Standout Track: “Stripmall,” a postpunk meditation that ponders the transcendental possibilities lurking just outside of the nearest Applebee’s. Amid clamoring guitars and tumbling drums, singer-bassist Treiops Treyfid austerely examines an island of pastoral majesty amid a sea of sprawling asphalt. “The light of midday/The slight wind/The cool breeze,” he sings. “The scent of flowers blooming/Out in the strip mall.”

Musical Motivation: Treyfid—a former D.C. resident now living in Los Angeles, where he works as a Web designer for Frederick’s of Hollywood—says he found the inspiration for “Stripmall” while staring out the window of an Indian restaurant. “The lyrics are just objective observations on nature in the midst of the city,” he says. “I was in a restaurant, looking out at the center median for the street and there was a tree in the center of the parking lot. It was all of this glass and steel, but there was nature in the middle of it.”

Bored in the U.S.A.: Technostress, which also includes guitarist Aimee Soubier and drummer Karl Hill, both of whom are Mt. Pleasant residents, has never played a gig in D.C. In fact, they’ve never played a show in the United States. The only place Technostress has performed publically is Japan, during a one-week tour last November. This isn’t likely to change soon. “We’re completely tired of the United States. We’re only playing foreign countries,” says Treyfid. “I was in another band, a D.C. band (Pitchblende), and it was fun and all, but I don’t have a lot of friends in D.C. anymore; they all moved away.”