The catalog which Shattered Music will be producing is comprised of lost, long defunct groups who have at least one brilliant recording despite never gaining any recognition in their time. Many of these recordings were originally produced in the Bay Area by Jim Sorensen and Outlaw Blues, and sat in a vault for decades until Sorensen played them for friend Robbie Pettersen .

Nimbus, a psych-rock band with blues influences, is the first of these recordings which Shattered Music is releasing. “Nimbus: Live in Livermore,” was recorded on Saturday, March 14, 1970 in the Veterans Hall in Livermore, CA. With long, free-form jam style songs and enough pedals and switches to nearly blow the sound system offline, this raw performance immediately transports listeners to another time. This limited edition, numbered LP is pressed on colored, marbled vinyl and is limited to only 500 pressings housed in a deluxe gatefold jacket. Upcoming projects include the enigmatic blues experience that is Mordecai.

On the rock front we have a rare 3LP Byrds box set on green vinyl recorded “Live In Amsterdam,” the rare Neil Young: “Road Rock” 2LP, Sealed Mofi titles by The Beach Boys, Stan Getz, Bob Marley Plus An extraordinarily rare John Lennon Mobile Fidelity test pressing of ‘Imagine” pressed on clear red virgin vinyl, a sealed test pressing of the unreleased Mobile Fidelity Kinks “Kinda Kinks” and a test pressing of The Plastic Ono Band. We also have several hard to find Grateful Dead “Live” albums plus our usual assortment of sealed LPs that we renowned for.

We also recently located a collection in San Francisco featuring tons of indie, post-punk, hip-hop, experimental and avant-garde albums from groups such as The Descendents, Trype, Fred Frith, Anthrax, Cucumbers, Angry Samoans, Meat Puppets, Guided By Voices, Swervedriver, Indoor Life, Throbbing Gristle and many others. The rarest title of the bunch was a picture sleeve 12 inch featuring artwork by Andy Warhol: Walter Steding and the Dragon People. Definitely worth looking out for when you are digging through the cheapie bins in your local record store.

MARCH SALE CONTINUED THROUGH APRIL: For the whole month of March we are offering all our Music Matters Blue Note 45 2LP sets at 20% off the price on the site (including the out-of-print titles) limited to stock on hand.
We recently uploaded tons of sealed classical LPs at bargain prices. Click on our classical section to check them out.

Robert Crumb: We have the last copies of a small pressing run of Eden & John’ s East River String Band LPs featuring brilliant cover art by Robert Crumb. All three titles from 2008, 2009 and 2011 are now out of print. We have limited quantities of each title at a steal of a price.

For Sale: VPI Typhoon Record Cleaning Machine (U.S. voltage) in like-new Condition. This is the latest model with the solid plastic sides, which are better quality than the previous painted wood sides which tend to chip. Contact us for more details. $1450. (Retail $2200)

I have been very busy these last few weeks traveling to view record collections from the boiling hot and smog-bound Hemet to beautiful mile high Idylwild and so on to fog-bound and chilly Pacifica just south of San Francisco with a trip to Los Angeles thrown in for good measure. The results are a severely aching back and three excellent, mid-sized collections totaling some four thousand superb condition LPs.

It’s very gratifying to see that some collectors really take care of their records by treating each as a little treasure by sleeving, shelving, playing and storing them correctly. (It’s great not to encounter those insidious LAST stickers and the cloudy vinyl that accompanies them for a change) So what are some of the highlights you might ask? Well we already have over a thousand up on the site and are working diligently to upload as many as possible. Here are just a few: The original Black Sabbath UK Master Of Reality in the flip-back, box style jacket, the deadly rare Robert Sheckley’s “In A Land Of Clear Colors” box and book, Shirley And Dolly Collins “Anthems In Eden,” tons of Who, Jimi Hendrix, Eno, Roxy Music, Style Council, The Hampton Grease Band “Music To Eat,” Geordie’s “Hope You Like It,” rare LPs by May Blitz, Year 2000, Manfred Mann, Juicy Lucy, John Mayall, King Crimson, Gun, Traffic, Groundhogs And many others. There are also a lot of original English Track and Vertigo LPs and lots of classic U.S. rock from the late 1960’s to the mid 1970’s. Virtually every LP we have examined so far looks like it has never been on a turntable (factory fresh in fact) and many of the U.S. pressings belonged to a collector who left the shrink wrap intact with custom hype stickers in place.

OK, so it’s not quite a torpedo and it’s nowhere near as heavy as it looks, but this big ‘ole thing turned up at Freakbeat Records in Sherman Oaks recently and via the bush telegraph, Tom Petty found out they had it in stock and bought it for his own collection of memorabilia. Pictured here is owner of Freakbeat, Bob Say, about to load the sucker into the back of Tom Petty’s secretary’s SUV. Only in L.A………