"this will happen" again is the debut EP of wife-husband team Jen Fox (vocals, bass) and Jim Srnec (guitar)—a showcase for their unique brand of literate, indie rock. The six-song album is a collage of the personal and the political, delivered with self-conscious humor and a stunning pop sensibility. Fox and Srnec co-wrote all six songs, and their intelligence and dedication to good, solid rock come through on every track. The record launches with “Paris to Istanbul,” a post-punk response to a new and uneasy American identity. Fox’s voice reaches out over Srnec’s driving guitar lines, hitting high notes hard and growling through the low end. “Helen of Troy” rebuilds an epic on a mix of Latin rhythm and anthemic power pop. The closing track, “Selfish,” shifts from mournful to defiant with skillful misdirection and ends the album with Julep’s most characteristic trick, serving up hard ideas with a sweet dose of optimism. Listening to "this will happen again" is like grooving around Seattle’s back roads with Jenny Lewis riding shotgun and the Throwing Muses in the back seat, all singing along to Exile in Guyville. You’ll find yourself taking the long way home and waiting in the driveway for the last note to fade away. Jen Fox and Jim Srnec formed Julep in 2004 after over ten years of collaboration in the Seattle music scene. In Julep’s current iteration, Fox fronts the group by gracefully balancing lead vocals and bass. Jen Trujillo delivers soulful harmonies and solid percussion, with Srnec and Justin Busch on guitar swinging the mood from delicate acoustic to crunching rock. Jen Fox has been performing since she learned how to talk. With the debut of her first original song for her third grade music class, she has not stopped writing, singing, and playing guitar. Jen became a bass player to round out the family band and to respond to the demand for the token female bassist. She comes from a musically diverse family that covers just about every genre and who exchanges their CDs instead of Christmas cards. When Fox met Jim Srnec, he had just landed in Seattle with a ragged guitar and three chords, the perfect foil for Fox’s complex melodies. Jim’s Midwest upbringing resonates through his politically passionate lyrics and with a few years of guitar seasoning, the duo began to untangle a sophisticated repertoire. Fox found him irascibly cute and, after over a decade, he still can’t shake her. Jen Trujillo was born a vocalist, and like Fox, has been performing in various bands since childhood. She fronts the local rock band the Kegels, also playing guitar, and sings in a jazz duo with Hugh Sutton. Fortunately for Julep, she also has had a lifelong crush on percussion and offered to sit in on the kit when their original drummer left the band. Intended as a “temporary” solution, her inventive rhythms, contagious humor, and spot-on vocals made her a welcome and indispensable addition. Trujillo’s husband, Justin Busch, is a veteran to the Seattle rock scene and skillfully props the band on guitar. Although Trujillo and Busch met over music in the 90s, when their bands shared a rehearsal space, Julep is the first project they’ve played in together. As convenient as it was for Busch to watch their two young boys during rehearsals, he couldn’t resist the vibrant melodies and catchy rhythms wafting up from the band room. The last two years have been busy for Julep, with highlights including the release of their first album, this will happen again, and performances at the Leavenworth Fall Music Festival and the Rockr Grl Music Conference. KOHO radio named them “Seattle’s up-and-coming band,” and they were a Seattle Post-Intelligencer featured artist in July 2005. Julep looks forward to promoting their new release with a west coast tour and returning the studio to follow up with a full-length to be released late 2007.