Better Than Ezra

Better Than Ezra first started out in 1988 with four band members who attended college at Louisiana State University. They gained popularity playing at bars,house parties, and frat parties. They released an album, "Surprise" in 1989 which was only released on cassette. In 1989, one band member committed suicide and the band was on hiatus till the end of 1990 and came back as just a trio. They released their first nationally released album, "Deluxe" under "Swell Recods" in 1993 an indie label and later signed on with Elektra in 1995, where "Deluxe" achieved multi-platinum status. They followed with, "Friction,Baby" in 1996 which achieved only gold status, which had 2 hit songs, "Desperately Wanting" and "King of New Orleans". Their 3rd release, "How Does Your Garden Grow" in 1999 only ranked number 78 on the Billboard charts where Elektra dropped them from their label afterwards in the same year.
The band in 2000 released,"B-Sides" and another album called "Artifakt" (which was sold online only). In 2001 they released,"Closer" under the Beyond Records label which went bankrupt and forced their "Closer" album to be out of print for quite some time. "Closer" was re-released in 2009 after the band acquired their rights to it.
They have appeared in ESPN's College GameDay commercials in 2001. In 2004 thye released a live album and live concert DVD, "Live at the House of Blues New Orleans" under Santuary Records. Their Greatest Hits album was releaed in March 2005 under Rhino Entertainment, part of Warner Music Group. In the same year their song "Juicy from their 2005 album "Before the Robots" was used in "Desperate Housewives" second season promotional ads, and was later on used by Applebee's restaurants. Their latest album was released in May 2009, "Paper Empire"