Beth Oram Photo

Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents: Extra band rehersals are held just to practice the dance moves.

Jenny Dee and The Deelinquents play a benefit for New Haven Home Recovery with The Shellye Valauskas Experience and Brett Rosenberg. 9 p.m., Nov. 6. Café Nine, 250 State St. $5. 203-789-8281, cafenine.com.

I was expecting 65 songs about Joe.

In Say Anything, Lili Taylor's character says that's how many songs she's written about her ex-boyfriend. Don't get me wrong. I like artists who sing about lost love. That's what I was expecting the first time I went to see Boston's Jen D'Angora sing at Café Nine in 2007. That's not what I got, and I was happy to be disappointed.

Instead I got two — count 'em — two Ellie Greenwich covers and a sort of alternate universe version of Blondie — one that never heard the siren cash register sound of disco. D'Angora was fronting a band where the Brill Building pop of the '60s met the punk rock of the '70s, with the kind of Ronnie Spector or Lulu voice that could make even the most jaded music fan look away from his drink. It's the kind of voice you want to hear cover your favorite songs, just to hear what she might do with them.

Flash forward to a year or so later, and D'Angora — now under the name of "Jenny Dee" — has a new band, The Deelinquents, born out of her love for the girl group soul sounds of the '60s. The Deelinquents record a cover of the Flamin' Groovies classic "Shake Some Action," a perfect choice for that Brill-meets-punk sound.

Except it's nothing like that at all.

Ever hear Otis Redding's horn-driven cover of "Satisfaction"? It's a radically different version, more than just a soul cover of a rock song. There's a certain genius to listening to a song and hearing what else it could be. I'm not talking about your typical "what if we did a reggae cover?" approach, but a genuine re-interpretation.

The Deelinquents treatment is classic Motown, with a James Jamerson bass riff and a piano and sax straight out of the Four Tops, while Dee's vocal at the fade-out is much less restrained than any female singer was ever allowed to be at that label.

As much as Jenny Dee and The Deelinquents can turn a classic inside out, they can also make a few original classics of their own.

"Keeping Time," the first single off the band's debut EP, Shame on You (The Gentlemen's Recording Co., 2009), is a perfect slab of girl-group soul in which Dee displays an impressive tough-gal swagger mixed with vulnerability that would make Mary Weiss (of the Shangri-Las) proud.

It was released as a 7-inch single in Spain — rub the label off and you could fool the crate diggers into thinking they've found a lost classic. "You're the Best Thing" has mariachi-flavored horns reminiscent of Leiber & Stoller's Latin-inflected Drifters' productions while "Let Me Go" is what legendary producer Shadow Morton would create if let loose in a studio today. The EP utilizes '60s production techniques and arrangements, but never comes across as simply aping them.

Live, the band is downright danceable. The women (Dee with her sister Rebecca D'Angora and Samantha Goddess on backing vocals) sport choreographed dance moves and outfits straight out of "Shindig!" while the men (Phil Aiken on keyboards, Tony Goddess and Eric Salt and on guitars, drummer Eric Anderson and bassist/former New Havener Ed Valauskas of The Gravel Pit and The Gentlemen fame) do their key lime, satin-piped suits proud. The band returns to Café Nine after a dee-lightful Elm City debut there last June. You'll be surprised by the musicianship squeezed onto that cozy corner stage.

Sharing the bill is Nashville's witty Brett Rosenberg and New Haven's own Shellye Valauskas Experience, who put out an impressive EP of their own last year, Box It Up (Slowpoke Records, 2008). Valauskas (sister of Deelinquents bassist Ed) and co-writer/guitarist/producer Dean Falcone are songwriters capable of expressing emotional ambiguity with skill. Their melodic pop songs open themselves to interpretation and capture conflicting emotions with subtlety. While SVE's debut release, The Stupid Truth (Volare, 2002), is mostly folk-rock, last year's follow-up CD is a much more rock-oriented affair. Live, you won't find many dance moves, but you'll get some of the best stage banter in town.

The show doubles as the official after-party following an art and music show at BRU Café (141 Orange St.; 203-752-0052, brucafe.net) with Lipgloss Crisis, Baby G and Stephanie Harris. Guests can win raffle prizes including gift cards to restaurants, theater and more. Both events benefit New Haven Home Recovery (nhhr.org), helping women and children in need.