Pitchfork

If you like going bonkers to dirty electro, there's really no excuse for you not being in Philly right now. A city that's already got Diplo, Spank Rock, and Plastic Little seems like it'd be set on sweaty party jams; nevertheless, here's Pony Pants, who make serrated dance-punk with drum machine undercarriages for anarchist kids. The trio does skating-rink pop with terse rhythms and notched guitars, and then caps it with Emily J.K.'s post-Le Tigre vocal anthems. New wave burner "Pony Train" is something of a theme song, shedding light upon the meaning of the band's enigmatic name: "Shake your fine ass in those pony pants" establishes the music's alpha and omega. This one has a big shimmering 1980s sound to it, with throbbing stabs of bass, splashy drum programming, artfully decayed synths, and bright woozy guitar melodies swooping through the brittle track. There's a chant-along breakdown with just bass, handclaps, and a looping chime run that spills grandly back into the song proper with a few stabs of guitar and raygun trills. "Pony Pants got a crush on you," sings J.K., developing the manifesto. Feeling's mutual.