Copyright 2002 Capital City Press The Advocate

"Better Than Ezra: Baton Rouge still likes to claim popular modern-rock band"
by John Wirt

Is Better Than Ezra - the Louisiana band that cut modern-rock hits "Good," "In the Blood," "Desperately Wanting" and more - a New Orleans band or a Baton Rouge band? Better Than Ezra's members have lived in New Orleans for years, but Baton Rouge still likes to claim BTE. "That's OK," drummer Travis McNabb said. "Baton Rouge is where the band started, so we don't mind that. We still sell a T-shirt that we've had forever that says 'Better Than Ezra - Baton Rouge.' That's the band's original home, but we've all lived in New Orleans a long time now. So it's fair for either of them to claim us."

McNabb is a New Orleans native who lived in other parts of Louisiana while he was growing up, went to high school in Arizona and then worked as a musician in Georgia and California. He gladly moved back home to New Orleans in 1996 to join Better Than Ezra. Replacing original drummer Cary Bonnecaze, McNabb joined singer-guitarist Kevin Griffin and bassist Tom Drummond following the million-selling success of the group's major label debut, Deluxe, and a Top 20 single, "Good."

McNabb and the Ezras were already friendly. "Just from my playing in bands around the Southeast, we'd run into each other once in a while," he said. "That maybe made it easier for a new guy coming in than if I had been some random dude. "The new drummer's first work with Ezra was recording Friction Baby, the follow-up to Deluxe. "The guys had been touring, they'd been together for years," McNabb said. "Then all of a sudden this big year of success came in '95 with Deluxe. And then all the particulars leading up to Cary leaving the band, all that stuff, was going on in a concentrated period of time.

When I joined it was sort of a new time. It felt really good, at least for me. "Friction Baby became a gold record. Selling 500,000 copies of an album rather than the million that Deluxe sold, however, was seen as a disappointment in the numbers-obsessed music business. "Some people would say you only sold half of what you sold before," McNabb said. "But the industry standard is that any act that has a very successful first album, generally their second album's gonna sell a third of what the initial big one sold.

When somebody can beat that, it's definitely unusual. We feel really lucky. But I try not to have too many expectations. You have hopes, but there's just no predicting this business. "The nature of the music industry has changed. It's like so many other businesses where everything's about the instant payoff. Every label is looking for the next big thing. They get one or two hits out of them and then they're not worried about them any more. That's why we see so many one-hit wonders these days." Sales for Better Than Ezra's five albums vary. The group's latest CD, Closer, released by independent label Beyond Records, is selling better than the band's previous record for major label Elektra. Following the success of Closer's first single, "Extra Ordinary,"

Ezra is hoping Beyond will issue a second single. "Extra Ordinary" also is featured in a McDonald's commercial, something new for the band. "They called us and said they wanted to use it in an ad," McNabb said. "We were like, 'Is it gonna be Ronald McDonald running around chasing the Hamburglar or something?' But when we found out the concept of the ad, it sounded like a good fit. Ultimately, it's just more exposure for the music and for the band. We've gotten a great response from it. It's funny, though, how in the past five to seven years everyone's view of that sort of thing has changed. It used to be that any kind of sponsorship would be harshly judged by music fans and critics. "Released last summer, "Extra Ordinary" joined a series of well-received Better Than Ezra singles. The group's single success is most obvious during a short set, the kind the band plays at radio festivals. "There's like 10 or 12 bands in a day, so you play for 40, 45 minutes. Well, we can fill up that much time with singles, which is awesome. You just sort of knock people over the head. "Even full-length Ezra shows, though, are full of familiar tunes. "Each album we put out, we get another single or two on the radio. Even people who don't know any of our albums, every second or third song, they're 'Oh, yeah, they do that one, too.' We get a lot of that. "Better Than Ezra can actually claim more radio singles than such better-known acts as Marilyn Manson and Courtney Love. "Because we're not wearing crazy contacts and freaky getups or we're not like Courtney Love causing all kinds of trouble, we don't get the press attention that those acts get. But people come to our shows and have a good time. That's how we get more fans. Then they go buy records and come back next time. "Though the music industry has apparently lost interest in "career artists" such as Better Than Ezra, the band is carrying on 14 years after its formation in Baton Rouge. "It's definitely not the norm for it to last this long. We're lucky in that everybody gets along personally and musically. We've been able to turn this into something that is more of a career than a lot of musicians are able to."