Named after the diminutive and once ubiquitous Eastern European automobile, Trabants (pronounced Truh-bonts) is a rotating line-up of musicians fronted by composer/guitarist Eric Penna who find their muse in the dusty bins of 60's beat records.

They play an instrumental mix of vintage-inspired surf, garage and psych with a cinematic twist that has found broad use in film, television and advertising.  

With roots in Los Angeles and Boston, the band is currently based in Portland, Oregon. Frequent collaborators have included members/sidemen of bands as diverse as The Pharcyde, The Monkees, Nick Lowe, World/Inferno Friendship Society and many more. 

Trabants’ latest cinematic psychedelic experience is Mirage, an album about duality. The songs are evenly split into two camps of fuzzed-out ethereal abstractions and earthly clean guitar tones, all put through a garage-rock filter as the album dips into exotica, crime jazz, Pacific Island Tiki, middle-eastern strings, latin percussion, Memphis soul, traditional surf and a hint of Motown. It’s music from the past that never was, but should’ve been—a reimagining of what was happening in ‘66 at the movies and on the Sunset Strip.

Mirage’s iteration of the band is: Dave Berkham on bass, Anthony Brisson on drums, Glenn Brigman (Triptides) on Hammond & Farfisa organs, electric harpsichord and tabla, Pete Curry (Los Straitjackets, Nick Lowe) on drums for “Mirage” and drums & bass on “Fuzz 4 Daze,” Bryan Murphy (Man Man) on trumpet for “Soul Garage A Go Go,” and the legendary Ron Dziubla (Duane Eddy, Los Straitjackets, Nick Waterhouse) playing saxophone on “Purple Panther.”

Originally formed  in Boston, MA  by ringleader Eric Penna, the rotating lineup was a necessity since many members played full time in busy touring acts. Trabants' first public appearances were at the Plough and Stars where the band played many epic all-night shows snowballing into their first full length, "Highwire Surfing" which garnered an Independent Music Award nomination for best instrumental album alongside placement on the show "Becoming" featuring Johnny Knoxville.

After some touring and opening for legendary acts such as Dick Dale, Penna relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television music where he wrote and recorded the band's second album, "Cinematic". With a new home-base, Trabants maintained its rotating line-up to utilize a new much deeper pool of talent and maintain the propulsive, ever-changing freshness to different performances. 

In 2015, Trabants released FREAKOUT on L.A.'s Lolipop Records melding the fuzztone vibes of the Sunset strip's rich psychedelic/garage history with it's more traditional surf sounds. Following that release they appropriately played the epic Los Angeles “acid test” all-nighters at the now defunct, Liquid lightshow-drenched Blindspot Project in Boyle Heights and shared bills with other garage legends such as, Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, Charlie Megira, The Sloths, Yonatan Gat, The Creation Factory and more…

Next, the band immersed itself in the soundtracks of 1960’s Italian Western films and slowly pieced together The epic NEL CUORE DI UNA TERRA SELVAGGIA (translated: In the Heart of a Savage Land) in 2018. 60’s surf guitar and fuzz meld with harpsichords, flutes, trumpets, string bass, a vocal contribution from Seattle’s Prom Queen and more to create a savage Italian spaghetti western film as you listen. The band played its first European shows following this release which has been a fan favorite from the band’s catalog.

The pandemic ground music to a halt just as a new chapter was beginning for Trabants in the Pacific Northwest and so solitude led to an exploration of blues music resulting in Lockdown, an album of 10 original blues instrumentals. With assistance from Pete Curry (known from his work with Nick Lowe, Los Straitjackets, the Halibuts and more) on drums and bass, the band stretch out to explore a stripped down, rootsier sound and incorporate different influences.

Following their lyrical blues experimentations, came a two-track, 7-inch, 45-rpm vinyl containing the songs “Mantra” b/w “Surfers On Acid”  on Hypnotic Bridge Records. This 7-inch is a mind and body sonic trip to other worlds, where fuzz is the primary alchemical ingredient for life. Mantra” takes on the aspect of mind as the ultimate psych-rock instrumental. It fuses the best elements of Eastern-influenced psychedelic music and classic surf with its meditative drones, trippy backwards guitar and big expansive chorus. “Surfers on Acid” takes on the aspect of the body. There’s a sense of urgency in this instrumental surf song’s push and pull. Notes will hesitate, precariously holding on, riding this psychedelic wave of color to its improvised backwards guitar ending. Penna’s expert guitar mastery is on full display as we’re hit with his groovy labyrinthine melodies and solos.

With more music on the way, the rotating line-up continues ever-expanding the bands family tree which has seen contributions from members and sidemen of bands as diverse as Pharcyde, The Monkees, Man Man, Nick Lowe, Paul Collins, Insect Surfers,  World Inferno Friendship Society, Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion!, Young Hunting, Breakestra!, Triptides, tomemitsu, Constant Smiles, The Reverberations and more…

The band’s songs have been used in a variety of media such as, Netflix’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Hulu’s Shut Eye, MTV’s Catfish, broadcasts by the MLB and UFC, Gordon Ramsay's 24 Hours to Hell and Back, Becoming featuring Johnny Knoxville, films like Surf Noir, T-Rex,  and ad campaigns for Zales, Mountain Dew, Yeti, Kit Kat and others.

Chill on the beach in the sun and listen to the crashing waves, gaze upon the beautifully barren landscape of Sergio Leone's brutal westerns, dance all night to the fuzzed out guitars of the 1960's sunset strip, dine with class on the coast of capri... Trabants will take you there.

“Penna’s expressive, commanding playing sometimes evokes Peter Green, while his acoustic 12-string is reminiscent of Hendrix’ rare forays on the instrument.” - Vintage Guitar

“Trabants cull a mood from something like a spaghetti western or a Frankie-and-Annette flick, establish a riff to serve as its appropriate avatar, and blow it up with solo freakouts and slow-burning crescendos.” - The Boston Phoenix

“When it comes to Spaghetti Western inspired instrumental surf rock supergroups, I’d have to say that Trabants is probably my favorite. Wait, yes. Yes, Trabants is definitely my favorite… could easily soundtrack an old western shootout… with high pitched guitar lines that could appear in a beachy reenactment of The Godfather… blues-style Dick Dale riffs create a killer dose of sun-soaked psychedelia.” - Allston Pudding

“Instrumental Aces… Stevie Ray Vaughan shuffles to organ-and-bongos garage to acoustic delta… would make Ry Cooder proud.” - Music Connection Magazine

“Chill on the beach in the sun and listen to the crashing waves, gaze upon the beautifully barren landscape of Sergio Leone's brutal westerns, dance all night to the fuzzed out guitars of the 1960's sunset strip, dine with class on the coast of capri... Trabants will take you there.” - Grateful Web

“There is an adventurous spirit flowing through these songs… the songs are deep explorations filled with great songwriting and musicianship, and at times many of the tunes sounded like early-to-mid period Pink Floyd’s instrumental guitar workouts.” - Continental Magazine

“Very catchy… quiet but powerful… sometimes intoxicating.” - Rootstime

“Fuzzes up the guitar and rocks out.” - Blues Blast Magazine

“Penna’s guitar shines throughout. His background in film and TV music comes to the fore… Hot stuff.” - Vintage Rock Magazine