Jejune is an American band formed in 1996 when founding members Arabella Harrison (vocals, bass), Joe Guevara (vocals, guitar), and Chris Mendez Vanacore (drums) met while attending Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After recording demos that would eventually become their first album, “Junk”, the band played a handful of U.S. shows on the East Coast before relocating to San Diego, California. Eager to play as much as possible, Jejune spent the majority of their career on the road, touring the U.S. multiple times with bands like The Get Up Kids, Mineral, Piebald, and Jimmy Eat World, and doing an extensive European tour with fellow San Diegans Kill Holiday. During short breaks between tours, they recorded and released several 7” splits with different bands, as well as a second full-length album, “This Afternoons Malady”. Generally considered a “second wave emo” band, Jejune’s music would be more accurately described as a melancholy mish-mash of indie rock, power pop, punk, and shoegaze, (but there’s no name for that, so, sure…emo).

Accounts differ as to where things went wrong: tension between band members, diverging ideas regarding Jejune’s musical direction, or Mercury in retrograde, but in early 2000, the band called it quits. A posthumous album of unreleased music, demos, and remixes entitled “R.I.P” was released after the breakup.

Over the next 25 years, Jejune’s music became virtually impossible to find, with albums appearing occasionally on Discogs, and fans, new and old, taking to the internet to lament their absence. In 2025, The Numero Group decided to remedy this injustice and reissued their catalog, culminating with a comprehensive box set that included never-before-seen photos, stories, and unreleased songs. Celebrating these rereleases and excited about the resurgence of interest in their music, Jejune announced their return in 2026, playing a secret show in San Diego and a handful of dates in Japan. They currently have U.S. tour dates scheduled for summer 2026. Hopefully, Mercury is not in retrograde.