | "99 Problems" | 2003 | |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population" from Greatest Hits | 2003 | |
| Slipknot | 2003 | ||
| System of a Down | Mezmerize & Hypnotize | 2004 | |
| Ours | Dancing for the Death of an Imaginary Enemy | 2005 | |
| Audioslave | Out of Exile | 2005 | |
| Red Hot Chili Peppers | Stadium Arcadium | 2005 | |
| Linkin Park | Minutes to Midnight | 2006 – 2007 | |
| Maroon 5 | It Won't Be Soon Before Long | 2006 – 2007 | |
| LCD Soundsystem | This Is Happening | 2009 – 2010 | |
| Lorde | iHeart Radio Secret Sessions | 2017 | |
| Major Lazer feat. Tove Lo | "Blow That Smoke" | 2018 | |
| Aluna & KAYTRANADA feat. Rema | "The Recipe" | 2020 | |
| Masego & Don Toliver | "Mystery Lady" | 2020 | |
| NPR tiny desk (home) concert | 2021 | ||
| Houdini | 2023 |