Sonic Youth: The Time They Were Robbed Of Their Equipment

The Time Sonic Youth's guitars and equipment were stolen

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#sonicyouth #thurstonmoore #leeranaldo

I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.

In July of 1999 the alternative band sonic youth found themselves on the road during a tour of orange county in california. While staying at a ramada inn hotel on July 4th a ryder truck containing nearly two dozen customized guitars, a drum kit, a bass guitar, syntheszer and other equipment was stolen. The theft occurred between the hours of 1am to 7am on the morning of the 4th, the same day they had a show in Irvine. The truck would be discovered by the orange country police department 4 days later and all of it’s contents were gone. Just to show you how long ago this story was. MTV would report at the time and I quote
Detective Clark
Smith said he expects to receive information from America Online on Thursday (July 15)
about a possible lead in the case. Earlier in the week, however, he cautioned that the tip
could prove to be a prank; Despite the unfortunate wset of circumstances the band’s scheduled shows in Irvine, Austin, and Santa Fe. went as planned on borrowed equipment and hastily purchased replacement gear according to mtv.
Sonic Youth guitarist Lee Ranaldo would tell MTV that the band’s equipment being stolen could force the group to go into a new musical direction telling the network.

"A line has been drawn for us in the sand, and thankfully at the beginning of a new round
of recording," "We are dragged into the future kicking and screaming,". "We'll have
to find new instruments and look forwards instead of back."√ "In other cases we will find new things, and that might lead to
new directions, so that is a promising result of all this bad news."

this exercise produced the "nyc ghosts & flowers" LP,

Pitchfork would report and i quote “Sonic Youth guitars are recognizable-- and don't sell well-- because they're heavily modified. The band has long destroyed their guitars' value by stripping them down to their essential elements, ripping out extraneous electronics, switches, and the tone knob”
Since the announcement that the guitars went missing fans of the band have been keeping an eye out online to see if any of the guitars popped up and they would.
In 2002 the first guitar would be recovered lee ronaldo’s travis bean artist was discovered at an auction and returned to the band.. That guitar would end up being sold in 2018 as part of a auction. HO
In
WEVER! in earvly 2002
In 2005 several more guitars were returned to the band. Including a Telecaster Thinline (#370090), and another Travis Bean (#375) both of which belonged to Lee Ronalo...

In 2009 the another Lee Ranaldo owned guitar would be recovered a mustang guitar would be returned to the band when one fan noticed it for sale on ebay. The winner of the auction would contact the band to return heh guitar.

In 2012 a year after the band split up, two more guitars were returned to the band members within one week of each other. thurston moore’s guitar’s a 59 burgundy mist jazzmaster. It was also for sale on ebay. Sadly four months later the jazzmaster would be stolen again while Moore was on tour with his band Chelsea Light Moving whale the band was staying at a best western hotel in philadelphia. The second was Lee's burgundy Jazzmaster. “””””\

Ronaldo would tell pitchfork the same year the most interesting interaction he had regarding the stolen guitars These two scruffy teenage boys came up. They told us they knew about our stolen guitars. One claimed his uncle was involved with stealing the van. We were like, 'yeah, sure kid.' But he sent us these anonymous pictures of our gear in basements-- foot pedals where you could see our crew guys' writing on the sides, and somebody's sneaker on top. These kids were destitute. They'd been kicked out of their homes, living in a car in L.A. We said, 'we'll give you a few hundred dollars each for them.' It did happen.

Since 2022 it doesn’t appear that any more guitars or other equipment have surfaced.

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