Rasputin Music is the largest independent chain of record stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It was founded as "Rasputin Records" in 1971 in Berkeley, California by entrepreneur Ken Sarachan. It is named after an early 20th century Russian political/religious figure Grigori Rasputin. Rasputin Music operates five locations: the flagship store in Berkeley, Campbell, Pleasant Hill, Modesto and Fresno. Rasputin formerly operated stores in Mountain View, (closed on May 1, 2016), Stockton (closed on March 24, 2019), Newark, Vallejo (moved to Fairfield (closed March 24, 2019), San Lorenzo (closed March 2020) and in San Francisco (first location near Union Square and later moved to Haight St., where it closed in 2020) History The original Rasputin Music store was located at 2523 Durant Avenue where Sweetheart Café & Tea is located. They moved to Telegraph Avenue in the space formerly occupied by Blondie's Pizza, now Abe's Pizza, which was also owned by Ken Sarachan. Rasputin moved across the street into a larger space at 2401 Telegraph Avenue when Odyssey Records went out of business. In the late 1970s it split into two separate locations, with one store specializing in rock music and the other in soul, jazz and other music genres. In July 1982, a fire at next-door Steve the Greek's restaurant destroyed the soul and jazz store. Rasputin's Berkeley operations were then consolidated into a single location. It currently operates at the corner of Telegraph Avenue and Channing Way. Although in recent years its prices have become more commensurate with those of other music stores, Rasputin was known for offering low prices on new and used CDs, DVDs, and vinyl records compared to other Berkeley music stores like Leopold and Tower Records. Its selection of new vinyl is unusually rich, as is its selection of used CDs and DVDs. Rasputin occasionally features in-store performances by top musicians and bands. Metallica made its first in-store appearance in almost a decade at the Rasputin Mountain View store as part of the April 19, 2008 "Record Store Day". Metallica also performed there on record store day in 2016. Ken Sarachan business practices and properties Ken Sarachan is considered a controversial figure in Berkeley because of the apparent neglect of several properties he owns on Telegraph Avenue. The Blondie's Pizza on Telegraph is now called Abe's, owned by long-time Blondie's employee Abdul Zaloukh. His other businesses and properties include Bear Basics and