Causes and Effects

At the Jim Wall farewell party, even Friedman took a turn on one of the drum kits, jamming with her old bandmate. Feiles says that he easily could see himself working with her in the future on one of his projects -- "She's got a great voice and she really helped a lot of our songs." Though there are dark secrets the Causes refuse to speak about publicly, this is no soap opera. As Feiles says of his former bandmates: "They can all do their thing. They're all good enough to do whatever they want."

So why did the Causes break up? "It was no one's fault," Joel Schantz offers. "We just weren't going in the right direction collectively. There's no one to blame. The music was suffering for a lot of reasons. The ups and downs, highs and lows of getting involved in the industry. Trying to get signed, trying to be in a band that wants to be signed, it became disorienting. I want to hear Arlan make a great record, whether it's with a company or another band or the same people. We all helped each other get to a level, we helped each other do a lot. In the end it lacked the feeling of destiny. We'll all play together in some way in the future. I think this is best for everyone."

So maybe for once it really was musical differences -- Milk Can, for example, plays a type of power pop much different than the complex jam-rock of the Causes. "No, not musical differences," says Keith Schantz. "Maybe musical interests. The Causes had the greatest history. And the people involved are going to be doing different things."

The unreleased album Natural Causes recorded for Epic sounds as if it were produced by some genius who recognized ways to shift arrangements subtly and present Feiles's gut-wrenching vocals in a fresh light. In fact it wasn't "produced" at all, just the band laying it all down one last time on tape. It's a remarkable work, and that makes it all the more shameful that it won't reach the public. The first song is "Waiting," a longtime staple of the band. It includes these lyrics: "I saw the love you had/Flicker and fade away/Yeah, it sure made me sad/That it should end this way.