Noisy Neighbors

New Sounds From Close to Home

December 17, 2010

JOHN POWHIDA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT “DADDY’S THE MAN’’ / “SURRENDER TO THE DISCO KNIGHTZ’’

MERRIE AMSTERBURG “WE THREE KINGS’’ / “SILENT NIGHT’’

Q-Dee Rock and Soul Series

The fifth and sixth installments of Q Division’s limited-edition single series (500 color vinyl copies available for each title) offer radically different options for how to spend one’s evening. For the slick soul-loving John Powhida International Airport, it’s all about reveling in a Studio 54 era of glittering disco balls, naughty extra-curricular activities involving mirrors and razors, and diving into a white mountain (wait, is that snow?) of sleazy funk. “Daddy’s the Man,’’ has a Prince-like groove and a party-starting guitar lick, but it hardly prepares you for the Sly, strutting funk monster that follows on the flip: an everybody-to-the-dance-floor exhortation to “Surrender to the Disco Knightz.’’ It’s Jo-Po and Co. at their booty-shaking baddest.

Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Merrie Amsterburg takes a quieter nocturnal approach, revisiting a pair of Christmas classics and offering a rootsy revamp of both, with a little help from guests like Dennis Brennan, Chandler Travis, and Session Americana’s Ry Cavanaugh. Each ably takes on a title role for “We Three Kings,’’ presented as more rambling road trip than solemn pilgrimage. And as she did some years back on a Q Division holiday comp cover of the Pretenders’ “2000 Miles,’’ Amsterburg channels Chrissie Hynde on “Silent Night,’’ re-imagined as a soft shuffle. All the better not to wake the baby. JONATHAN PERRY

Go to www. q-dee.com for complete info on the Q-Dee Rock and Soul series.