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Portland, Oregon’s Trabants (pronounced Truh-bonts) are most likely the best surf/garage/psych band you’ve never heard of. The dedicatedly obscure and kitschy group led by multi-instrumentalist Eric Penna put out their first record 15 years ago and released their latest one, Mirage – the final installment in a triptych of trippy psych records – in June.
Penna named his band after a German car that debuted in 1957 and achieved popularity but was eventually discontinued in 1991. Trabants is a fitting moniker for the project of a musician and his revolving cast of cohorts who celebrate nostalgia – the quirkier the better. Taste the title track of their new record, and you’ll get the drift:
Penna also relishes cult films, so much so that he describes Trabants in part as a band that plays “soundtrack music from around the world.” To that end, Penna is a perfect candidate to participate in The Bad Penny‘s ongoing Favorite Films series, in which we pick musicians’ brains about the movies they like most. With that in mind, let’s delve into the 19th installment of our ongoing feature.
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