Big Things in Store

Five years ago Arlan Feiles, the singer and pianist for Natural Causes, was an intern for Arista's publishing company in Los Angeles. Although he says working in the company's tape room was a great experience, he also saw the reality -- and sometimes the destiny -- of many struggling bands. "I got a sense of what was going on, and how A&R people listen to tapes. They hear the first two measures of the first song, then they skip to the first two measures of the next song. If they don't like it -- it's trashed."

In other words, it never gets a chance to work in a record store.