Cooking With ‘Friction’ : Better Than Ezra’s Spicy Rock Stew Erupts From Bayou Country, but It’s No Cajun Leftover

Some things just belong together. Notre Dame and football. Pizza and beer. George Burns and his fat cigar.

And, of course, Cajun music and Louisiana.

In the bayou country, there’s nothing quite like the Cajun and zydeco music that helps define the flavorful region’s culture. The infectious dance rhythms of such legendary veterans as Beausoleil, Steve Riley and Jo-El Sonnier continue to delight two-stepping audiences, and the likes of Beau Jocque & the Zydeco Hi-Rollers and Chubby Carriere are garnering attention as worthy newcomers.

So, can a young rock band from New Orleans break out from this long-casting shadow to gain notoriety and acceptance on its home turf? Who better to ask than a member of Better Than Ezra, a hard-working trio with a hit single (“Good”) and a new major-label-debut album on Elektra.

“When you tell people around town that you’re in this band called Better Than Ezra, they always ask, ‘Is that a new Cajun band?’ ” bassist Tom Drummond said during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles, where the group was preparing to film a video for “Desperately Wanting,” its next single. “I guess that comes with the territory, though. It’s up to us to prove ourselves.”

Drummond was born and raised in Shreveport, La. Instead of listening to Cajun and zydeco, though, he grew up hearing a lot of classic rock on the radio. As a 17-year-old in 1988, he answered a “bass player wanted” ad in a Baton Rouge newspaper, and when no one else answered it, Better Than Ezra gained an inexperienced but enthusiastic bassist.

Over the course of its two independently released albums (1990’s “Surprise” and 1993’s “Deluxe”), the band--which performs Sunday night at the Galaxy Concert Theatre in Santa Ana--played a promising if unruly brand of alternative rock that emphasized muddled vocals, noisy, ringing guitars and pounding rhythms. Its catchy but out-of-character single titled “Good” worked its way into heavy rotation on MTV last year.

But that proved to be a mixed blessing.

“It did get us some attention. But people unfamiliar with the band and our history thought we were just some one-hit pop band, and nothing’s further from the truth,” said Drummond, who is joined by lead singer-guitarist Kevin Griffin and drummer Travis McNabb (who replaced Cary Bonnecase last year). All three are in their 20s and live in New Orleans.

“We’ve been working and touring in overheated vans for years, and I think we’re realistic about the chances of success in this business. Playing night in and night out is the only way to become a tight band. We want longevity. . . . We want to be in it for the long haul.”

One step in that direction is the wider range on the group’s new CD, “Friction, Baby,” produced by Don Gehman (R.E.M., John Mellencamp).

The first few songs are hard-hitting rockers that kick up a pile of dust but offer little that hasn’t been heard before. Good things start happening, however, as soon as the slinky grooves of the oh-so-funky “Still Life With Cooley” catch you by surprise. Add the folksy mandolin accenting of guest player Peter Holsapple in “WWOZ” and the horn-driven New Orleans vibe of “At Ch. Degaulle, Etc.,” and Better Than Ezra sounds better yet.

“We’ve tried to learn and improve with each album, and I think we understand now--with [Gehman’s] input and guidance--the importance of how a song should feel,” said Drummond, whose musical influences include the Smiths, the Pixies, R.E.M. and Bjork.

“We place less emphasis on the music’s structure and sound. It’s touching fans with a song’s emotion that makes a difference.”

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Lyrically, Better Than Ezra’s Griffin dabbles in often-abstract imagery rather than embracing a narrative structure. Still, the power in themes of longing and love, self-doubt and resiliency is firmly entrenched in “Desperately Wanting,” “Scared Are You?” and “Long Lost.”

Griffin “is very visual and more ‘big picture’ oriented in his approach to writing songs,” Drummond said. “He likes to leave every song open to each listener’s personal interpretation. That’s why we don’t include lyric sheets with the CD. Just one word can totally change someone else’s meaning of what a song is about.”

Feeling good about the quality of its music, particularly as captured on “Friction, Baby,” is only a temporary luxury for Better Than Ezra, a name inspired by a passage in Ernest Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast.”

According to Drummond, each band member realizes there’s work to be done and past mistakes to avoid.

“Tonight, we’re off to LAX to film the [‘Desperately Wanting’] video,” he said. “We want this video to capture more of us and what our music’s really all about. [The ‘Good’ video] was too noisy. . . . There were people running around everywhere. It was one long, chaotic sound bite that wound up confusing even us.”

* Better Than Ezra, Satchell and James Hall perform Sunday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. 8 p.m. $15-$17. (714) 957-0600.