Portland psych-surf outfit Trabants sound like they’ve stepped out of a lost grindhouse reel on “Fuzz 4 Daze”, a gloriously overdriven instrumental that crashes together garage rock swagger, surf cool and biker-movie menace. Premiering today on the AU, the track lands officially on May 28 ahead of the band’s forthcoming album Mirage, due June 12.
We were already sold on Trabants’ strange and intoxicating world after premiering “Surfers on Acid” back in 2024, and “Fuzz 4 Daze” feels like a perfect continuation of that journey — leaning even further into the project’s gloriously fuzzed-out cinematic universe.
Orchestrated by musical auteur Eric Penna, Trabants have built a reputation for crafting cinematic instrumentals that feel both nostalgic and strangely otherworldly. On “Fuzz 4 Daze”, that vision boils over in a haze of snarling guitar tones, pounding rhythm and vintage cool. Imagine a biker gang taking over a beach party while a fuzz pedal melts in the sun — somewhere between Link Wray, Davie Allan and a forgotten ‘60s dance craze single.
There’s also something wonderfully familiar in its sun-drenched swagger. It brings back memories of our own instrumental surf-rock heroes, The Break. Trabants may hail from Portland — a city far better known for rainfall than endless summers — but “Fuzz 4 Daze” radiates the warmth of the Aussie surf coast, all salt air, hot sand and vintage reverb-drenched cool.
Pete Curry’s bass and layered drums lock into a hypnotic groove while Penna’s guitar positively seethes above the track, cutting through with a fuzz tone that feels intentionally oversized and gloriously reckless. Yet beneath the chaos there’s a playful melodic core, with hints of girl-group pop and surf exotica bubbling away under the distortion. It’s infectious, absurdly fun and impossible to sit still to.
This track is also a brilliant reminder of just how evocative instrumental music can be — sometimes you don’t need lyrics to fire up the imagination. “Fuzz 4 Daze” conjures vivid scenes all on its own: desert highways, neon-lit biker bars, surf beaches and dusty grindhouse cinemas, all unfolding through fuzz, groove and atmosphere alone.
The track serves as another glimpse into Mirage, an album built around duality — fuzzed-out abstraction colliding with cleaner, more grounded surf and psych influences. Across the record, Trabants dive into exotica, crime jazz, Pacific Island Tiki, Memphis soul, Middle Eastern flourishes and vintage garage rock, creating what Penna describes as “music from the past that never was, but should’ve been.”
Speaking about the single, Penna told the AU:
“Thanks for debuting “FUZZ 4 DAZE!” Originally conceived as the b-side to the song “Mirage” (also on this LP), this song is and always was an exercise in free thinking to counteract “Mirage’s” more deliberate, thought-out composition. I wanted to create a fuzz guitar instrumental with the brashness and caveman-like simplicity of a ’60s teen garage band.
“It took a while to get the fuzz to sound big enough to take over the song properly. I tried a lot of things and ended up working subtractively. The cleaner the non-fuzz elements of the song sounded, the more pronounced the fuzz became.
“I love the juxtaposition of how the rhythm of the song feels like the ‘Loco-motion’ or some other ’60s novelty dance craze, but then there’s a mean sounding guitar fuzz over top. In the end, if there were a genre for this song, I’d say it’d be biker gang novelty music!”
That wonderfully strange energy has become central to Trabants’ appeal. Over the years, the project has shared stages with everyone from Dick Dale to La Luz, while Penna’s music has appeared across film, television and advertising, including placements on Netflix, Hulu and MTV.
“Fuzz 4 Daze” is released on May 28, with Mirage following on June 12. Until then, crank the fuzz and hit the dancefloor.
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Header image credit: Pamela Garcia-Aguirre
