You can read the article here. In 1999, Sonic Youth had their van and all of the equipment in it stolen. You can imagine the kind of stuff they had in there, including the unique custom built Moonlander by Yuri Landman. Some of it is, I’m sure, irreplaceable.

Well, one of those guitars has been found, ten years later.

I actually sold a couple pedals to Jim O’Rourke who was made a member of the group just before this incident, an MXR Blue Box and a DOD Gonkulator. Let’s hope that this leads to more for them.

There is a link to a full list and discussion of the gear. I don’t know if any of the numbers work still, but I’d be remiss if I don’t post it.

Subject: URGENT/SY GEAR STOLEN!
From: krakkak@aol.com (Krak kak)
Date: Sun, 04 July 1999 03:46 PM EDT

URGENT/SY GEAR STOLEN!
july 4 1999
LA/Orange County

Hello all, this is Lee from Sonic Youth here, we have had a fucked up situation come down on us over this last night–a brand new Ryder truck parked at a Ramada Inn in Orange County with ALL OF OUR GEAR IN IT was STOLEN! All of our guitars, tools, amplifiers, drums, synth — EVERYTHING. We are fucked, both for the show tonight at the “This Ain’t No Picnic” here in Orange Co., and for shows upcoming this week in Austin and Santa Fe. Our guitars are all mostly older and either very modified and/or fucked up/beat up. They are unmistakably ours, as are some of the amps, including my own 60s Fender Concert with the red/blue/yellow “Jasper Johns-style” target on it.

We are asking ANYONE with ANY INFORMATION about this to get in touch with us as soon as possible by calling our man Aaron Blitzstein in New York City at 212.343.2314, or via email to “Mascaras66@aol.com”. Call collect if you want to. Please no pranks, all, this is really serious–all the gear we’ve used to write our last few LPs worth of stuff, instruments used for songs old and new which if truly lost will mean those songs will be lost forever.

Help us out if you can, there will be a reward for any info, I’m sure. All our road cases, etc, are fully marked up with our name on them, the gtrs are so unusual that they won’t really be too hard to mistake. ANY info at all will be appreciated. Continue reading