In the summer of 1999 almost every guitar Sonic Youth owned was stolen while the band was on tour, including the instruments with their own tunings that had been built up over the years. NYC Ghosts & Flowers, originally released in 2000 on Geffen, was made afterwards on new equipment and recorded with Jim O'Rourke, who joined as a fifth member around that time. The words lean on New York beat poetry, with spoken passages and the cadence of recital rather than choruses; the cover painting is by William S. Burroughs. Pitchfork critic Brent DiCrescenzo gave the album a 0.0 at the time, the first he ever handed out. This edition is an LP.