SOCIAL JUSTICE DISCO
With a vision of a world where all people have an opportunity to live free and be themselves without fear of oppression, Phat Man Dee (voted Best Jazz Performer in Pittsburgh City Paper 2016 Readers’ Poll) and Liz Berlin (founding member of triple-platinum selling Pittsburgh band Rusted Root) have birthed a soundtrack to uplift those who would join this international struggle against racism, environmental destruction, war, religious intolerance, misogyny, homophobia and fascism.
After months of recording, Phat Man Dee & Liz Berlin are ecstatic to bring you their first collaborative project together, recorded at Mr. Smalls Recording and Mastering Studios. Featuring disco-fied covers of songs by They Might Be Giants, Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg, Buffalo Springfield, Anne Feeney, Peace Poets, and Gloria Gaynor.
These reimagined versions include five part harmonies and hip hop lyrics in “I Will Survive,” and spoken word poetry and an original gospel arrangement in “I Can’t Breathe,” and many more twists to these classic anthems. The album also includes original songs addressing numerous issues. “#BigBrotherIsTrending” focuses on police violence, environmental justice and native rights in an increasingly Orwellian society that obfuscates the truth with today’s “doublespeak” of “alternative facts” and “fake news”. The sci-fi inspired “I Dream Of Robots Dreaming” features mariachi style horns and classic Spanish guitar lines while postulating what robots could truly do if they were not created as drones for military purposes. “Mni Wiconi (Water Is Sacred)” is a love song to our mother earth and to the activists who stood in solidarity against the Dakota Pipeline, featuring traditional pow wow chants sung by Johnny Creed Coe and his family.
These two power divas are joined by no less than 60 musical contributors, highlighting a wide array of voices from across Pittsburgh’s musical and activist communities including Justin Sane (of Anti-Flag), Pastor Deryck Tines and The Lemington Gospel Choir, poets Christina Springer and Leslie Ezra Smith, emcee’s Big Jus and HollyHood, Steeltown Horns, and many more!
Described as “Disco Diva Funk Rock”, Social Justice Disco pairs original songs with disco classics to call out bigotry and demand truth and justice for all. “Songs to Fight Fascists By” incorporates jazz, pop, indigenous, hip-hop and gospel genres for a beautiful collaboration. Together Phat Man Dee, Liz Berlin, and the band have created an album that wails and rails against injustice, using their musical gifts to empower each other to speak truth to the injustices of our nation through dance music performed lovingly in the righteous spirit of equity, justice and disco!
Visit Social Justice Disco’s official website
as well as their social profiles: