livefreediyhard.com

Author: David Robison

  • 2025 Year in Review and Beyond

    2025 Year in Review and Beyond

    As of February of this year, I will have been writing some version of this blog for 2 years. When you count early iterations of Live Free DIY Hard then I have been doing this for nearly a year longer than that. Since I have chosen to focus on the blog, I have mainly written music reviews and 2025 was no different. This blog published 15 album reviews in 2025 and republished a few others. I also experimented here and there with other article formats, which I personally think turned out pretty good and were fun to write. However, the most notable thing to happen this year was transferring the blog from Substack to its own website. It certainly took quite a bit of time to accomplish, but I think this was important for staying as true to the DIY ethos of the blog as possible. On a personal note, my wife and I had a baby at the end of the year, so that was also a pretty big deal and rather cool, if you ask me.

    Enough talking about the past the true purpose of this post is to talk about what 2026 has in store. I would like to expand the blog some more. I plan to continue to write reviews but would also like to move into other kinds of content. What I have devised is a poll to get an idea of what readers might be interested in. So I present to y’all a menu of options that may peak your interest.

    Poll options

    1) long form articles at feature profiles/interviews of bands, DIY record labels and of DIY points of interest.

    2) Multi media content. LFDH was originally conceived as a weekly video show streamed on twitch. It functioned like that for about a year. While it is unlikely that particular format will ever make a return, some form of video or audio content could be possible if people are interested.

    3) Non-music related articles. I got stuff to say about a whole host of things so if there is interest in reading what I have to say about non-music related stuff, I would definitely look into writing about other topics. It would likely still be media criticism of some sort, but who knows.

    4) Just do more music reviews but maybe with more varied genres. If this is what y’all want, I am more than happy to keep giving it to y’all

  • The First Year by Here For You

    The First Year by Here For You

    Note From the Author: This review was originally posted on the Start-track blog.

    Artist: Here For You

    Album: The First Year 

    Released: October 25, 2025; Atlanta Zone Records 

    Here For You is a band from Brooklyn, New York and on their first album: “The First Year” they offer up an eclectic mix of folk and pop. I actually covered “Theme Song 2” their last single for this album a few weeks ago here on the blog[This is in reference to this Start-track blog post].  I bring this up because it is my favorite song from the album and I feel like if you haven’t checked it out yet, you definitely should. 

    “French Toast” is hands down my second favorite song from the album, mainly because it is a very tongue and cheek reflection on the food industry, food culture and marketing. It does this under the guise of a song about enjoying breakfast and all conveniences provided by modern times that make it great.. It’s an up beat song that is highly infectious. It is hard not to start singing along. About a minute into the song there is a jazzy bit that is really fun. It is a pure bop. 

    There is an extraordinary vibe presented by “Night at Maud’s”. I would frankly, be remiss for failing to mention it. The song starts out with an extremely twangy guitar riff that is quite enjoyable.The group vocals are exceptional and the distorted guitar that ends the song is a great finish. The lyrics are about hot summer nights in the city and that is just about as relatable as anything. All this adds up to equal the ultimate sit and chill song.

    “Brunson Floater” is a song about the people in your life that you can always count on for support and wanting to reciprocate that support. I must confess that I had to google the name of the song because it presented a metaphor I wasn’t New York and/or sporty enough to initially understand. That being said, I think its rather delightful now that I am in the know. This song features some more group vocals that I think work really well.

    The last song that I want to talk about is “Go Forth”. This is probably the song on the album that is the most folk punk in terms of vocal presentation, which is something that I quite like. And again the group vocals in the song are superb. What I really like about this song in particular is the ending lyrics are borrowed from a Utah Phillips song. Aside from me personally being a Utah Phillips appreciator in general, I think that there is a direct line between his music and themes of solidarity, friendship, and finding joy presented in the song and in the album in general. To me, it feels very much like modern folk paying homage to someone who helped shape the genre. 

    “The First Year” by Here For You can be defined largely by its poppy folk performance, its use of stellar group vocals, and its themes of overcoming adversity through solidarity and friendship. On top of all that, they still manage to fit in a dash or two of punk rock attitude. This is a very strong first album and I am definitely looking forward to more from Here For You in the future. 

    If you like the album I reviewed here and want to support the artist as well as this blog please consider picking up the album via this affiliate link—> Purchase The First Year by Here For you via Amazon Music