Puppet on a re-string

There's a cheering piece in the Medical section of today's Los Angeles Times about the reunion of the Meat Puppets.

The medical section scored the piece because it's about Cris Kirkwood's drugs problem, his time in prison and how he's cleaned himself up, and rejoined his brother in the band. Something neither of them expected:

His brother Curt, the Meat Puppets' singer and guitarist, certainly didn't hold out much hope.

"No, no, none. I completely [wrote] him off years ago. A junkie, you don't deal with them at all, it doesn't do you or them any good…. You write them off as dead."

Mike Watt, who played bass in the Minutemen, is one of the old cohorts who's dropped by to welcome the Meat Puppets back to town.

"Personal problems were probably in the way before," says Watt, reflecting on his friends' return. "You have to grow up a little, and you get those problems subdued and you can get back to your aesthetic that you started off with.

There's always a road back; it's all a question of finding the place to do the U-turn.